Easy Toddler Meals: Banana Veggie Pancakes
Like many toddlers, my 18 month old son can be a bit of a picky eater. So I’m always on the search for easy and wholesome toddler friendly meals.
Below is a recipe for one of my tot’s favorite meals; banana veggie pancakes! These are also great to keep in the fridge for a couple of days or to store in the freezer for hectic mornings.
I usually make a double batch of these pancakes so that I can eat a bunch of them too!
Banana Veggie Pancake Recipe
5 Simple Ingredients for an Easy Toddler Meal
- 1 mashed ripe banana
- A small handful of blueberries (optional)
- A small handful of either shredded or steamed/pureed zucchini or carrot. (optional)
- 1 egg (feel free to add a second egg for a nutritional boost)
- 2-4 tablespoons of all-purpose or gluten free baking flour (amount depends on the liquid content of your veggies and type of flour used – see notes)
- Butter for the skillet/pan
Directions
- Mix all the ingredients together, adding the flour last.
- Use a spoon or tablespoon to scoop the batter onto a hot buttered skillet. I keep the heat on low-medium to medium heat.
- Let the pancakes cook until they are a little golden before flipping them.
After I flip them, I squish them down with the spatula to make sure they cook all the way through.
- Remove the pancakes from the pan and let them cool a few minutes. That’s it!
Notes on Ingredients for Banana Veggie Pancakes
Flour Options
- All-Purpose Flour
- Gluten Free Baking Flour
- Iron-Fortified Baby Cereal
I have tried using both all-purpose wheat flour and gluten free flour, and both work great. I like using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour, and use the same amount of gf flour as I would all-purpose flour.
And when my son was a baby and very young toddler, I used iron-fortified oat baby cereal in these pancakes. See Good Sources of Iron for Babies and Toddlers to learn about the importance of iron for growing minds and bodies. As my son has grown into a toddler and is getting his iron from other food sources, I just use regular flour now.
How Much Flour to Use
I have found that the amount of flour I use depends on the type of flour, as well as the type of vegetable I am using. Zucchini has more water content than carrot, so I use more flour if I’m using zucchini to thicken the batter.
I add the flour last and in small amounts to determine how much the batter needs. You want the consistency to be similar to normal pancake batter, if not a little more on the liquidy side.
So how much flour you add really isn’t an exact science. You can just eyeball it to determine the best batter consistency. My toddler likes these pancakes to be on the thin side, so I use less flour for his pancakes.
Veggies
The banana and blueberries do a good job of cutting out the bitterness that some kids dislike in vegetables, but if your child is particularly averse to vegetables, you might try making them without any veggies, or with just a tiny bit to start.
Steaming and pureeing the veggies is another great option and makes the veggies fairly undetectable to most kids. It takes a little more prep time than simply shredding some raw veggies, but worth it to get those veggies in!
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