Last week we talked exclusively about baby-led weaning. So, I thought it would be fun to run through a days worth of meals that we serve the girls. I will share some meal ideas, tips and tricks, and snack ideas. 

If allergies run in the family, talk to your doctor before serving any food to your baby.

We started baby-led weaning when the girls were six months. We are so happy that we did because we can eat the same dinner at night, and I think that’s special. Baby-led weaning allowed the girls to have continuous exposure to different fruits, vegetables, and meats. So, in this post, I will share the typical meals we serve them in one day. I will also talk a bit about the benefits of these foods and more. 

I hope this helps give you some inspiration and guide you to the right choices when feeding your child. I get asked often what portions of food we feed the girls, so I have included pictures with each meal. Please remember that some days the girls finish all their food and others they don’t, and that’s ok because they are still learning!

The Morning (6:30 am – 12:30 am)

The girls start their day every morning at 6:30 am. We typically serve the girls their first meal at 7 am so, while I prepare their breakfast, they play in their living room play area. Doing this allows them to wake up a bit and get their appetite ready for breakfast.

There was no prep involved this morning because I had pre-made the muffins, the cantaloupe was already pre-cut, so all I had to do was cut the banana. Then at the end of this meal, I served the girls both vanilla Activia yogurt. We have started to wean the girls off their morning milk bottle, so they get diluted almond milk at the very end of their meal.

Cantaloup is a fantastic vitamin C source, which is excellent for your immune system, which is essential to strengthen right now. It’s also packed with water, which is useful for combating dehydration and constipation.

Banana is an excellent source of vitamin B-12. B-12 is a great vitamin that has plenty of benefits, and if you want to learn more, please visit here.

As for the muffins, I made oatmeal peanut butter prune juice muffins.

This is a great recipe to follow, but I always put prune juice in place of water to help the girls with constipation or almond milk in place of any type of milk products in recipes. So follow a recipe and change what you need to for your child’s needs.

Activia yogurt is a perfect addition to any meal. It also helps support digestive health and contains probiotics. To learn more about Activia click here to visit their website.

The Afternoon (12:00 pm – 5:00 Pm)

In the afternoon, I usually try and make something simple and nutritious. I typically start making lunch around 11 am and serve Mackenzie and Victoria their lunch at 11:30 am, so they have enough time to play and digest before their nap.

On this day, we had some leftover parmesan chicken from the night before. I always buy frozen vegetables because I found they would go bad faster than I could serve them, so I boiled the broccoli for 5 minutes or so, and the cantaloup was pre-cut. The rice is jasmine minute rice, and it’s super tasty, plus the girls love it!

Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamins and dietary fibre and has many benefits. To learn more, click here.

We prefer to feed the girls brown rice, jasmine rice, and basmati rice, not just plain white rice. Read here to find out why jasmine rice is better to eat than plain white rice.

Chicken is an excellent source of protein, and that is what helps your child grow. Also, because the girls drink almond milk, their diet needs to have lots of protein. Lucky for us, the girls have always enjoyed meat even when they had it pureed. So, it was no surprise to us when we started BLW, and they ate it all up. 

Want to learn more about chicken? Click here.

The Night (5:00 pm – 8:00 pm)

We usually serve the girls dinner between 5:30-6:00 pm most nights. At night, we typically serve the girls meals similar to lunch but with a different protein and sometimes different vegetable. Since they had chicken for lunch, today’s dinner is rainbow trout, basmati rice, Gerber Blueberry Vanilla Puffs, and broccoli.

I am going to share with you Brent’s kid-friendly recipe for rainbow trout.

Step 1: Preparation
Clean the trout fillets by rinsing with cold water to remove any leftover bits of bone or scales from the skin. Rainbow trout fillets generally come deboned for the store but always look twice because you will be feeding it to young toddlers.

Step 2: Baking Prep
Cover a baking sheet with tin foil to avoid the fish sticking to the pan. I always add a couple of drops of olive oil. You are going to want to preheat the oven to 400F.

Step 3: Seasoning the rainbow trout
Add the fillets to the baking sheet and lightly season with thyme, rosemary, and lemon juice. You may add pepper for an extra bit of flavouring.

Step 4: Time to cook
Bake for 20 minutes or until your desired texture is reached. Fillets should be flaky when fully cooked. If you’ve never cooked fish before, here are some tricks to telling if your fish is cooked all the way through.

Basmati rice has many nutrienal benefits to it if you want to read more about this click here.

We serve the girls rainbow trout often and the girls love it.

Snacks

This is a small list of some really yummy snack we like to give the girls through out the day. I usually give them snacks at 9:45 am and 3:00 pm.

1. Gerber Puffs
2. Cheerios
3. Love Child Oat Bars (their favourite is the blueberry carrot ones)
4. Sheddies cereal
5. Muffins
6. Veggie Sticks

Some Tips & Tricks

• Make sure each meal has a type of protein (i.e. eggs, peanut butter, meats, or legumes)
• Try to include most if not all food groups per meal
• Offer water during mealtime
• Encourage them to try everything
• Sometimes I serve the same fruit for a few days to incite prolonged interest
• Look at the nutritional value of protein, fibre, low salt, low sugar, less canned vegetables
• Give them time to try new things.
• Frozen vegetables are easier and last longer
• If they don’t like something, reintroduce it another day

Canada’s Food Guide

We try our best to follow Canada’s Food Guide. This link will bring you to a PDF of the food guide so you can read through it if you’d like. But, at each meal, we try and incorporate as many food groups that we can.

Conclusion

Ensuring your child is getting the best and nutritious meals is honestly like a part-time job once they are eating full-time. Toddlers can be tricky, and mealtimes with toddlers can be overwhelming, but once you find out their dislikes, things can get easier. I hope this gives you a bit of inspiration, and let us know if you tried the trout recipe!

What is your child’s favourite food to eat?

My answer: The girls love rice and tuna so much!

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor; I am just speaking from my own experience. These posts are inspired by what I have learned through research, teaching, different people’s experiences, and my own as a mother. I am part of the Amazon affiliated program and I will disclose whether links provided are affiliate links. To read more on this visit my privacy policy.

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