I've been trying to think of a healthy veggie snack that is portable and easy for my 1 1/2 year olds to eat. I'm running out of healthy stuff they can actually eat and don't want to load them up with junk food.
My idea is shreaded veggies either baked or on the stovetop, formed into what would basically look like a hash brown with no or little potato. A little bit of cheese is okay, but I want it to be primarily veggies.
Any ideas??
2012-02-09T22:25:14Z
Squash would be great. I could probably use spghetti squash even. Now, how would I go about actually making it? I'm a beginner at cooking!
Julie2012-02-09T22:47:40Z
Favorite Answer
what if you made it with an egg?? Scramble an egg, add a tiny bit of milk & pour into muffin pans. Shred all your veggies & put in a paper towel or tea towel to get a bit of the moisture out of the veggies. Add your shredded veggies, carrot, a tiny bit of sweet potato, shredded cauliflower stem, shredded broccoli stem, a little Julianne cut baby spinach, You can add a tiny bit of cheese too & give each cup a little stir.
I would try doing it adding the veggies to each muffin cup. start with maybe 1/4 way up with egg & add veggies to a little over half, they will puff up a bit when cooking.
When I was a kid, I ate these things called fruits as a snack. As an adult I was genuinely surprised that people actually consider candy a snack.
Grapes, Blueberries, Strawberries, Kiwi, and many other things are soft enough for a 1 year old to easily eat, and are sweet enough to be considered a treat. I would go with something like that.
If you want something with a veggie, try blanching carrots or other vegetables to soften them some; you could even blanch an apple to soften it so it isn't as crisp.
The habits you start now, are the ones that will continue on. It sounds like you want to start good habits now, so I would focus on using simple pure flavors, and just using vegetables and fruits without trying to doctor them up.
EDIT- you can make foods for them that will be good, but at that age their palate is still developing. They are naturally craving sweetness and protein (breast milk). The solids that we feed infants is what they begin to associate as food.
They don't have a complex enough palate to pick apart flavors. Just like when you start teaching them the alphabet or colors, you start simply and slowly; flavors are the same, and best started with their pure component.