Toddler Meals for Picky Eaters: Expert Tips and Recipes

Picky eating is a common parenting challenge. As a mom of three, I have eaten my fair share of rejected meals and snacks my kids refused to eat during a picky eating phase. Easy toddler meals that picky eaters will eat can save your sanity while also nourishing your child.

To learn more about picky eating, we reached out to Annabel Karmel, a bestselling cookbook author specializing in toddler meals for picky eaters. In addition to over 50 cookbooks, Karmel also designed an award-winning recipe app, offering families a host of breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner ideas for picky eaters. Read on for tips, recipes, and practical swaps for picky eaters.

Tips for Building Healthy Eating Habits in Toddlers

Piccalio: How can parents help build healthy eating habits when their toddlers are picky eaters?

Annabel Karmel: Children often go through picky phases without rhyme or reason. It's typical in toddlers due to developmental changes. At around 18 months, they start trying to assert their growing sense of independence. Because they're so young, mealtimes are one of the most obvious and easy ways for them to assert control.

When they reject the meal you’ve lovingly cooked, they feel like they are in charge, and very quickly realize they enjoy this feeling. They will come through the other side! However, it is important to keep offering these ‘rejected’ textures and/or food groups.

Tips to Manage Picky Eating

Offer familiar foods alongside new ones. If you offer your child a plate full of new foods or a texture or food group they don't usually like, it can turn on "no" mode. My tip is to always include at least a small amount of a familiar or favorite food alongside a new one.

Also, try keeping foods separate on the plate so they don't start picking things out immediately.

Enjoy family meals. Whenever possible, take time to eat together as a family. Kids follow your example and are impressionable. They want to do what you're doing. So, try new, healthy foods with them so they can follow your example. Also, enthusiasm about food can be contagious.

Get your child involved with menu planning. You could also let your child help plan and choose the menu. Including your child can help make them more willing to try new foods and boost their motivation to sit down for dinner, and hopefully eat too!

Tailor mealtimes to your family's needs. It might be that breakfast or weekend lunches are slightly easier to bring the troops together— it’s all about figuring out how to fit in with your routine. 

Trying New Foods for Picky Eaters

Piccalio: How can parents help their toddlers learn to eat a variety of foods?

Annabel Karmel: Whether or not your child is a picky eater, try to avoid insisting they eat a certain portion size. This can often overwhelm a small child. Instead, focus on keeping mealtimes calm, casual, and fun. Rather than portion size, focus more on introducing variety, encouraging curiosity, and cultivating healthy eating. 

Eating a full plate isn’t important.  Instead, get them to try a few mouthfuls of everything. Try not to make a big deal if they don’t want to try everything.

Preparing Foods for Picky Eaters

Annabel Karmel: Sometimes, preparing their favorite foods in different ways can help children open up to trying new foods. Perhaps they enjoy spaghetti. Then, why not make your own with a hidden vegetable tomato sauce?

Or for pizza, why not have them top a tortilla base with lots of different healthy and colorful ingredients? Or are chicken nuggets and fries their favourite? If so, you can make a healthier homemade version with sweet potatoes.

Make a game out of trying new foods. Get a blindfold, and encourage your child to try a new food and guess what it is. You can also give them clues and facts, such as "It's yellow!" or "It has lots of vitamin C." Giving them facts is likely to make them more interested in what they are eating.

Offer Smart Snack Options

Annabel Karmel: You want them to be hungry for mealtimes, so they are more inclined to give something new a try. It may sound obvious, but avoid empty-calorie snacks like chips or sugary snack bars.

Always keep a supply of healthy snacks on hand. I like to have a low shelf in the fridge with cut-up veggie sticks and other healthy foods. When children are hungry, they won’t wait!

Food for Picky Eaters: Making Veggies Toddler-Friendly

Piccalio: Do you have any tips for making vegetables a little more toddler-friendly?
Annabel Karmel: Here are 4 of my favourite simple tricks to up the veggie appeal.

Zucchini Spaghetti (aka Zoodles!)

A spiralizer is a great tool for bringing magic to mealtimes. Little ones love to watch zucchinis turning into wiggly worm spaghetti "zoodles". Let them enjoy touching (and even playing) with the zugetti.

