When it comes to feeding your toddler, it can be either a joy or a challenge, depending on their mood.
Most moms can attest to being held at the will of their child’s everchanging tastes and preferences. While they might love a food item one day, that can quickly change overnight, leaving you to be ready to switch the menu up on a whim.
But lunchtime can still be enjoyable for you and your little one — it’s all about making even the simplest food more playful and creative. Turn hot dogs into edible dogs or sausages into swimming octopuses; even sliced fruits or vegetables can turn into a colorful rainbow with the right finesse.
Lunch Ideas for Toddlers
Presenting your toddler with different textures, colors, and flavors of foods can make mealtime more stimulating and fun, and to help get your creative cooking inspiration going, we’ve provided a few recipes that will get you and your toddler excited about lunchtime!
1. Hot “Dog” Lunch Plate
For a fun hot "dog" lunch plate for your toddler, start by lightly toasting a hot dog bun and cut ¼ of the bun off. With this portion of the bun, place the pieces in half to form a dog’s face and add candy pieces and a blueberry for the eyes and nose.
Cook a chicken or turkey sausage until it's thoroughly heated. Place the sausage inside the bun and add your toddler’s choice of condiments. Serve alongside bite-sized pieces of steamed carrots and cucumber sticks for a balanced and nutritious meal that's sure to please your little one's taste buds!
@heathercoxzzz Kid’s Lunch @heinz_us ketchup #nationalhotdogday #hotdog #funfood #kidslunch #lunch #lunchtime #lunchformykids #kidfood
2. Rainbow Veggie Quesadillas
Create colorful quesadillas using a variety of diced veggies like bell peppers, carrots, and tomatoes. Start by heating a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Lay a tortilla flat in the skillet and sprinkle shredded cheese evenly over one half. Next, invite your toddler to sprinkle diced bell peppers, carrots, and tomatoes on top of the cheese. Fold the tortilla in half and cook until golden brown on both sides, then slice into triangles and serve!
@gleanerskitchen Eat the Rainbow! 🌈🌶🍅🫑🥬 These Colorful Quesadillas are a flavorful way to use up whatever veggies you have in the fridge. Try soft veggies that don’t need a lot of cooking like spinach, tomato, bell pepper and zucchini. Or try it with cooked veggie left overs like squash, carrot, and sweet potatoes. Colorful Quesadillas Via #miharvestofthemonth 8 ounces low-fat cream cheese 1/2 tsp garlic powder 8 whole wheat tortillas 1 cup red pepper, chopped 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped 1 cup cheddar cheese spinach leaves - 1 cup fresh, (9-ounces frozen, thawed and squeezed dry) cooking spray #snapedworks #gleanerscommunitykitchen #gck #cookingmatters #foodsmarts #eattherainbow #veggierecipes #15minutemeals
3. Mini Cauliflower Pizza
To make mini cauliflower pizza for your toddler, start by preheating your oven to 400°F (200°C). In a food processor, pulse cauliflower florets until they resemble rice. Mix the cauliflower "rice" with grated cheese and an egg, then shape the mixture into small pizza crusts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, then top with tomato sauce, shredded cheese, and your toddler's favorite toppings before baking for an additional 5-7 minutes. Enjoy these mini cauliflower pizzas as a nutritious and fun meal for your little one!
@zenatewhat Cauliflower Mini Pizza🍕 Recipe . INGREDIENTS 240g riced cauliflower 1 large egg 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1 tsp mix herbs (I use the mix herbs blend from @littlepalates) INSTRUCTIONS In a bowl, mix together your egg, breadcrumbs riced cauliflower, and mixed herbs until well combined and sticky. (You can add another egg to get your mixture more sticky) On a lined baking sheet, form your mixture into mini pizza crusts.(I use a cookie cutter to get my desired shape) Bake at 400F for 10-15 minutes. Once baked, add your desired toppings (tomato sauce, cheese, etc) and return to the oven for another 2-3 minutes/until cheese is melted. Allow pizza to cool and enjoy! You can store unused cauliflower crusts in the freezer for a later date. . . #zenatewhat #zensplate #blwmeals #blwjourney #babyfoodie #foodbaby #babymealideas #blwrecipes #cauliflowerrecipes #recipevideo #babymeals #cauliflowerpizza #babypizza #cauliflowerthins #yumminmytummy #whatsonmyplate #babyreels #whatbabyeats #blwbreakfast #blwdinner #blwlunch #blwbreakfastideas #momsoftiktok #momsofinsta #boymom💙 #fyp #foryou #viral #toocute
4. Mini Banana Pancake
Make small, bite-sized pancakes on sticks using a pancake mix and adding mashed bananas into the batter. Serve with a side of yogurt or a fruit dipping sauce for added fun.
