This week, Brittany asked us to share our quick and easy go to meals for our little munchkins. Now that Caroline is a year old, we let her eat anything and everything. For us, the key to having a good meal on the table for her three times a day is preparing food ahead. That way, when I get home from work, we can play for a little while and all I have to do is warm her food instead of cook it from scratch.
Here’s what I keep on hand:
fresh fruit—all I have to do is cut it up and serve
cheese sticks—open and serve
frozen peas—boil in water in the microwave for a few minutes
English muffins—toast and top with almond butter or cheese
frozen ravioli—can cook a few at a time and serve
tomatoes—cut and serve
cucumbers—cut and serve
avocado—cut and serve
hummus—spread on bread and serve
organic whole milk yogurt—mix with fresh fruit and serve
sliced roasted turkey—Whole Foods roasts turkey breasts and slices it to order. I pick up about 1/4-1/2 pound per week for lunch for us and for Caroline.
A few more things in the freezer:
Applegate Naturals Chicken Nuggets—so. I wasn’t going to give Caroline chicken nuggets. But, they’re quick and easy if I didn’t have a chance to defrost and cook an organic chicken breast ahead of time.
Dr. Praeger’s Kids Littles—I LOVE these! They’re basically little potato patties with other veggies mixed in. So far Caroline has tried broccoli and spinach and I have the sweet potato version in the freezer.
Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burgers—A great alternative to meat!
Applegate Naturals Turkey sausage—these come frozen and fully cooked—they only need to be heated in the microwave for 90 seconds. Perfect!
Van’s frozen waffles—a great breakfast topped with almond butter and served with fresh fruit.
As a working mom, I have no choice but to keep things quick and easy during the week, but on the weekends we can slow down a bit and make eggs in the morning and serve Caroline the food that we’re eating for lunch and dinner.
What are your go to meals for your kids?
To read more about how we feed Caroline, check out how we started solids, our approach to feeding her now and Munchkin Meals here , here and here!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I am bookmarking this post for the time my little girl turns 1 (in 3 months) so that I can start using some of the products you mentioned! Thank you so much for sharing these. And thank you again for blogging about the baby meals: your munchking feeding philosophy helped me a lot in figuring out how to feed my little one.
I’m so glad you’ve found them helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions, I’m always happy to help!
I love reading what frozen foods have been vetted by other mamas…i love Applegate Farms stuff. Will look for Dr. Praegers.Praegers
Same! I love seeing other ideas through Munchkin Meal posts.
Hi Lisa! I am a newer reader and I appreciate your working-mom take on parenting. I read a lot of other healthy living-turned mom blogs and while I enjoy them, most are written from a stay at home or work at home mom perspective and I sometimes find it hard to relate. I am always scrambling to put together meals for my 10 month old that are healthy, quick, and can be easily sent to daycare. Thanks for these suggestions- I’ve been slow to look into good frozen options and will definitely be checking them out.
Hi Melissa! Thank you so much for reading! I hope these options help make things a little easier for you. I’ll continue to share what we do to streamline food prep for Caroline.
Such great ideas! I am always struggling to find ways to incorporate proteins like chicken and never thought of organic frozen nuggets (working mom too, evenings are a race against the clock)!
That darn clock just doesn’t slow down, does it?
These are excellent ideas. The only thing I can add is that I make smoothies for us all (I have a 2 and 4 year old) each morning with fruit, yogurt, pb2, spinach or kale and flax or chia and I often take the left overs (or an entire batch) and freeze them in various size popscicle molds. My fave molds are the ones shapped like ice cream cones…the kids think they are extra special treats.
Caroline recently posted..When I am 82
That’s a great idea! I did that earlier when she was using a mesh feeder, I’m going to try smoothies soon! And I need to order some popsicle molds
Where do you find those Kids Littles? They look fun!
And I love Caroline’s happy eating face
Brittany (Healthy Slice of Life) recently posted..Munchkin Meals: Quick ‘n Easy Eats
I found them at Whole Foods! Thanks! I think it’s pretty clear from photos that she and Hailey are girls that love to eat
bookmarking for later! it seems that feeding kids healthy food is really easy since it’s a lot of raw and simple ingredients. can’t wait to start with more food.
I think feeding Caroline has been so much fun, I hope you enjoy the experience with Logan!
Kudos to you for finding so many great ways to make healthy foods while working! Because I’m home, our approach is more like your weekends- she generally eats whatever we’re having, which makes it so much easier. The freezer is definitely the best resource for quick, healthy meals in minutes!
Laura @ Mommy Run Fast recently posted..My favorite summer salad and celebrating 8 years!
Thanks, Laura! I’m hoping to move more towards giving her what we eat for dinner every night but right now we feed her before our dinner is cooked. I’m working on moving to preparing more stuff on the weekends so that we can all start eating dinner together every night. A nice goal, but tough to accomplish when I spend the day at the office :-/
We love Dr. Praegers! Serafina loves Happy Bites, which are also vegetarian. Whole Foods has a great selection of healthy prepared food, which I never feel guilty about giving her. I just make sure I make her something new several times a week, so that she doesn’t get used to the processed stuff.
A few other things we do that she loves and are SUPER fast:
Near East Basil Pearled Cous Cous. I throw in some pine nuts and chopped tomatoes. (They also have a red lentil rice pilaf that is good)
http://www.neareast.com/#products/pearled_couscous_basil
Zucchini and White Bean Orzo (we have this once a week) http://vegetariansalmon.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/zucchini-and-white-bean-orzo/
Finger Foods
http://vegetariansalmon.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/vegetarian-kid-friendly-tip-fast-food-isnt-as-fast-as-real-food/
Maureen recently posted..Cookbooks, plus Spinach Linguine and Cauliflower with Mustard Sauce
Thanks, Maureen! These are great ideas, I’ll definitely work them in to the rotation to keep up the variety!