Serve up vegetables for breakfast packed with nutrition with these kid-approved recipes! You’ll find smoothies, pancakes, muffins, waffles, egg muffins, and more that you can make-ahead and share with the kids.
Vegetables for Breakfast
It’s a great feeling to start the day with extra nutrients and to help the kids eat their fruits and veggies—but I know how hard that can be. And so often it feels like we need to do mealtime acrobatics to get the kids to even taste veggie…which is where these recipes come in. Each is super delicious, but also contains vegetables.
Some of the veggies are hidden and some are in plain site, because we want the kids to be able to eat veggies even when they know they are there. (And really, especially when they know they are there.)
In my experience, making sure that the foods we serve our kids tastes good and is easy to eat can go a long way towards lessening their anxiety to taste them.
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Best Breakfast Recipes for Kids with Vegetables
I love using extra produce in my recipes when it adds flavor or sweetness, improves the texture, or is a fun addition (Spinach Muffins!). All of these recipes are great for parents too and the vast majority can be made ahead of time. So get a few into the rotation in the coming weeks and see what the kids enjoy most!
2-Ingredient Banana Pancakes with Spinach
Blitz up this easy batter and make the most tender pancakes that are perfect for babies and toddlers.
This recipe makes one small batch of super tender 2-Ingredient Pancakes. It usually makes 1-2 little-kid-size servings. To make more, simply double the recipe. These are delicate pancakes with a texture that’s sort of custardy like French toast, so be gentle when flipping them. See the NOTES at the bottom for the flavor variations.
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Banana Spinach Pancakes
With a traditional pancake texture but a fruit and a veggie, these green pancakes are fun all year long.
Banana Spinach Muffins
These tender muffins are one of my most popular recipes and they are such a great way to serve up iron-rich spinach to kids.
These healthy muffins taste like a delicious banana muffin, but with the added nutrition of a big handful of spinach. These store well, so you can make them ahead of time and pull them out of the fridge or freezer to serve.
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Sweet Potato Pancakes
Fluffy and naturally sweet, sweet potato pancakes are the yummiest breakfast!
Plan to have your mashed sweet potato ready to go so these come together quickly. Serve with any pancake topping you prefer—applesauce, maple syrup, or nut or seed butter.
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Healthy Pumpkin Bars
Pumpkin is loaded with Vitamin A and has a good dose of fiber, and we love it in these bars.
These bars are tender when warm out of the oven, so do be sure to let them cool completely before slicing.
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Pumpkin Mini Muffins
Protein, healthy fats, and a perfect texture…pumpkin muffins for the win!
Use a gluten-free flour blend or whole wheat depending on what works best for your family. This recipe has very little flour—that is not a mistake. They bake up wonderfully, so have faith! Adapted from Against All Grain.
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Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
With oatmeal and just enough sweetness to make these taste oh so good, these muffins are easy to make ahead and serve for breakfast (or snack!).
Easy Pumpkin Oatmeal
Add creaminess and vitamins to your morning bowl of oatmeal with this easy recipe (that works with any type of oats)!
You can make this in about 15 minutes on any morning, or make the whole recipe ahead and simply warm right before serving. See the Notes for variations to make it with other types of oats.
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Egg Muffins with Zucchini and Cheese
Tender and moist, these little egg muffins are a savory breakfast option to share with the kids. (They also make a great lunch.)
Feel free to double the recipe to make a full 24 mini muffins! We like to stash these in the fridge to eat all week, so having more is usually helpful in our house.
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Egg and Cheese Mini Muffins with Veggies
Add in carrot, sweet potatoes, broccoli, or a whole list of other veggie options to these easy egg muffins to start the day on a solid foot.
These tender Egg Muffins are packed with protein and vitamins—and can be made ahead of time! Add any veggie you like, whether carrots, butternut squash, broccoli, or spinach.
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Egg Bake with Broccoli
This egg bake works so well to make ahead of time and reheat for 15 seconds to serve. It’s great as a baby led weaning food and for any other age.
Transform just a few simple ingredients—including a pile of broccoli—into this protein-packed Egg Bake to share with the kids. It’s an easy breakfast or lunch that stores well and is simple to make ahead.
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Zucchini Slice
Whenever we have extra zucchini, we always make Zucchini Slice. It’s a firm frittata-like egg dish that’s high in protein and easy for littles to eat.
