Great for a quick snack, lunch or tea for babies, toddlers, kids and grown-ups too. Easy to make, nutritious and fun to eat. We LOVE roly-poly sandwiches!
When it was time for my daughter Kipper to start eating solid food, we took the decision to avoid ‘special’ baby foods, and instead to give her, well, food.
We knew she was ready to start eating solids because she grabbed some broccoli from my plate and started chomping on it. For her first dessert, she had a chunk of mango from our fruit salad. Juicy!
No puree!
I never pureed a thing. Whatever she ate came in its usual format – vegetables were cut up, steamed, boiled or fried. Pasta came the way pasta does, with sauce on it, but never amalgamated into a single pasta/sauce mush.
She was able to smell, feel, see and taste how different foods behaved, both in isolation, and together. Years later she is still an adventurous eater, always willing to try something new, and form her own opinion of it.
A comprehensive diet
With the obvious caveats for things like salt, honey and whole nuts, nothing was off the menu.
When Kipper was 6 or 7 months old, she was given a lump of steak at a barbecue (she and DH are carnivores). She gummed on it for about 20 minutes, until it was reduced to a soggy pink rag. Onlookers’ jaws dropped in amazement. All I could think was, “well, that’s her iron intake sorted for a while…”
Offering a wide range of different foods provides plenty of different vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. If a child is eating a good balanced diet, there should be no need to ‘top up’ with vitamin supplements.
Texture and flavour
As well as experiencing different textures – crunchy, soft, crumbly, crispy, gooey etc – giving Kipper a normal range of food also provided plenty of opportunity to try different flavours.
The only time I ever tried to fob her off with something bland was when I made a curry, and prepared her a dish of the same vegetables but without the spicy sauce. She was about 8 months old at the time, and she took one look at our plates and realised she was getting something different. And she was having none of it.
Needless to say, she ended up eating vegetable curry and rice just like her Dad and me!
Adventurous eater
Regular readers of this blog will know that Kipper now eats EVERYTHING!
Her favourite foods include aubergine, anchovies, pesto, smoked salmon, strawberries, 70% dark chocolate, garlic and olives. Although not necessarily in that order.
Baby-led weaning – a huge time-saver!
Of course the ‘baby-led weaning
‘ approach also has the significant advantage that you don’t have to make 2 different meals – one for the adults and one for the kid/s – every night for the foreseeable future. I’ve also never really understood how you make the transition from kiddie food to adult food in the ‘traditional weaning’ scenario.
With baby-led weaning, the baby/child just eats the same as everyone else at the table, within reason. I reduced the amount of salt I cook with, but then, I never used much salt anyway. We haven’t missed it.
My favourite utensil for BLW
The top tip I got when Kipper was small was to buy a crinkle cutter
– use it for slicing fruits and veggies and it puts a convenient baby-sized finger grip on their food. Genius!
Kipper was particularly keen on crinkle-cut cucumbers, carrots, apples, mangoes, and even crinkle cut bits of toast!
In praise of roly-poly sandwiches
Anyway, I will now share with you a ‘recipe’ for Roly-Poly Sandwiches, which have been a firm favourite with Kipper ever since she reached across the table for that first bit of broccoli.
Over time, the slices have grown with Kipper’s appetite – both in size and number! Come September, when she starts pre-school and I have to start making packed lunches, I think she’ll be eating these even more often.
You can eat roly-poly sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, tea, supper or a snack. They are versatile, nutritious, quick and easy to make, and loved by all ages – from the under-2s to the over-70s, in my experience. Perfect.
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📖 Recipe
Roly-Poly Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1 tortilla wrap
Filling suggestions (choose one at a time!)
- butter
- cream cheese
- humous
- pesto – as it comes, or else mixed with cream cheese or humous
- cream cheese mixed with a little tapenade
- smoked mackerel whizzed up/mashed with mayonnaise
- smoked salmon whizzed up/mashed with mayo or cream cheese
- grated cheese held together with mayo or cream cheese
- tuna mayonnaise
- mashed avocado
- mashed or thinly sliced banana
- thin omelette
- honey (for the over-1s) or agave syrup
- all-fruit spread
- nut butter (depending on age and allergies)
Instructions
- Thinly spread the filling of your choice over the tortilla wrap. Roll up tightly.
- Slice into pieces – 1-2 cm (approx. ½-1 inch) for small children, 5-7 cm (2-3 inches) for larger ones. Bigger kids and grown-ups can usually manage to eat a whole, unsliced roly-poly!
- That’s it!
Notes
Nutrition
More delicious finger foods for children
Other delicious foods that children can pick up and eat without too much interference (and are also great for grown ups!) include
- Carrot and sweetcorn fritters – also great for dipping
- Easy and delicious banana scones – no added sugar!
- Tasty cheese and onion omelette muffin bites – perfect for fingers of all sizes
- Classic chopped and fried gefilte fish balls – pretty sure I weaned on these!
- Cheese and olive savoury picnic muffins – great in lunchboxes, make mini muffins for little ones
- Pizza hamantaschen – little buns of delicious pizza goodness!
Helen
Thanks Natalie. I hope your son enjoys it!
Natalie
Great idea. I’m going to make this and pack to my son for his school lunch. Thanks!
Danielle
So many great ideas for fillings! I have some smoke mackerel in my pantry and I’m going to try that. Thanks!
Helen
Yay! I hope you enjoy these as much as we do Danielle 🙂
Lauren
It’s amazing how many different filling options you have! Excited to try the pesto and cream cheese variation!
Helen
Thanks Lauren. Pesto and cream cheese is definitely a favourite here.
Mandy Applegate
I even love saying the name – ‘roly poly sandwiches’ – these were an instant hit!
Helen
LOL, thanks Mandy! So glad they were such a success.
Eat Your Veg
So so sorry I’m ridiculously late in getting around to reading all the Family Foodies Under 2s entries. But thank you so much for making an entry, despite being dismayed at the theme being a baby led weaner. And a wonderful entry it is too. My kids also love a rolled up wrap sandwich, somehow they’re infinitely more appealing than an ordinary wrap or sandwich.
FFF
Thanks for having me! I try not to get wound up about these kinds of things, but once in a while a rant emerges 🙂