Toddler Lunch Ideas

[kissimeekathy]

Any tips or favorite on the go meals for toddlers ( 2 YO) to eat in the parks?

We don't want to waste a ton of money on kids meals everyday that will most likely get wasted so looking to pack meals for our toddler during our Oct Trip. We are staying at AKL-Kindani so we will have a fridge.

Don't want to bring anything over complicated either that needs to stay frozen or needs to be warmed up.

All I can really think of is Uncrustables but looking for other options as we will be there a full week.

Thanks!

 

[shellyj]

Most QS meals are big enough to share, unless your child is very picky, they may very well be able to eat off your plate. Last trip my older 2 kids were 6 and 7 and the 3 of us could easily share a QS meal with an extra side or 1 adult and 1 kid meal if we were very hungry. But those two aren't picky! I'm with you on wasting food. I don't mind spending on food but I hate paying $10 for a hot dog meal that gets wasted when it would have be cheaper and tastier heated up in the hotel room! We pack a lot of our food. I've brought in pretty much anything they eat at home. My youngest is autistic and has a very limited diet so we always carry food for him. I've packed all kind of sandwiches and wraps, refried beans and tortilla chips, yogurt packed against a frozen water bottle or small ice pack (and that gets eaten early), granola bars, oatmeal in tupperware (my son only eats it room temp), fruit, chips, hummus and chips or carrots.
Sometimes we take a regular backpack with snacks and sometimes we take a cooler back pack that hangs on the back of the stroller while we walk and then in the seat of the stroller if it's parked.

ETA - my kids, even now, also really like the applesauce pouches and trailmix

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

My kids always ate the Gerber toddler meals room temp, although I know some people might find that one weird. You could also pack a small cooler with things like lunchables, sandwiches, string cheese or cheese cubes, apple sauce pouches or cups, gogurt that you freeze over night, crackers, nutrigrain/breakfast/cereal bars (my kids surprisingly both love the Belvita bars AND they're nutritious), fresh fruit/ fruit cups, carrot sticks, cut green pepper, celery with individual size peanut butter packets, raisins, baggies of dry cereal, beef jerky, bagels with small packets of cream cheese, English muffins with small packets of jelly, dried fruit. Obviously don't put crackers and things like that IN the cooler, but a separate bag. To keep things in the cooler cold, freeze a few bottles of water overnight and use them as ice packs. As they melt, you also have cold water to drink.

Both my current toddler and my DD as a toddler did better with frequent snacks/ small meals so they often eat/ate healthy snacks like that instead of full heavy meals (especially in the heat).

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Another one my toddler does is chef boyardee pop-top cans at room temp.

 

[ADS2508]

My toddler tends to eat better when I have variety. We are out and about a lot and I tend to carry a bentago box in my backpack and fill it with a combo of things like pirate booty, fruit, sandwich meat, cheese and crackers, quesadillas, traditional sandwiches, guacamole and pita chips, hard boiled eggs, mini muffins, meat and cheese rolls, small wraps, graham crackers and peanut butter, carrots and hummus, and yogurt with granola. I like the box because it's light weight, I can pop it open and it's a small plate ready to go, and nothing gets squished up. I also carry some things in zip locks like gold fish, yogurt melts, and pretzels that I can give him a few of at a time when he needs a snack.

 

[unrequited23]

Mine liked the shelf stable yogurt pouches, the kids clif bars called z bars and raisins. And don't forget the emergency meltdown preventing fruit snacks/dum dum lollipops. At some QS you can order the sides a la carte and just get your toddler a danimals smoothie and apple slices. I sometimes make the sacrifice and order an adult meal that I know my kids (3 & 5) will eat and the three of us share--the nuggets aren't too shabby.

 

[Lvsdisney]

I do like the power packs that they offer at some QS. Usually includes dannon yogurt, goldfish, apple slices, carrots and a cereal bar. My DD loved that at 2.5 It comes with water or milk. She would eat a few on the items, and then snack on the rest throughout the day. You obviously could replicate pretty easily for cheaper.

 

[DisneyOma]

Any tips or favorite on the go meals for toddlers ( 2 YO) to eat in the parks?

We don't want to waste a ton of money on kids meals everyday that will most likely get wasted so looking to pack meals for our toddler during our Oct Trip. We are staying at AKL-Kindani so we will have a fridge.

Don't want to bring anything over complicated either that needs to stay frozen or needs to be warmed up.

All I can really think of is Uncrustables but looking for other options as we will be there a full week.

Thanks!

