Feeding a toddler is indeed a tiresome job. Even though you may get your toddler to have a healthy breakfast and lunch, the task gets even more cumbersome with the approach of dinner time. But you needn’t despair or lose hope, as this is quite a common occurrence. Toddlers usually get around 85 percent of their daily nutritional needs from their breakfast, lunch and mid time snacks. So, dinner accounts only for a small amount of their nutritional requirements. Therefore, instead of preparing a separate dinner for your young one and overexerting yourself, you can very well try feeding him a part of your usual family dinner. While preparing the dinner, you can leave out any ingredient that you feel may be unsuitable for your young one. At the same time, you can also add some extra ingredients, that will make the dinner more appealing to your youngster.
Healthy dinner recipes
Given below are 3 recipes which you can try out to ensure a healthy and tasty dinner.
a. Hamburger and tomato
Preparing a hamburger and tomato dish is a healthy way of feeding your toddler.
To prepare the dish, you will need 1 cup cooked hamburger, one and a half cups of cooked macaroni noodles, half a can of tomatoes and a quarter cup each of cooked peas and cooked carrots. For flavoring you will need half a cup of ketchup, 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce and a dash of Worcester sauce. Do combine all the flavoring ingredients and add the hamburger, macaroni, tomatoes and the cooked vegetables. Do mix thoroughly and serve when warm.
b. Chicken sticks
Chicken sticks are another option for a delicious dinner that will definitely attract your toddler.
To prepare the dish, you will need thinly sliced strips of chicken breasts, plain yogurt and a crushed cereal of your choice. The chicken strips are to be rolled in yogurt and is to be then coated with cereal. Transfer it into a greased baking dish and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve this dish with a dipping sauce and veggies.
c. Egg and meat drop soup
An easy way of making your toddler benefit from the goodness of meat is to prepare a soup out of it. This dish can be prepared side by side with the help of the ingredients that you use for your regular chicken/meat and rice dinner.
For making the dish you will require 2 cups of chicken broth, half a cup of cooked rice 2 fully beaten eggs and some meat cubes. Mix together the rice and chicken broth in a pan and boil it. Do add to this the beaten eggs and stir thoroughly until the eggs have cooked completely. To this add some meat cubes and continue stirring. You can also add a dash of lemon juice and pepper according to your taste.
The prepared dish can be then served with bread and vegetables.
Spice up your toddlers plate
To ensure that your toddler will eat up the prepared dinner, you can also try to make his/her plate more fun and interesting.
a. For instance, if you prepare mashed potatoes for dinner, you can serve it to your toddler in the form of a mashed potato snowman. This can be done by scooping 3 mashed potato balls with an ice cream scoop. You can then decorate the snowman by using string beans for the mouth, corns for the eyes and pieces of carrots sliced in the form of small rounds in the place of buttons.
b. Another way of making your toddlers plate more interesting is to make it more colorful. You can serve the food in a colorful plate and also in plates that comes with interesting designs like cartoon characters. You can also layout the food in a different manner by arrange the dishes in circles and then putting your kid’s favorite food in the middle.
c. Noodles are one thing that toddlers never seem to resist. Making noodles is easy and you can even try varying the flavors so as to make it more tempting for your young one. Cheese is another item which usually tops the list of at toddler’s most favorite food items. Keeping this in mind, you can sprinkle grated cheese over your toddler’s noodles, rice, veggies and even potatoes, thus making the dish even more appealing to the kid.
d. You can also encourage your toddler to use dips and sauces, thereby making the option of eating dinner even more interesting.
