Toddler & Preschooler Approved Food Ideas

Our kids’ personality differences really show up at meal times. Our 4-year-old is more analytical, so she picks apart everything on her plate. She’s quick to call out anything that looks suspicious, like a piece of onion or a bell pepper, so she can ask a bunch of questions (is it crunchy? is it sweet? what seasoning did you put on it?) before she puts it in her mouth. She’s also highly opposed to spicy foods. We don’t give the kids anything super spicy, but even a little spice bothers her. Most of the time, she still has a full plate of food while everyone else is finishing up because she takes her time dissecting it all. The one exception is breakfast food — cereal, eggs, pancakes, etc. – she’s usually the first one finished at breakfast time.

Our two-year-old, on the other hand, is more adventurous. She’s always ready to try new foods. She likes big flavors; even spicy food is okay with her. If she likes something, she eats really fast and you can’t stop her. If she doesn’t like something, you’ll know it because she literally starts playing with it. She squeezes it between her fingers, rubs it in her hair…puts it anywhere but her mouth. We have a very hard time getting her to finish anything once she has her mind set against it.

Most of the time our kids do eat whatever we eat. We’re grateful they’re not extremely picky, but they’ve both had their moments. We’ve cleaned more than one bowl of soup off the wall after it was thrown in protest. And there’s no counting how many times they purposely dropped food on the floor because they didn’t want to eat it. (The older they get, the better they are about not wasting food, so keep hope alive if you’re in the middle of the food-throwing stage!)

If we left it up to our kids, they would probably eat pancakes, mac & cheese, peanut butter & jelly, chicken nuggets and pizza every day. We don’t let them eat junk food all the time, but we do let them have it in moderation. Some days we need a break from negotiating with toddlers about eating their dinner. In those times, these are some of our go-to foods and meals. Our kids eat these things without (or with very little) complaining. We do try to mix healthy options in with the not-so-healthy ones so that there’s some type of balance. 

If you ever find yourself stumped on what to feed your kids without a lot of hassle and you don’t mind them eating some carbs & stuff, check out these options. Hopefully you can save yourself some headaches 😊