Will you have a car to go shopping? Stock up on the healthy stuff your toddler will eat so as to not overload on zero-nutrition sugary stuff to avoid the meltdowns. That way, a sugary treat in the park will be OK. We bought cut up veggies, the specific cheese my youngest would eat, the yogurt without the added sugar, etc. We'd start the day with good protein and long lasting fats, the kind of stuff that you need to keep in the fridge. In the parks we'd look for fruit cups, whole fruit, etc, and make sure there was some milk to drink (if it wasn't too hot out! Avoid a tummy full of milk if it is hot, trust me ) A bag of cheerios came in handy, especially in queues. It kept her blood sugar steady. Goldfish crackers are good too. But my kids were always grazers, and I just made sure there was protein and fat mixed in with the carbs. Of course it is WDW, so we did have more sugar than usual. But my oldest will point out that ice cream is made of milk, and milk has protein and vitamins,

 

[Gracie09]

At that age we did a lot of the power pack. It was easy and we saved what she didn't eat for snacks later.

 

[MissMet]

I did lunchables & uncrustables in the past. Super easy and what they're used to at home. Now that they'll be 1.5 & 3 I'll probably just order one kids meal & split it.

 

[Minnesota!]

We always kept some trail mix in our bag for the close-to-a-meltdown-from-hunger. Then they would eat off our plate, or I would find a snack somewhere that would fit the bill (fruit and cheese platter, baked potato, giant pickle, mickey pretzel).

 

[DisneyOma]

I did lunchables & uncrustables in the past. Super easy and what they're used to at home. Now that they'll be 1.5 & 3 I'll probably just order one kids meal & split it.

But what about all the empty carbs in those meals? For a toddler and preschooler?

 

[MissMet]

But what about all the empty carbs in those meals? For a toddler and preschooler?

Haven't had a problem yet.

 

[DrunkJam]

Cereal bars (without chocolate - melty mess) and bear yo-yos or bear paws or claws (NOT the pastry - 100% fruit snacks that are healthy and packable, and fun) for emergency need something with some calories and nutritional content NOW moments, then it's about knowing what they will eat, what they nutritionally need (these snacks are fine, but can lack protein and also other nutrients) and how to share meals so everyone gets what they need and like. Keep milk in the fridge too, so can supplement with that in the room.
Our kids also get gummy vitamins on holiday too, so that their meal choices can be a bit more treat and their choice focussed.

 

[kissimeekathy]

Thanks all! Yes we will have a car and plan to shop! Thanks for all the great tips!

 

[TwoMisfits]

I do like the power packs that they offer at some QS. Usually includes dannon yogurt, goldfish, apple slices, carrots and a cereal bar. My DD loved that at 2.5 It comes with water or milk. She would eat a few on the items, and then snack on the rest throughout the day. You obviously could replicate pretty easily for cheaper.

Exactly this...at our mom's group, we used to have "bite" plates...a large multi-sectioned tray was set out with little bites of food in each tray and a dip (hummus or yogurt) in the middle. Sliced bananas, sliced apples, baby carrots, sliced cucumber, baby tomatoes, 2 types of cheese cubes, goldfish, cherrios, etc...kids grabbed the bites they liked and that was lunch. This works so easy in the park with 2-3 bites with an optional dip.

You could also literally bring cereal with milk, juice, and chopped bananas...just bring a plastic bowl and spoon and get a shelf-stable milk or pick that up in the park and bring the cereal in a baggie with an uncut banana and a juice box...

 

[scrapquitler]

But what about all the empty carbs in those meals? For a toddler and preschooler?

you can configure the kids meals without a lot of empty carbs. The last kids meal I had was a Pop Century and I ate turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and apple juice (if I were avoiding carbs, I could have gotten carrots and milk instead of potatoes and juice)

 

[Thing 1]

I simply fed my little off from my plate. There was plenty of food and no worries about having to pack food. Buffets they eat free too.

 

[faeriesxist83]

Last year our 2 year old mainly ate off our plate. But we also brought along dried mangos, cashews, raisins, granola bars, applesauce, and yogurt.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Am I the only one with an incredibly hungry toddler? My 20 month old can eat entire kid's meals at some restaurants. He almost always eats at least 75% of his food. He's a big boy...over 30 lbs. When we went to Disney 2 months ago, I got him his own meals. If I'd let him "share" off of my plate, I'm afraid I would have starved. We did a couple of character meals though, and he was free there.

Moral of the story is that it depends on the kid. We didn't have a whole lot of wasted food with him.