Healthy Food for Toddlers

While prices on almost everything are higher than they’ve ever been – there’s still a few things you can do to save money on groceries each month.

1. Buy fewer processed snacks

I never feel bad for buying puffs or getting my son a pouch. The obvious trick – if you want to be healthier and save money – is to limit how many of these you buy. I buy a $3 canister of puffs about once a month. My son loves them – but I only dish them out when we’re in the car and it isn’t too close to meal or snack time.

For his daily snacks I stick to the homemade and the portable fruits. He eats plenty of the homemade whole wheat peanut butter crackers and at least 1 banana a day. I also make him pouches at home. I use the reusable silicone ones from Haakaa – they’re not cheap but they’ve already paid for them selves in a few months. For his homemade pouches I use cheaper fruits and veggies like bananas and carrots and I use oats to add bulk.

2. Batch and freeze

Life gets busy fast. I can’t count how many times my freezer stash of homemade snacks and meals have come to the rescue and saved a trip to a cafe for a snack or an uber eats delivery for a meal. If I’m making a meal for the week like a whole wheat pizza dough or sheet of pumpkin and carrot bread – I portion out some to freeze for later in the week or down the line when I unexpectedly need something to add to his lunch box for preschool.

3. One meal for everyone

I try to keep the recipes on this site “adult friendly” – meaning “toddler food” that the whole family can enjoy. The inverse is also true – there’s plenty of meals that you may already enjoy that your child can also eat with very little modification needed. It saves you time and money! To date one of our biggest dinner successes was when my husband improvised dinner. It was a bow tie pasta dish where he sautéed ground lamb (purchased because it was cheaper than ground beef), added a jar of store bought spaghetti sauce and then added a log of herby goat cheese to it. Everyone including the toddler had seconds (and thirds) that night!

4. Use your scraps

I save my veggie scraps – mushroom stems, carrot ends, celery hearts, etc to make chicken broth. I make a big batch that I portion out to freeze separately. This takes time but saves me money and is an instant flavor booster to anything I add it to.

I also like to use any bananas we didn’t get to soon enough in his pouches and baked breads.

5. Know how to cheaply buck up a dish

Depending on what you’re making – lentils, beans, chia seeds, peanut butter and yogurt can all be used to add additional protein and heft to your dishes and baked goods