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Find yummy and nutritious food inspiration for every meal of the day with these easy baby meals. With ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack, you can use these ideas to feed just your little one, or to make family meals they can enjoy too.
Baby Meals
Coming up with ideas for what to feed babies can be challenging, especially as they are learning to chew and still relying on formula or breastmilk. These ideas can be meals that work for any time of the day and are mostly geared towards babies aged 9-12 months who may have more of an appetite for full meals.
If you’re just getting started with baby food, here are a few links that may help:
And now, 20 recipes to help you feed baby with little work and lots of deliciousness at the table!
1. Baby Muffins
Moist, tender muffins are a perfect food for baby for any meal of the day—and this recipe is loaded with three kinds of produce for flavor and nutrition. Pair with a fruit for an easy meal.
These are deliberately very moist (and moister than regular muffins) to ensure they are easy for baby to chew and swallow, so expect that from the interior. If you’d like to make them sweeter for older kiddos, add ¼ cup sugar to the batter.
2. Scrambled Eggs
Fluffy scrambled eggs are rich in healthy fats and protein and are an easy to eat early finger food.
You can season the cooked egg with a little salt, butter or cheese if you’d like, but it’s very good as is. See the Note about the heat setting when cooking in a microwave.
3. Quinoa Pudding
A subtle vanilla flavor gives this creamy pudding a lovely taste, which when paired with the vegetarian protein and fiber, make this a delicious breakfast or snack for baby.
You can serve this warm like oatmeal or cold like rice pudding.
4. Cottage Cheese Pancakes
Blend up 3 ingredients to make protein-packed pancakes that are easy for baby to pick up and self-feed.
These 4 ingredient pancakes are packed with nutrients and are so yummy. Double the ingredients to make a larger batch to feed a family of four as this recipe is on the smaller side.
5. Applesauce Overnight Oats
With just a few pantry staples, you can stir together a satisfying overnight oats recipe that’s a balanced mix of nutrition…with yummy flavor!
You can easily double (or triple!) the recipe to make more servings. It uses a 1 to 1 ratio of yogurt to applesauce so you can easily scale it up. Mix these up the night before you plan to serve them.
6. 2-Ingredient Pancakes
With four flavor options, these tender pancakes are a power packed meal for baby. Bonus: They are soft enough to work for baby led weaning or as a finger food.
This makes one small batch which will be 1-2 little-kid-size servings. To make more, simply double the recipe. These are delicate pancakes with a texture that’s sort of custardy like French toast. They are NOT like regular pancakes in that they are not super bready. Which is to say: Be gentle when flipping them. I broke a few the first time I made them! See the NOTES for the flavor variations.
7. Make-Ahead Egg and Cheese Mini Muffins
With options to add carrots, broccoli, squash, or more, these egg bites are easy for baby to eat and can be served warm or at room temperature. (So they’re great to pack for daycare!)
These soft breakfast egg cups are packed with protein and vitamins—and can be made ahead of time! Add any veggie you like, whether carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, or spinach.
8. Vanilla Whole Wheat Waffles
With cottage cheese in the mix for protein and calcium, these mini waffles are a perfect consistency for babies in the 9-12 month range.
9. Banana Bread Oatmeal
Put those too-ripe bananas to good use in this delicious (and easy) oatmeal recipe for kids.
When you use a really ripe (or over ripe) banana in this recipe, it tastes so much like banana bread—but is much faster! See the options for which toppings make this even more delish.
10. Veggie Grilled Cheese
Whether diced up small or served in strips, this little sandwich has veggie puree right in the mix.
With just 4 ingredients, including a veggie that blends right in, this Veggie Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a yummy kids lunch to share. It packs extra nutrition in the filling, yet only takes a few minutes to make. Such a great easy meal!
11. Chicken Sweet Potato Meatballs
Combine 4 simple ingredients to make baked chicken meatballs with a veggie tucked right inside! These pair well with marinara, pesto or cheese sauce, are super moist, and are perfect to make ahead.
Plan to cook your sweet potato ahead of time. See the Notes at the end of the recipe for options!
12. Extra-Veggie Baby Pasta
With a flavorful blend of tomatoes and sweet potato or squash, plus beans for iron, this tomato sauce is both delicious and easy to make.
Adding beans and extra veggies helps make this easy baby pasta satisfying, nutritious, and yummy. Serve it more or less saucy as you like. (You can even freeze the sauce for easy future meals.)
13. Baby Food Combinations
Learn how to mix and match baby food for endless easy meal options.
For a 6 month old baby, 1-2 tablespoons baby food may be plenty for a single serving. For a 9 month old baby, they might want ¼ cup or more. Adjust the servings based on your child’s hunger, using a roughly one to one ratio of the purees in each combination. Nutrition will vary according to the combinations you use.
14. Cauliflower Cheesy Rice
With cauliflower cooked right in the rice, this is a delicious vegetarian main or meal component.
Choose one veggie to add from the flavor options below according to what you have on hand or what your family likes best.
15. Roasted Sweet Potato Hash
Bake up this sheet pan meal to share with baby. Cut the pieces as small as you need for easy finger foods.
Try this easy breakfast-for-dinner idea the next time you need a super easy and nutritious family dinner.
16. Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Throw the ingredients into the Instant Pot and have the most tender and flavorful chicken to share ready to go.
17. Italian Lentils and Rice
Filled with Italian flavor and relying on an easy cooking method, this is a dinner to share. (Cut the melon smaller and the cucumbers into matchsticks or skip them as needed for babies.)
We like this with rice, but you can also serve this with pasta if you prefer.
18. Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese
Use up some leftover baby food in this easy stovetop mac and cheese recipe.
I like to use a small shape to keep this dish as fast as possible.
19. Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
With an easy method that blends the squash right into the cheese sauce, this is a delicious way to incorporate veggies into a baby meal.
Use your family’s favorite shape and type of pasta in this recipe. (We like elbows or mini shells!)
20. Alphabet Soup
This soup has an easy method and finger-food size pieces that are perfect for baby.
You can use ABC pasta, orzo, pastina, or ditalini—or any other very small pasta shape in this recipe!
Frequently Asked Questions
Soft chicken, mashed meatballs, pasta, soft fully cooked rice, scrambled eggs, soft veggies, soups of all kinds, there are so many options for dinners for babies. I hope this list gives you some too.
Yes, absolutely. You’ll just want to try to make sure the family meals are easy for baby to eat—which usually means soft and easy to chew—and cut into appropriate sized pieces.
Any of the foods in this list can be served for lunch. Or you can look at this post with more lunch ideas for one year olds.
I’d love to hear your feedback on this post, so please comment below to share!
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