@chloebeesley7 Mini banana pancakes for my 1 year olds breakfast! #fyp #blwideas #blw #babyledweaning #toddler #1yearold #toddlerfood #toddlersoftiktok #toddlertok
5. Fruity Parfait Cups
Layer Greek yogurt with diced fruits like berries, mangoes, and kiwis in small cups or jars. Top with a sprinkle of granola or crushed graham crackers for added texture. It's a colorful and nutritious treat that toddlers will love to eat with a spoon!
@gariannestable Back To School Series: Parfait Cups🥝🍓🫐🍦 Ingredients: * granola mixed with honey (so it holds firmly together) * greek yogurt mixed with whipped cream (you can omit the whipped cream but it MAKES the flavor in my opinion) * chopped fruits (whatever you like! here I’m using kiwi, peach, strawberry, blueberry & blackberry) Insert liners into muffin tin and begin to layer in your ingredients! When done, pop in the freezer - make sure to cover it. Grab and go for breakfast or a quick snack! Enjoy✨ #backtoschool #backtoschoolrecipes #easyrecipe #parfait #mealprep #fyp
6. Pizza Rolls
Take two slices of mozzarella cheese and place them on a cooking tray with slices of pepperoni on top. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Once cooled, add marinara sauce on top and roll into a small wrap. Leave wrapped or slice into small bite-size pieces and serve it up!
@jorimallory Visit TikTok to discover videos!
7. Octopus Sausage Lunchable
Start by holding a sausage sideways and making two lengthwise cuts, creating four 'legs.' Then, rotate the sausage 90 degrees and make two more cuts, resulting in a total of eight 'legs.' Boil or fry the sausage until cooked, then add sesame seeds for eyes and carve out a mouth using a sharp knife. Arrange the octopus sausage on a Lunchable tray with crackers, cheese slices, and fruit for a fun and interactive meal!
@minas_recipe Tako (octopus) Sausage is a sausage cut to look like an octopus 🐙 and is a popular item to put inside a kids bento box in Japan 🇯🇵 I used Japanese sausages since they are shorter in length but you can use any kind of hot dog as long as you cut them in half! Hold the sausage sideways and cut one half of it lengthwise (not all the way). Turn the sausage over 90 degrees and slice again. Now the sausage has 4 ‘legs’. Cut again between the slits so that you have a total of 8 ‘legs’. You can either boil or fry the hot dogs. Add sesame seeds for the eyes and carve out a mouth using a sharp knife! Enjoy 🐙✨ #foodtok #recipe #toddlerlunchideas #タコウィンナー
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Aley Arion is a writer and digital storyteller from the South, currently living in sunny Los Angeles. Her site, yagirlaley.com, serves as a digital diary to document personal essays, cultural commentary, and her insights into the Black Millennial experience. Follow her at @yagirlaley on all platforms!
Claudia Jordan, Demetria McKinney & Jill Marie Jones On 'Games Women Play' & Dating Over 40
What do you get when you mix unfiltered truths, high-stakes romance, and a few well-timed one-liners? You get Games Women Play—the sizzling new stage play by Je’Caryous Johnson that’s part relationship rollercoaster, part grown-woman group chat.
With a powerhouse cast that includes Claudia Jordan, Demetria McKinney, Jill Marie Jones, Carl Payne, Chico Bean, and Brian J. White, the play dives headfirst into the messy, hilarious, and heart-wrenching games people play for love, power, and peace of mind. And the women leading this story? They’re bringing their whole selves to the stage—and leaving nothing behind.
From Script to Spotlight
The road to Games Women Play started over 20 years ago—literally.
“This script was written 20 years ago,” Jill Marie Jones said with a smile. “It was originally called Men, Money & Gold Diggers, and I was in the film version. So when Je’Caryous called me to bring it to the stage, I was like, ‘Let’s go.’” Now reimagined for 2025, the play is updated with sharp dialogue and modern relationship dynamics that feel all too real.
