GIve me some meal ideas for a 1 year old :)

[Parker'smommy]

Hi ladies.....I haven't cooked/fed a baby for awhile, and I don't think I'm thinking clearly enough ( lack of sleep and my brains dripping out of my boobs!) I'm always at a loss on what to feed her. Dinner seems easier as I just feed her bits of whatever we're eating. But I'm always at a loss at breakfast and lunch and what if what we are eating for dinner isn't appropriate for her ( pizza night,  for example)

DD is almost 1 years old ( yikes!) and I just can't think of what to feed her. She's a GREAT eater and likes almost anything I put in front of her. What do you feed your one year old for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Can you share some food ideas with me? THANKS!

[tooraloora]

I tend to fall back on steamed veggies a lot during meals where I'm serving something that isn't really appropriate for DS. While I'm getting our meal ready, I put a pot on the stove with the steamer basket and toss in some carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, or whatever I have on hand and let that steam. Very little prep work involved, it's quick, and DS is always very happy with it. I tend to keep mashed avocado in ice cube trays in freezer for such occasions as well. When it makes sense to do so, I set aside some of the ingredients for whatever non DS friendly dish I'm making and do something different with it for him. Lunch is usually either dinner leftovers, sandwiches (like grilled avocado, or hummus with shredded veggies) which I either cut up for him or just give him bite size pieces of the ingredients, or I'll put out a plate of fruit, veggies, crackers or toast, and hummus or some other dip. Sometimes I put on a pot of vegetable soup (also known as Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup) and strain out the veggies for him. Breakfast is usually the same deal, though I will occasionally do oatmeal with dried fruit mixed in instead.

[sacridote]

For DS, we almost always have some leftover chicken that I can break into bite size pieces for him. We also always have avocado -- which he LOVES -- so I often just cube one up and give it to him. He is also at a stage where he LOVES to dip. We'll give him hummus, yogurt, pb etc to dip carrots, crackers, pita, etc into. He loves noodles with a little olive oil on them. For breakfast he always gets fruit to start and then either some dry cereal, or a piece of toast with apple butter (no dairy for him and myself). He also eats pancakes sans syrup, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs.

I guess we don't really look at it so much as actually preparing a meal... during the times I need to feed him apart from us (dinner is late or we are having something he wouldn't be able to eat, which is rare) I just look for a protein and a fruit or veggie. I try not to stress about him getting "square" meals. 

[Erin77]

Ravioli! My 11-month old LOVES mushroom, roasted veggie or cheese ravioli and I always keep some in the freezer. I also buy cans of low-sodium veggie/noodle soup to give him, minus the broth, for a quick meal. He also loves flour tortilla shells with veggies and hummus rolled up.

[thursday2]

We aim for protein, whole grain and fruit or veg at breakfast, protein and veg at lunch, protein, veg and whole grain at dinner.

Some of his favorites: hummus (prefers white bean to garbanzo) or yogurt with diced veggies mixed in (our sneaky way to get him to eat veg when he's in a bad mood), whole wheat tortilla with cheese, spinach and tomato - fold in half and microwave for 30 seconds, mini pita pockets stuffed with tuna or chicken salad (I just mix the meat with avocado, lemon juice and relish - no mayo) or avocado and tomato, omelet of eggs and veggies, mashed sweet potato mixed with diced veggies and usually a spoonful of brown rice or oatmeal for a little more rib-sticking before bed... He'll eat eggs in any form, and would probably eat a dozen at a time if we let him, so eggs end up as the main dish or mixed into a lot of other foods.

About once every two weeks, I food process a lot of different seeds (pumpkin, sunflower...) and now that we've tried them and know he can eat them, nuts, and make nut butters that I always have on hand for quick additions to anything - he doesn't like meat or cheap fish very well (but loves shrimp, wild salmon, smoked salmon...grr...why did I have to expand his palette!) so I'm always trying to sneak in proteins and/or veggies. They're also great for spreading on bread alone or with a little low-sugar jam, honey, or ricotta.  I also chop up whatever veggies we've bought that week (snap peas, kale, broccoli) very fine and keep a small bowl in the fridge for throwing a spoonful into whatever else I'm making for him, and I try to keep some pre-made oatmeal and brown rice in the freezer so that I can always pull out something for him.  A lot of his meals are big ol' slapdash mixes of whatever we have on hand that's healthy - same way I eat. =)

[isras1]

I second the steaming veggies, we do that a lot. 

I got this from somewhere on the web:

Here’s some of the finger foods we’ve had success with (of course ALL of this stuff is fed while he is sitting, closely supervised and cut up into appropriate sizes) (oh, and he has two top and two bottom teeth, for reference):

* Sweet potato, baked until soft but not mushy (I make one big one so I have leftovers)

* Defrosted fruit purees spread on bread (like jelly)

* Single servings of frozen veggies, steamed in the micro or boiled for a few seconds in Baby’s Veggie Stock (from Cooking For Baby). I like the peas-carrots-green bean medleys and broccoli florets.

* Fresh or frozen spinach, steamed and rolled up into little mushy balls — it sort of sticks together and to little fingers

* Polenta (we get the semi-solid tubes of it, though it does contain salt)

* Small pastas like orzo, elbows, cut-up rotini (a dusting of Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs makes them easier to grip)

* Meatballs (there’s a recipe in Cooking For Baby that I modify a little and then I freeze them and reheat one or two per meal, cut up nice and small) (excellent for hiding leftover veggie purees!)

* All kinds of torn-up waffles and pancakes (again, Cooking for Baby has recipes that hide fruits and vegetable purees in them)

* Mini pita rounds with hummus or other spreads

* Hard-boiled egg yolks (crumbly and messy, but he LOVES them) (He’s officially a better eater than I am, because YUCK)

* Very ripe fruit, bananas, peaches, pears, etc. (I tried dusting these in crushed-up Cheerios at first but didn’t really notice that it made them any easier to eat. Mostly just made more of a mess.)

* Disaster risotto (we made it for ourselves but overcooked it — I pounded it flat on a baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated it, and the next day it was solid enough to cut into small squares and serve — am going to try it again on purpose with some brown rice next time)

* Pizza crust snacks (Whole Foods sells this frozen pizza dough? That I twist into little breadstick shapes, brush with olive oil and bake? And the result are these awesome little chewy snacks that are good for gumming and teething? WHO AM I AND WHERE ARE MY SWEET POTATO PUFFS?)

[Daffodil]

A couple of things I used to make a lot when my kids were that age:

soup with bits of shredded chicken, various vegetables, rice, and lentils (with lots of stuff in it, and not too much broth)

oatmeal with fruit and yogurt mixed in

A 1 year old will be perfectly happy to eat soup for breakfast or oatmeal for dinner, so either will do for any meal.