5 Basic Recipes to Make for Picky Little Eaters

We have two little ones. One love eating everything and the other one is extremely picky. Her diet consists of noodles, rice, berries, citrus fruit and bananas.

Once in a while, we can get her to eat chicken, or her favorite protein – the hot dog.

​Recently, I have been trying to get her to eat some new foods, but it has been difficult. Her favorite time to eat is in the mornings, so that is when we try to pack as much nutrients in as possible.

One of the ways I do that is with one of the 5 happy breakfast recipes I use for picky little eaters. I will share them with all of you parents out there looking for some new ways to get food into your picky little eaters too.

Teddy Bear Banana Toast

Nothing is cuter than teddy bears. All kiddos love them so why not use a teddy bear shaped head cookie cutter to create teddy bear toast. Teddy bear toast contains fruit, protein, and grains. To make it you will need:

• 1 Teddy Bear Cookie Cutter
• Butter Knife
• Plate
• Skillet Pan
• Butter
• Peanut butter or chocolate butter
• Banana Slices
• Banana Bread
• Chocolate Chips or Blueberries

Directions

1. Slice off a piece of thick banana bread, lightly butter it and place it onto a hot skillet and toast and warm the bread for about 60 seconds per side. Sometimes you need less time than that so pay attention. There is nothing kiddos hate more than burnt food and you already have a picky eater on your hands.
2. Remove the warmed toasted banana bread from the skillet pan and spread some peanut butter or chocolate butter onto it with a butter knife and place it onto a plate.
3. Take 3 round banana slices and put 1 for each year and the other in the middle of the face to begin creating a snout.
4. Grab your chocolate chips or blueberries and place two above the snout as eyes and one in the center of the snout to finish adding character to the bears face.
5. After, serve the delicious looking piece of teddy bear banana toast up to your little one. They will love it and you will be happy they are eating.

Chocolate Covered Banana Bites

Most kiddos love bananas and chocolate, which makes this recipe perfect for them. All you need to make this recipe are:

• Two to three sliced up bananas
• Cup of melted dark chocolate chips
• Wax paper
• Cookie sheet
• Spoon

Directions

1. Place all the slices of bananas on a waxed lined cookie sheet. Freeze the banana slices in the freezer for about an hour.
2. Next, take the frozen banana slices out of the freeze and drizzle your cup of melted dark chocolate chips over the banana slices. You can melt the chocolate in a small saucepan on the stove on low heat or in the microwave in a microwave safe dish for about 30 seconds.
3. Take the chocolate covered banana slices and put them back into the freezer for about 30 minutes and then you can serve them up as a breakfast treat or snack.
4. To store the frozen chocolate banana slices just peel them off the wax paper and toss them into a ziplock bag and continue storing them in the freezer until your little one wants some to eat.

Owlet French Toast

Kids love simple and fun meals. Most also really love birds. A fun breakfast recipe to make is owlet french toast. To make owlet french toast you will need:

• 4 to 6 slices of sourdough bread or canadian bread
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup of milk
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• Pinch of Nutmeg
• Teaspoon of vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon of maple syrup
• 1 banana sliced up
• Cup of mini chocolate chips
• Mixing bowl
• Wire whisk

Directions

1. In a large bowl crack your eggs into it and toss out the shells. Add in your milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, teaspoon of vanilla extract and maple syrup and give the ingredients a good whisk together until you get a yellow thick mixture to dip your bread into.
2. Get a skillet nice and hot and melt about a tablespoon of butter on it. Next, soak one slice of bread at a time into the yellow mixture making sure both sides of the bread are coated. After place the soaked bread onto the hot butter skillet and cook it on each side for about a minute or until each side is golden brown. Once it has reached golden brown it is done. Do this with each slice of bread to make french toast.
3. Next, take two slices of banana and place them in the center of the french toast.
4. Now take two mini chocolate chips and place one in the center of each banana slice to create eyes. Then place some chocolate chips on the outside edges of the banana slice to create a feather look.
5. Then, take some more chocolate chips and create a beak in the center of the french toast. By now your french toast should be looking like owlet french toast, which kiddos will adore.
6. Serve the french toast up as is or with maple syrup, jam, cinnamon sugar or whip topping.

Snowman Pancakes

Snowman pancakes are fun to make for picky eaters because they have chocolate chips and a gummy worm, which makes them exciting to eat.

However, in this household we make gluten free pancakes because mommy likes snowman pancakes too, but cannot have gluten because of her disease. To make my yummy gluten pancakes you will need:

• Mixing bowl
• measuring cup
• Wire whisk
• Spatula
• Squirt bottle like a ketchup bottle
• Small funnel that fits into the squirt bottle
• Cup of 1 to 1 gluten free flour mix
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• Cup of Milk
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter
• ⅓ Cup of mini chocolate chips
• Package of gummy worms

Directions

1. Place the milk and lemon juice into the mixing bowl and let them chill out together for about 5 minutes. This will form buttermilk.
2. Once the buttermilk has formed give it a good whisk together and toss in the carefully measured out ingredients of flour, honey, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, egg, melted butter, and baking powder into it. Whisk all these ingredients together well until you get a thick creamy batter.
3. Now, place your funnel into the squirt bottle and pour the pancake batter into carefully.
4. Heat up a skillet pan with some butter on it and squirt some pancake batter onto it to form a small circle. Then, just below the small circle make a slightly large circle to form a snowman. Cook the snowman pancake on both sides for about a minute or until golden brown.
5. Create a face using the chocolate chips on the head of the snowman pancake and place a gummy worm at the base of the small circle. Then, towards the center of the bigger pancake add three chocolate chips as buttons.
6. Serve the snowman pancake up with your favorite pancake toppings such as maple syrup, chocolate sauce or whipped topping.

Mango Banana Sunrise Smoothie

For the kiddos that aren’t big breakfast eaters at all you can make the sunrise mango banana smoothie. It is nourishing and energizing and buts something healthy into their little tummies. The ingredients you need to make this are:

• Cup of mango nectar juice
• ¼ cup of frozen mango chunks
• ½ cup of frozen banana chunks

Directions

1. Place all the ingredients into a blender and puree them together on high speed for 60 seconds.
2. Pour the smoothie into a fun cup and add a straw.
3. Serve the smoothie up for a quick nourishing breakfast for picking eaters.

End Note

Dealing with picky eaters can be difficult, but hopefully it can be remedied with these five happy breakfast recipes for picky little eaters. I know our little picky eater loves them. Especially the mango banana sunrise smoothie.