Transform basic ingredients—including a pile of zucchini—into this protein-packed Zucchini Slice to share with the kids. It’s an easy breakfast or lunch that stores well and is easy to make ahead. (See the Notes for options to up the flavor as desired.)
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Banana Zucchini Muffins with Blueberries
Three kinds of produce team up to make the most delicious morning muffins.
These muffins make for a delicious breakfast, snack, or lunchtime component. This recipe was updated June 2019 to improve the texture and streamline the ingredients.
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Chocolate Protein Muffins
Brownie-like muffins packed with produce? Sign me up!
These simple blender muffins pack a serious nutrition punch and are dairy-free, with a nut-free option. I prefer the flavor of these once they are fully cooled and chilled in the fridge.
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Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Shredded carrots are a great addition to these easy mini muffins.
These are delicious served warm soon after baking, at room temperature or even chilled, so see what your family prefers. They are naturally dairy-free and can be made gluten-free and egg-free as well. See the Notes section for details.
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Carrot Cake Oatmeal
We love adding carrot to our oatmeal (and even my veggie-skeptic one year old agrees!).
This is a nice breakfast option to share with the kids starting around 9/10 months and up.
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Strawberry Smoothie with Cauliflower
Raw cauliflower (fresh or frozen) is a great addition to smoothies—you can’t taste it and it makes things creamier!
Make the simple base recipe or try one of the variations with a veggie and more nutrient-dense add-ins. All are delicious! Freeze the banana ahead of time.
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Simple Green Smoothie
It’s possible to make a super simple green smoothie filled with nutrients (without having to buy a whole pantry full of weird ingredients!). My kids love this one.
Frozen bananas give the smoothie a creamy, naturally sweet base, though you can make this with a fresh banana as long as the other fruit is frozen. It’s easy to add whatever berries or fruit you have on hand, so customize it for your kiddo.
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Toddler Smoothies with Veggies
Get my 10 best toddler smoothie recipes with veggies in my master recipe so you can mix and match according to what you have on hand.
Learn to customize yummy smoothies for your toddler by starting with one simple recipe, then adjusting based on which fruit and veggies you’d like to use.
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Carrot Cake Pancakes
We love these around Easter, but also just whenever we have some spare carrots to use up.
These hearty Carrot Pancakes pack nice natural sweetness from the carrots and applesauce. This can be a thicker pancake batter, so know that you can thin it slightly, if desired, by adding a few tablespoons of milk.
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Zucchini Carrot Muffins
Two kinds of veggies make these mini muffins one of my go-to recipes for kids.
I prefer to grate my own carrots to ensure that the texture is finer and isn’t very noticeable in the baked muffins. See the Notes for allergy substitutions.
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Oatmeal Bars with Carrots and Blueberries
Think breakfast bars, powered up by both carrots and berries!
These oatmeal bars taste like an oatmeal cookie and are great for breakfast or snack. You can make them ahead, too! (You can add the egg or leave it out. Without egg, these are a crisp cookie bar texture. With it, they’re a little cakier.)
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Kids Breakfast Ideas
Do you have a favorite recipe that your kids love to eat first thing? Or a store bought option that’s been a helpful go-to I’d love to know! Please chime in below to share.
Best Tips for Success
- Start with smaller portions to avoid food waste and offer more as needed according to each child’s unique hunger.
- Add easy sides like fruit, milk, a smoothie, or anything else your kids enjoy.
- Try to make the food easy to eat, so dice up as needed for your child.
- Sit with them as you can and model eating so they can copy you (which can help some kids try new foods and also know how to eat a broader range of foods.)
Related Recipes
I’d love to hear your feedback on these ideas and to hear if you have other favorite ways to serve veggies for breakfast that I missed. Comment below to share!
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Spread the sweet potato, warmed slightly, over the toast.
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Sprinkle with cinnamon and slice into sticks or cubes.
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Serve with a side of cheese or fruit as desired.
- Start with smaller portions to avoid food waste and offer more as needed according to each child’s unique hunger.
- Add easy sides like fruit, milk, a smoothie, or anything else your kids enjoy.
- Try to make the food easy to eat, so dice up as needed for your child.
- Sit with them as you can and model eating so they can copy you (which can help some kids try new foods and also know how to eat a broader range of foods.)
Calories: 95kcal, Carbohydrates: 18g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 1g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 128mg, Potassium: 169mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 4197IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 39mg, Iron: 1mg
This post was first published April 2019.