Demetria McKinney, no stranger to Je’Caryous Johnson’s productions, jumped at the opportunity to join the cast once again. “This is my third time working with him,” she shared. “It was an opportunity to stretch. I’d never been directed by Carl Payne before, and the chance to work with talent I admire—Jill, Claudia, Chico—it was a no-brainer.”
Claudia Jordan joked that she originally saw the role as just another check. “I didn’t take it that seriously at first,” she admitted. “But this is my first full-on tour—and now I’ve got a whole new respect for how hard people work in theater. This ain’t easy.”
Modern Love, Stage Left
The play doesn’t hold back when it comes to the messier parts of love. One jaw-dropping moment comes when a live podcast proposal flips into a prenup bombshell—leaving the audience (and the characters) gasping.
Demetria broke it down with honesty. “People don’t ask the real questions when they date. Like, ‘Do you want kids? How do you feel about money?’ These convos aren’t happening, and then everyone’s confused. That moment in the play—it’s real. That happens all the time.”
Jill chimed in, noting how the play speaks to emotional disconnect. “We’re giving each other different tokens of love. Men might offer security and money. Women, we’re giving our hearts. But there’s a disconnect—and that’s where things fall apart.”
And then Claudia, of course, took it all the way there. “These men don’t even want to sign our prenups now!” she laughed. “They want to live the soft life, too. Wearing units, gloss, getting their brows done. We can’t have nothing! Y’all want to be like us? Then get a damn period and go through menopause.”
Dating Over 40: “You Better Come Correct”
When the conversation turned to real-life relationships, all three women lit up. Their experiences dating in their 40s and 50s have given them both clarity—and zero tolerance for games.
“I feel sexier than I’ve ever felt,” said Jill, who proudly turned 50 in January. “I say what I want. I mean what I say. I’m inside my woman, and I’m not apologizing for it.”
Demetria added that dating now comes with deeper self-awareness. “Anybody in my life is there because I want them there. I’ve worked hard to need nobody. But I’m open to love—as long as you keep doing what got me there in the first place.”
For Claudia, the bar is high—and the peace is priceless. “I’ve worked hard for my peace,” she said. “I’m not dating for food. I’m dating because I want to spend time with you. And honestly, if being with you isn’t better than being alone with my candles and fountains and cats? Then no thanks.”
Channeling Strength & Icon Status
Each actress brings something different to the play—but all of them deliver.
“I actually wish I could be messier on stage,” Claudia joked. “But I think about my grandmother—she was born in 1929, couldn’t even vote or buy a house without a man, and didn’t give a damn. She was fearless. That’s where my strength comes from.”
For Jill, the comparisons to her iconic Girlfriends character Toni Childs aren’t far off—but this role gave her a chance to dig deeper. “If you really understood Toni, you’d see how layered she was. And Paisley is the same—misunderstood, but strong. There’s more to her than people see at first glance.”
Demetria, who juggles singing and acting seamlessly, shared that live theater pushes her in a new way. “Every moment on stage counts. You can’t redo anything. It’s a different kind of love and discipline. You have to give the performance away—live, in the moment—and trust that it lands.”
Laughter, Lessons & Black Girl Gems
The show has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments—and the cast isn’t shy about who steals scenes.
“Chico Bean gets a lot of gasps and laughs,” Claudia said. “And Naomi Booker? Every scene she’s in—she’s hilarious.”
But the play isn’t just about humor. It leaves space for reflection—especially for Black women.
“I hope we get back to the foundation of love and communication,” said Demetria. “A lot of us are in protector mode. But that’s turned into survival mode. We’ve lost softness. We’ve lost connection.”
Claudia agreed. “We’re doing it all—but it’s not because we want to be strong all the time. It’s because we have to be. And I just want women to know: You can have peace, you can be soft. But stop bringing your old pain into new love. Don’t let past heartbreak build walls so high that the right person can’t climb over.”
Final Act: Pack the House
If there’s one thing this cast agrees on, it’s that this play isn’t just entertainment—it’s necessary.
“Atlanta is the Black entertainment hub,” Claudia said. “We need y’all to show up for this play. Support the arts. Support each other. Because when we pack the house, we make space for more stories like this.”
Games Women Play is more than a play—it’s a mirror. You’ll see yourself, your friends, your exes, and maybe even your next chapter. So get ready to laugh, reflect, and maybe even heal—because the games are on.