Butternut Squash Stars

Use some fun cookie-cutter shapes, such as stars, hearts, or dinosaurs (the choices are practically unlimited!), and cut out shapes from butternut squash slices. Then, roast the pieces in the oven for a healthy and attractive side vegetable.

Crunchy Vegetable Chips

It’s no secret that children love chips and fries, so why not give this popular snack a healthy makeover? Peel strips of root vegetables like sweet potato, yams, or yucca. Put them on a baking pan and sprinkle them with olive oil and herbs as a healthy alternative to chips.

Dunk and Dip 

Babies and children enjoy finger foods. So, why not get creative and make a colorful vegetable platter? Use as many different veggies as you can and serve with a bowl of hummus, salsa, guacamole, or a yogurt-based dip for them to dunk and dip. 

Looking for more easy toddler recipes? Annabel’s award-winning recipe app offers 1,300+ tasty and nutritious ideas for the whole family. NEW recipes are added every week. Get your 1st month FREE with code PICCALIO

Picky Toddler Dinner Ideas

Piccalio: Sometimes getting your toddler to eat anything at all can be an uphill battle. Many toddlers love comfort foods like chicken nuggets and french fries. Can you offer kid-friendly recipes and meal ideas for picky eaters that are both tasty and nutritious?

Annabel Karmel:  Here are some of my most popular recipes that provide a variety of nutritious foods while also featuring flavors and textures kids love.

Annabel’s Cheese & Carrot Stars

The ultimate finger food for babies and toddlers alike, these soft veggie-packed stars are the perfect lunch, dinner, or nutritious snack for growing little ones. 

MAKES: 10 – 12 STARS

Suitable for freezing

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups grated carrots
• ½ cup shredded Cheddar
• Generous ⅓ cup shredded Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 tbsp self-rising flour
  

Instructions
1.  Preheat the oven to 350F.
2.  Put the carrots into a clean towel, and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
3.  Place in a bowl. Add the cheeses, eggs, flour, and seasoning (for babies over one).
4.  Line a baking sheet with nonstick baking parchment. Put a star cutter onto the sheet. Fill the cutter with the carrot mixture. Press down firmly. Remove the cutter and repeat. You could also use a small round cutter instead of a star.
5.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until lightly golden and set.

Annabel’s Salmon Starfish

Children should have a portion of oily fish such as salmon each week, as it aids brain development. Using a star-shaped cutter adds a playful twist to the presentation and offers a great new way to serve up salmon and those essential omega-3s!

MAKES: 8 STARFISH

Suitable for freezing

Ingredients

• 5 ½oz cold mashed potatoes
• 6oz salmon fillet, skinned and diced
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• ¾ cup shredded Parmesan
• Generous 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• All-purpose flour
  

Instructions
1.  Put all the ingredients except the flour into a food processor. Whiz until finely chopped.
2.  Put a heaped spoonful of the mixture into a medium-sized star cutter and pat down to shape. Remove from the mold and coat in flour. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
3.   Heat a little oil in a skillet and fry over a medium heat for about 8 minutes until lightly golden and cooked through. Alternatively, place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and cook in the oven for 15 minutes at 350F.

Annabel’s Hidden Veg Mac & Cheese

With zucchini, onion, mushroom, and cauliflower all blended seamlessly into a creamy, cheesy sauce, this recipe is a simple, fuss-free way to increase their veggie intake!

MAKES: 3 PORTIONS

Suitable for freezing

Ingredients

• 8oz zucchini
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups sliced button mushrooms
• 8oz cauliflower, chopped into small florets
• Generous 1 cup veg stock
• 4 tbsp heavy cream
• Generous ¾ cup shredded sharp Cheddar
• Scant ½ cup shredded Gruyère cheese
• 5 ½ oz pasta
  

Instructions
1.      Peel the zucchini, making sure that you remove all the green skin. Dice the zucchini into small dice.
2.      Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion, zucchini, mushrooms, and cauliflower. Stir over the heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the stock and simmer without a lid for 8 to 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
3.      Blend the vegetables and stock with a hand blender until smooth. Add the cream and cheeses.
4.      Cook the macaroni in boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta and stir it into the sauce.

Looking for more recipe inspiration? Annabel’s award-winning recipe app is home to 1,300+ simple and delicious ideas for the whole family, PLUS new recipes every week.
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