Need Healthy Family Meal Ideas

mrsmartinez99

My family is at the point that they are supportive from afar. They continue to eat whatever whenever they want. I need some delicious meal ideas for a family of 4, toddler friendly (must look appeasing ), fast (two hour window to cook), and cheap (if possible). OH yeah, forgot to include HEALTHY!!

I made one meal and it was a total hit, but have yet to come up with anything just as popular. Thanks for your thoughts.

af_wife2004

I like zucchini boats (top w/pizza ingredients and bake). Roasted Buffalo cauliflower is a good side when you need some spice. I get a lot of recipes from skinnytaste.

Eire228

I don't have any specific recipes to give, but I love my Cooking Light cookbook. They are delicious meals, super easy, and list all of the calorie/nutrition information. There are plenty of kid friendly meals in there! And I know they have a bunch of recipes listed online as well.

MikaMojito

Maybe I'm being unreasonable here but we ate what Mum put on the table. If there's only healthy food there, then wildly guessing, your family will eat it.

My dinner, for example would have been fine for a family tonight. I fried cabbage in just a little butter and added just a little condensed milk instead of cream. I boiled potatoes. I served both with low-calorie sausaged. You can easily offer a larger portion to your family members and make sure you keep within your calorie-limit.

If you feel that's too harsh for your family, maybe offer a dessert for them. Maybe something you don't like anyway. I tend to keep chocolate-covered Marzipan around because I despise it but it makes a nice dessert for my partner.

WinoGelato

What was the one meal you made that was a hit? Also you said it needs to be healthy but everyone's definition of "healthy" might be different.

I have small children as well and as easy as it is to say, "just feed them what you are eating", most of the time that doesn't actually work with children. Not mine anyway. What I try to do is give them food that I know they will eat, and then also include the things that I'm making for them to try. That way they have something familiar on the plate but also something new to try. Last night I made turkey enchilada verde soup for my husband and I. It wasn't too spicy, but I had a feeling it would be a tough sell for my 3 and 6 year old boys. I made them cheese quesadillas and apple slices and then put a tiny (like basically two spoonfulls) amount of the soup in ramekins for them and asked them to taste it. They both said they liked the turkey part of it but not so much the soup part of it. So I picked out some more turkey out of the pot and put it on their plate for them to eat.

Our go to family meals are pretty basic - tacos, spaghetti, pizza, breakfast for dinner. They like stir fry, but again, what I will do is usually pull out the chicken and vegetables and serve it with plain white rice for them, then also give them a small portion that has whatever sauce I'm serving with mine.

I'm always interested in what works for other families though so if you find any slam dunk dinners, please share!

Francl27

We do a lot of grilled/baked protein (sausage, chicken, steak, pork, fish, sometimes burgers) with veggies (just boiled, or roasted, or mashed, or just frozen veggies) and some potatoes/pasta/rice on the side. It doesn't get more kid friendly than that, it's balanced, easy to make, and I don't have to go through the headache of entering everything in the recipe calculator. Sometimes (not often enough) we make breakfast for dinner (eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, toast).

Random recipes my kids have liked, all from skinnytaste- turkey meatloaf, cheeseburger casserole (I just omit the pickles, daughter whined quite a bit before trying it though), chicken cordon bleu, chicken nuggets. But frankly they always find something they don't like in recipes, heck even my shepherd's pie, they'd eat everything separately, but together... nope. So often when I want to make something different, I just give them a sandwich or chicken nuggets for dinner (I know, mother of the year) and we have that more 'fancy' meal.

mrsmartinez99

Kruggeri wrote: »

What was the one meal you made that was a hit? Also you said it needs to be healthy but everyone's definition of "healthy" might be different.

I have small children as well and as easy as it is to say, "just feed them what you are eating", most of the time that doesn't actually work with children.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. Never heard of skinnytaste, will have to definitely look up some recipes from there.

The recipe I tried and they liked was The Mexican Chicken & Rice Casserole-one serving is perfect and filling. I'll email you the ingredients and the recipe.

Yes, my daughter is the one I have the most trouble with. I was raised in a similar household of "don't' like=don't eat" My son and husband give me no problems, but my 3 yr. old is picky and very dramatic. If you have a drama queen, you will know exactly what I am dealing with. I am wasting more time fighting with her to eat than taking time to exercise, or anything else for me. I will just have to be more creative with what I make.