Travel food ideas for Indian toddlers

This post on travel food ideas for indian toddlers will be your savior if yours is a vegetarian family like ours. You must have faced the food conundrum visiting places which are not necessarily vegetarian friendly. Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka instantly come to my mind where Indian packed food and some home food came to our rescue.
Scenario 2: Attending a family destination wedding with a 10month old baby. Solids are needed but not as solid as the shaadi food.
And how about the time when you were traveling with a fussy toddler who just refused to eat anything and you felt too guilty dragging her all the way for this vacation!!
Following are my 2 cents on how and what to carry for children in any of the above situations:

I have divided it into 3 posts by age groups to make it an easy read.

For 1Y to 3Y kids, please check out the post on Travel food ideas with kids. These covers some travel food ideas for Indian toddlers aged 1.5yrs and above.

For 6M to 12M:

1. Keep bananas handy (wonderful for full tummies and super healthy)
2. I also carry these simple 7 ingredients 1 bowl home-made whole wheat flour (wwf) banana muffins (check out the recipe here) and sometime whole wheat chocolate muffins depending on the flavour preference.
3. If you are staying at a hotel or homestay, you can ask them to make:
   1. Apple sauce (peel, core and cut the apples. Pressure cook it for 1 whistle and blend). I had a wonderful experience in Taj Hotels (Taj Shimla, Taj Green cove kovalam) who lovingly prepared the apple sauce for my babies
   2. Lentil soup (dal) to cover for the protein requirement, in addition to milk.
4. If you are in a homestay or room with kitchenette: you can try Sattu Mavu. It is a premade powder of lentils, cereals and dryfruits which can be just mixed with milk and cooked for 2-3 minutes and fed to the baby.
   
   Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I recommend them based on my experience with them and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases.
   
   
5. 1 pack of theplas always, for emergencies. We survived almost one whole day on Theplas in Sri Lanka. They usually last for 3 days if not refrigerated.
6. Other Dairy like Yogurt/curd or Cheese: you should be able to find packed yogurt in most of the places. This is again healthy and filling. Cheese is more common place outside of India and one can choose accordingly.
7. Halwa (Nachni or Atta)
   1. If you have an option of refrigeration carry ragi (nachni) halwa. Simply mix 1 tablespoon nachni with 4 tablespoons of water and roast it till it changes colour and then mix ½ tspoon ghee and ½ tspoon jiggery. Carry this and refrigerate it. Every time you need to feed the baby, just mix this with hot milk and a complete meal is ready.
      Do Note: Nachni is an acquired taste and a taste worth acquiring.
   2. In most of the north Indian households, wheat flour is introduced only in the 10^th month or so. If your infant is in the 10m+ age bracket, carry whole wheat laddu (basically roast the whole wheat with a lot of ghee, like we do for atta halwa and then mix sugar. Wheat flour and sugar go in 1:1 ratio). To get the whole wheat halwa ready in a jiffy, just add boiling water to this mixture. You don’t need to refrigerate it since sugar and ghee are natural preservatives and there is no water in the mixture.

Other options (not just for infants but also for travelers in delicate conditions like heart patients, aged travelers etc):

There are companies that dehydrate your home made food. You carry this dehydrated packet and just mix it with boiling hot water, let it stand for a couple of minutes and the home made food is ready.

Additionally, there are small steamers and small pressure cookers, which I have seen people carrying with aged co-travellers. Easy to make your own food in dire situations.

Need help with planning your trip. Feel free to reach me on theglobetrotmom@gmail.com