I don’t know about you but I find it so difficult to make sure that my toddler gets a varied and interesting diet. I am always looking for budget-friendly food ideas. Every week I try to introduce her to a new type of fruit although I tend to stick to a few staple vegetables I know she will eat as we are on a budget and I don’t like food waste.

I really want her to enjoy experimenting with food as much as I do. I really like trying new foods but with the price of food rising sharply you really do have to think outside the box and hunt around for bargains.

Budget-Friendly Food Ideas For Toddlers

We recently started doing our main shop at Aldi and I’m finding their ‘Super 6’ offers fantastic. This week they had fresh Figs for just 69p, my toddler likes dried figs but we hadn’t tried fresh ones.

Despite the funny look on her face, she really enjoyed trying the fig.

Aldi also sells these tiny apples for £1.09 a bag, the one we bought had about 10 apples in. They are just the perfect size for tiny hands and mouths.

My toddler loves Hummus, this week I tried her with some red pepper flavour. Both the plain and red pepper are 69p at Aldi for a 200g tub.

A great way to get some exotic fruits into a toddlers diet without waste is to buy tinned or fruit pots in juice. You can portion it out and store the rest for the next day.

Sometimes I like my toddler to have a hot lunch and one of her favourite things to eat is homemade cheesy pasta. This is super simple and cheap to make, no weighing or measuring and you can adapt the recipe to suit your toddlers taste.

Homemade Cheesy Pasta

Hand-full of dried pasta shapes
knob of butter/spread
Cheese (we love mature cheddar)

Boil the pasta as you normally would until soft.

Drain and put it back in the pan.

Add the butter/spread to the pasta over medium heat and stir.

Once the butter/spread has melted add the cheese and continually stir until the cheese is all melted.

The pasta will have a lovely coating of cheese on it.

Leave to cool and serve.

You could add some cooked broccoli, peas or ham for a little variety.

Do you have any great ideas for toddler snacks or lunches on a budget?

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