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Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Relationship Timeline
Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathe are one of our favorite Hollywood couples. We can't get over their adorable moments together on the red carpet and on social media. While they're both from St. Louis, they didn't meet until college, which they both attended Stanford. And the rest is as they say, history. Read below as we dive into their decades-long relationship.
Mid to Late1990s: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Meet
Sterling and Ryan met as freshmen at Stanford University. "We were in the same dorm freshman year...that's kind of how we met," Ryan said in an interview with ET. "I was mesmerized," she said after watching him audition for the school play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Sterling revealed that The First Wives Club star was dating someone else, so they started off as friends.
"She got cast in the play as well, and we would ride bikes to rehearsal, and we would just talk. We found out that we were both from St. Louis. We didn't know that we were both from St. Louis, like, our parents went to rival high schools. We were born in the same hospital. Like, we were friends," he said.
The first few years of their relationship involved many breakups and makeups. However, they ended up graduating and attended NYU's Tisch Grad Acting Program together.
Early 2000s: Sterling K. Brown Tells Ryan Michelle Bathe She's 'The Love Of My Life'
The Paradise star opened up about telling Ryan that she was the one. "We broke up for three and a half years before we came back into each other's lives," he said. "She was on the treadmill working out, and I had this epiphany, 'I have to go tell this woman she's the love of my life.'"
"I go to her apartment, I tell her, and she's like, 'Well, I'm working out right now,' and I was like, 'No, I can see that—I'll just talk to you while you're on the treadmill,' and she's like, 'Well, I feel like going outside. So I'm gonna go on a run,'" he continued. "So I'm like dressed [in a suit], and she starts running through Koreatown, and I start running along with her. Brother had to work, but it was well worthwhile."
2006: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Tie The Knot
The St. Louis natives eloped in 2006 and a year later held a larger ceremony. According to the bride, the best part of their wedding was the food. "The best thing about it was the food," she told ET.
"Can I just say, sometimes you go to weddings, and you get the winner-winner chicken dinner and you're like, 'I pay. OK, it's fine.' But I wanted people to remember their experience -- their culinary experience. So I was happy about that. The food was good."
2011: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Welcome Their First Child
In 2011, Sterling and The Endgame actress welcomed their first son, Andrew. In a 2017 tweet, Sterling revealed they had a home birth. "An unexpected home delivery is something my wife and I went through ourselves with our first born, so this was round 2 for me!" he wrote while referring to a scene involving his character Randall, in This Is Us.
2012: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Appear On-screen Together
A year later, the couple acted together on the Lifetime series Army Wives.
2015: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Welcome Their Second Child
In 2015, Sterling and Ryan welcomed another son, Amaré. Sterling shared an Instagram post about their latest addition to the family. "1st post. 2nd child. All good! #imoninstagram," the Atlas star wrote.
2016: Ryan Michelle Bathe Joins Sterling K. Brown On 'This Is Us'
Ryan guest appears on her hubby's show, This Is Us.
Sterling K. Brown Reveals Ryan Michelle Bathe's Mother Didn't Like Him At First
During their sit-down interview for the Black Love series, Sterling revealed that Ryan's mother wasn't a fan of him, which caused friction in their relationship.
2024: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Explain How Jennifer Lopez Once Broke Them Up
While visiting The Jennifer Hudson Show, Sterling and Ryan share their hilarious Jennifer Lopez break-up story. "We had just gone out, we were living in New York City, we were in grad school, and we had gone to see a Broadway play and we came back to my place and my roommate was playing the ["Love Don't Cost A Thing"] video on MTV," Sterling said.
"Now I'm a fan of Jennifer Lopez's dancing, and I was watching the video and I knew my young...21, 22-year-old girlfriend was looking at me watch the video. And I know I'm not supposed to have a reaction. In trying NOT to have a reaction, what had happened was, my eyes began to water."
Ryan jumped in, "Otherwise known as, TEARS! I turn around and my boyfriend is weeping, tears like big fat [tears]. And I'm looking and she's just a shakin' and a shimming, and he's just crying. I said 'Oh no, I got to go.' "
2024: Sterling K. Brown & Ryan Michelle Bathe Launch Their Podcast, We Don't Always Agree
The couple launched their podcast, We Don't Always Agree, where they disclose more intimate details about their love story.
Feature image by Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock