3 Ridiculously Easy Healthy Dinner Ideas

Preparing meals is a necessity that can turn into a headache with many mouths to feed. Throw in a little one who is still in the “baby food” stage and it can be overwhelming. Since buying baby food or preparing something separate to whirr in the blender can be just too much some days, here are three flexible and healthy dinner ideas that even the baby can eat (with minimal help from mom or dad.)

1. Soup

Set it up in the crockpot in the morning and dinner is ready. Mix in a lot of vegetables and a protein, maybe some leftover rice if you have it, or make chili, and you’re good to go. For the little one, ladle some onto his tray and smash up the larger pieces. After hours of cooking, it’s all quite soft.

2. Loaded baked potatoes

Throw some potatoes (Russets, red, sweet potatoes, yams, or a mix) into the oven or  crock pot and then get the toppings ready: Cilantro, tomato, avocado, sautéed or steamed spinach or kale. Load your potato up how you like, and then scoop out a plain potato for the baby.

3. Hamburger, meatballs or meatloaf

You might see what I’m getting at here. Using a lean ground meat (that’s the important part!), make one of the three choices, and the appropriate fixins.’ Buns, lettuce, tomato, mustard for the burgers. Spaghetti and sauce for the meatballs. Roasted vegetables and rice for the meatloaf. The protein is already ground so it just needs a quick crumble with your fork and is ready to go for high chair consumption.

Bonus: For dessert, make baked pears/apples/peaches. They can be easily dressed up with a dollop of greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey. The baby won’t even know s/he’s missing out on the good stuff.

What are your favorite healthy dinner ideas?