Finger Foods Made Easy:

Your Ultimate Guide for Finger Foods with 3 Ingredients or Less

Babies can start eating finger foods whenever they are also ready to start solids — in fact, some families opt to forego spoon feeding altogether in favor of baby led weaning (BLW).
But even if you are spoon feeding with purees, it’s great to also offer finger foods when you can because there are many advantages!

 

Eating finger foods:

  • Affords babies more autonomy
  • Can help improve fine motor skills development;
  • Gives babies more opportunity to play, explore, and learn about foods through all of their senses;
  • May reduce feeding-time crankiness; and
  • Helps babies learn to choose how much to eat.

 

 

In fact, nutritionists also note that waiting “too long” to introduce finger foods might be a missed opportunity to let babies explore a greater variety of textures and shapes. (This is also one reason whynaturally textured purees are so important!)

 

There are all kinds of online guides available that purport to tell you All The Things about starting finger foods — but most of them take too many words and too much time to tell you that itneedn’t be all that difficult.

 

We know you’re busy, so we won’t get bogged down in the nitty-gritty here; the keys to getting started with finger foods are to:

ULTIMATE FINGER FOOD LIST

Okay, ready? We’ve broken down this list into three categories: 1-ingredient, 2-ingredient, and 3-ingredient finger foods. They’re all simple foods and pairings that are easy and fast to prep and generally go over with budding foodies!

1-Ingredient Finger Foods

  • Egg — serve it hard boiled, scrambled, or baked, however you like!
  • Avocado — try serving in sticks or wedges, or mashing up
  • Banana — you can offer thick pieces for gnawing or mash it up for a fun, messy meal
  • Sweet potato/potato — cook until it’s very soft and remove the skin
  • Berries — blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all great first finger foods (berries are *packed with nutrients and bright flavors)... just make sure to cut/smash them well before serving
  • Salmon (or white fish) — cook thoroughly and pull/shred apart
  • Meat — make sure it’s well cooked and *soft; you can serve it ground, shredded, or cut for gnawing, and avoid processed meats with added salt and other ingredients
  • Mango
  • Peas — cut or mash these as well
  • Beans (any kind!) — make sure you cut or smash these up  
  • Cooked carrot — make sure it’s soft; you can serve as sticks, mashed up, or shredded
  • Cheese — crumbly cheeses or shredded cheese are great for younger babies; as your baby gets older you can move up to diced or thinly sliced cheese
  • Tofu
  • Steamed/roasted zucchini
  • Cook food thoroughly (applies to things like meats, fish, vegetables, anything crunchy that needs to be cooked well) — everything should be soft and squishy.

 

  • Cut/slice/dice/mash food appropriately — younger babies who are just starting out with finger foods often do well with foods that are more mashed/smushed than cut. Actually, somewhat counterintuitively, longer/larger pieces are better, as they pose less of a choking risk: thinly sliced sticks or even wedges are great because they’re easier to pick up and babies usually gnaw on them. Older or more experienced babies can eventually graduate to more traditionally “cut” foods.

 

  • As much as possible, offerreal, unprocessed foods — you won’t find any puffs or cheap boxed cereal on this list, friends… Save that stuff for the airplane, LOL.

 

  • Avoid small, hard/crunchy, or round foods like whole chickpeas, whole grapes/berries, nuts, raw veggies, crackers, popcorn, etc., as well as anything super sticky or gummy, like a spoon of peanut butter.

 

  • Also avoid honey, which is a botulism risk for the under-one crowd.

2-Ingredient Finger Foods

A good two-ingredient finger food for a baby or toddler is more about finding the right flavor pairing than a recipe, per se. Here are some fan favorites:

 

  • Cut strips or pieces of toast with hummus
  • Rice & avocado (yes, it’s messy!)
  • Banana with small amounts of nut butter
  • Steamed broccoli and cheese
  • Banana & egg pancakes — mix equal parts banana and egg for the batter, and cook on a pan like pancakes (yes, really — I didn’t believe it either…).

3-Ingredient Finger Foods

  • Easy Protein Bites — combine nut butter, dates, and crushed oats in a food processor, then shape into bars or balls and store in an airtight container
  • Pepper & Onion Omelet
  • Spinach and Cheese Frittata Muffins — mix egg, spinach and cheese in a bowl, then portion into a muffin tin and bake for ~15-20 minutes @375 (cooking time may vary depending on your muffin size and oven)
  • Baked Oatmeal Cups — Mix oats, banana, and blueberries together and spoon into muffin tins and bake for ~15 minutes @350 (again, cooking times may vary)

Easy Kale Veggie pancakes — mix one pouch ofAmara kale veggie mash with ⅓ cup of milk and one egg, and cook ‘em up on the griddle! (Psst — you can also make this with one pouch ofAmara oats ‘n’ berries for a sweeter ‘cake.)

Chewy Ancient Grain Cookies — combine two pouches ofAmara ancient grain cereal with one pouch ofAmara banana (or ½ banana) and ~⅙ cup water, then form the mixture into balls and flatten on a cookie sheet. BAke @375 for ~12-15 minutes or until slightly golden.

  • The Easiest Quesadillas — Mix one pouch ofAmara black beans and sweet corn with ¼ cup water and spread the mixture on warm tortillas, then fold over and heat lightly on both sides. (You can also get fancy and add cheese if you're willing to up this to four ingredients, LOL.)

All-Natural Teething Biscuits — Mix two pouches ofAmara apple maqui berry sauce with 2 cups rolled oats and 2 tablespoons coconut oil in a bowl. Knead the dough and roll it out to roughly ½ inch in thickness. Cut the dough into strips (choose your own size) and bake in the oven @285 for 30-45 minutes — they should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside when they’re done!

Winner Again and Again

Voted Best Snack by Good Housekeeping in 2022 and featured in Best Products, Forbes, Today Show, the Bump and more.

Shop Now

"These will absolutely be our new go-to snack."

- happy mama