Sample Food Schedule for 1 Year Old

Sample Food Schedule for 1 Year Old

Sample Food Schedule for 1 Year Old

Your baby is one year old! You’re learning more about your little one each day through his expressions, body movements, and the way he interacts with the world. This is an exciting time for both parents and baby, no doubt. Along with their one-year birthday comes the ability to explore new foods, like possibly nut butters, egg whites and honey, and since salt is generally OK now, they can eat more from the family table! So, where should you start? What are some great meal and snack ideas, particularly healthy options for busy families? Below is our sample food schedule for a 1 year old. Check out the What a Good Eater! cookbook for fantastic ideas on family friendly meals, more sample food schedules by age, healthy snack ideas by age, and meals ready in about 30 minutes or less for busy parents.

Remember, babies at this stage are all over the map: some are ready to explore more “textured” foods, while others are still all about the purees, and some enjoy both. Keep in mind to trust yourself and what you feel your baby is ready for, and that this is just an example.

Breakfast Options (roughly between 7 – 8 AM)

Options for main meal:

  • Single egg omelet, with cheese and/or fresh peppers and herbs (confirm with your child’s pediatrician regarding the whole egg)
  • Oatmeal with cinnamon and honey, served with cut blueberries, strawberries or banana on the side (suggestion: make a big pot of steel-cut oats, and keep them in the fridge for a few days for easy access. For instant oatmeal, we like Happy Bellies and Earth’s Best.)
  • Banana pancakes
  • Yogurt with cut berries or fruit puree
  • Slice of whole grain toast with ricotta or cottage cheese, sliced fresh strawberries, and a drizzle of honey

Drink:

  • Milk of choice (*breast milk if still nursing. At this point I was still nursing Penelope so I’d nurse her first thing in the morning and serve unsweetened almond milk with breakfast.)

Mid-Morning Snack (optional)

  • Sliced fruit with yogurt
  • Cottage cheese with fresh fruit
  • Fruit puree, such as avocado with berries or apples, and water (like a thick smoothie, but served with a spoon. P wasn’t quite drinking smoothies yet at this point.)
  • small bites of a soft cheese, such as fresh mozzarella
  • Applesauce

Drink:

  • Milk of choice,  or water

*Most days we did not have a mid-morning snack. This helped P get ready for a nice lunch before her afternoon nap.

Lunch Options (around 11:30 AM)

  • Cucumber Sandwich Bites
  • Peanut butter and jelly on whole grain bread
  • Grilled cheese sandwich
  • Baby Caprese Salad
  • Banana sliced in half topped and with almond butter
  • Sliced avocado and tomato bites with balsamic
  • Mashed avocado

Drink:

  • Milk of choice

Mid-Afternoon Snack

  • Diced fresh mozzarella served with fruit
  • Banana
  • Pureed fruit and veggie blend (we love spinach, apple and blueberry, pureed with water)
  • Any of the options from the mid-morning snack, if you haven’t served it already that day

Drink:

  • Milk of choice, or water

Dinnertime! (Between 5:30 PM – 6:00 PM)

Note: If we’re cooking dinner at home, Penelope usually eats what the family eats for dinner, often in a pureed version if necessary. When possible, we try to include a protein, whole grain, and/or vegetable in the meal. On evenings when we can’t cook and we need a quick dinner, we’ll serve Penelope one of the patties we keep on hand in the freezer (she loves the ones from Dr. Praeger’s!) which take only minutes to heat in the toaster oven, one of the lunch options listed above, or leftovers from the night before.

We also love making freezer-friendly, one-pot meals that produce several portions to store for later. This way we just take portions out of the freezer as needed and place them in the refrigerator a day in advance to defrost, and then dinner is ready for the next night. Boom. Done! All of these meals are featured in our cookbook, which will be released this October! Sign up here for email updates.

  • Whole grain pasta with marinara sauce and grated cheese
  • Roasted salmon (I quickly puree Penelope’s piece in the blender or Magic Bullet, along with a half of a pear – she goes crazy for this! – while the adult portion is served alongside rice and/or a salad)
  • One-pot lentils
  • One-pot chicken, cooked on the stove top with vegetable broth, sweet potatoes and sweet peppers (I puree Penelope’s portion)
  • White fish (such as tilapia), lightly seasoned and served with yogurt as a dipping sauce
  • One of our make-ahead, one-pot, freezer-friendly meals from our cookbook. Examples are: Jasmine Rice with Carrots, Coconut Milk and Apple; Garlicky Peas; and Sweet Potato Medley with Broccoli, Apple and Ginger, These are easy-to-make and yield several portions for future meals!
  • Frittata (if eggs were not given for breakfast). This one is a family favorite, and you can toss almost any veggies or herbs into the mix!
  • A “whole grain mash-up”: We sometimes make a pot of whole grains, such as couscous or bulgur, and add some frozen veggies of choice, a small, soft dried fruit such as raisins, some olive oil, lemon juice, and occasionally, a soft cheese like goat cheese. This one is super simple, nutritious, and is something we all enjoy – and bonus points that it can all be done in one big bowl! For an example of a most recent one we did, come see it on our Facebook page, here.

Did you find this post helpful? Check out our cookbook What a Good Eater! for baby & toddler recipes with healthy herbs and spices to add flavor and broaden your baby’s palette, now available on Amazon! If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive our newsletter for other great ideas on feeding your baby, toddler, and family.

 

 

 

About Alessandra Macaluso

Alessandra Macaluso is author of What a Good Eater! and The Real-Deal Bridal Bible, host of the Real-Deal Brides Podcast, and blogger at AlessandraMacaluso.com. Alessandra’s work is featured in several anthologies, most recently But Did You Die? which is the fifth installment in a New York Times bestselling series. She has contributed to The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, and many other online publications. Her original screenplay “Polar Suburbia” placed as a semi-finalist in the Moondance Film Festival. Alessandra is mom to two toddlers and a twenty-five pound Maine coon cat who believes he is a dog. She spends her time driving her OCD husband completely nuts with her constant rearrangement of scenery in their home. Learn more at AlessandraMacaluso.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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