Veggie Quinoa Baby Bites | A healthy and easy recipe perfect for baby led weaning, toddler & kid-friendly meals or snacks. They are also very versatile, customizable and portable, making them excellent choice for ready-made breakfasts, lunches or dinners.
My twin nephews (H & B) are now 8 months old! How did that happen?!?!? They are great eaters and are now loving to feed themselves 🙂 Aren’t they just the cutest???
I attribute that to blended approach that my sister has taken in introducing them to solid foods. She started with mostly purees (my applesauce is one of their favs) but has always offered them finger foods to work on feeding themselves. Now at 8 months, they seem to prefer to explore the different tastes and textures on their own 🙂
This approach called baby led weaning, allowing your baby to feed himself/herself small pieces of whole foods, has been gaining popularity and many mamas are choosing this route to solid foods. I am trying to learn more about this approach to see if it might be the right choice for Baby Girl, but we still have a few more months before we can start with her (most experts say 6 months, but be sure to check with your pediatrician). I plan to start discussing when to start her at our next pediatrician appoint for her 4 month well baby checkup.
Since the boys have gotten so good at and enjoy feeding themselves, I wanted to explore creating some fun and nutritious foods for them to enjoy! I stumbled across this post while researching baby led weaning and immediately knew that I wanted to create something similar for the boys 🙂
My Veggie Quinoa Baby Bites start with quinoa, a nutritional powerhouse providing protein, fiber and 8 essential amino acids! Add to that shredded veggies (you could mix it up here and try some different veggies), cheese and eggs.
Mix it all up 🙂
Spoon into mini muffin pans (here is the one I have that is pictured above–> affiliate link) and pop in the oven. The silicone pans eliminate the need to spray your pans before baking. The Veggie Quinoa Baby Bites will just pop right out after they are cooked 🙂 Then 20-25 minutes later (depending on your oven and pans), you have…
Let them cool and then serve to hungry babies…
They were yummy but very crumbly and messy 😉 I originally made them with 3 eggs, but thought that they needed more binder so I wrote the recipe below using 4 eggs 🙂
Here is your recipe for Veggie Quinoa Baby Bites:
- 1 cup quinoa (I used tri-colored quinoa)
- 1 cup shredded zucchini
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 4 eggs
- Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Spray 2 mini muffin pans (24 count) with nonstick cooking spray or use silicone mini muffin pans and set aside
- In a large mixing bowl combine cooked quinoa, zucchini, carrots, parsley, cheese and eggs.
- Spoon mixture into mini muffin pans.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- These also freeze beautifully.
Let’s end with one more shot of the boys’ cuteness, shall we?? H & B hope you enjoy these Veggie Quinoa Baby Bites as much as they did 🙂
Thank you for sharing this great idea. Babies usually don’t like vegges! But put them together as a finger food is such a great idea!
I love this idea but we are dairy-free. Would it be okay to just leave out the cheese? Would it affect the consistency?
You could definitely leave out the cheese. They might turn out a little more crumbly because the cheese helps to bind the bites.
This looks like it’ll be perfect for my toddler. How would you freeze it? And would you thaw before baking?
Hi Maddy! My toddler LOVES them! To freeze just bake them, let them cool until room temp, pop them in a freezer bag and pop in the freezer. Then when they are ready to eat, take out a couple and pop in the microwave (from frozen) for about 30 seconds or so or until warmed through. Thanks for stopping by!!
Anything similar for egg and dairy allergies?
I would try using flax eggs and a vegan/ non-dairy cheese that you like. I have NOT tried these substitutes, but they might work for you. Please let me know. Thanks, Becky
If I were to leave the cheese out, what should/could I substitute with? I’m not ready to give baby dairy but he loves all the other ingredients!
I think that they would be fine without the cheese, but you may need an additional egg to get the bites to bind together. I haven’t tried them without the cheese, but that would be my thoughts. Thanks for your note, Hannah.
1 cup of cooked quinoa I’m guessing?
Yes! I’ll update. Thank you 😊
This recipe looks great. My baby is allergic to egg but I do want to sub in another protein (I was thinking some kind of ground meat)…have you tried that before?
I haven’t but I think it might work. Please let me know if you do. Thx!
My grandson loves vegetables and this recipe is one he’ll gobble up. We’ll try with parsnips.
Should the veggies be cooked first? Or raw?
I used raw veggies. If you would like to cook them first, I think that would be fine too.
Hi Becky could you use bulgar wheat or cous cous instead of quinoa?
Thanks!
Hi Michelle! I have not tried that, but I would think it is ok. Thanks!
these look sooo yummy I can’t wait to try these!!
Wow they taste great! Thanks for the recipe. My daughter loves them