Kid friendly healthy recipes?

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killer_cupcake
killer_cupcake Posts: 45 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My kids are super picky they eat no veggies what so ever accept for maybe corn! Any good recipes that are healthy ? My 3 year old is a tad but over weight so they doctor suggested eating healthier which I totally want to do I don't want her to end up on the same road as me. Any ideas? Budget friendly please?

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  • JWB42
    JWB42 Posts: 112
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    Hide the veggies (for now) and then slowly integrate them in their meal because we all need our veggies.

    How do you hide them you ask?? EASY. Shred carrots and put them in your spaghetti sauce. They'll never notice! Also you can shred zucchini and put it in lots of dishes. If they like mashed potatoes, sub half the potatoes with cooked cauliflower. I would look up healthy recipes for kids and play with it. skinnytaste.com has TONS of easy recipes. Look for the 'Healthy Cookie' recipe. 3 ingredients and SO EASY TO MAKE.
    Good luck!
    Also, I found that we LOVE ground turkey. It's a good substitute for ground beef, it use it when making tacos, spaghetti, meatloaf. Try it and see what they think. Also, I bet they would love to help you in the kitchen when you have time. Maybe they could help you make their favorite meal more healthy!
  • StarPanic85
    StarPanic85 Posts: 45 Member
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    My 7yr old is the same way but super picky. I don't know what to do. He won't eat meat unless it is chicken nuggets or fish sticks. They have to be like that or he will not touch it. We have tried to explain how grilled chicken or fish is the exact same thing except without the breading...won't touch it. Only veggies he likes is corn, peas and sweet potatoes. Won't touch anything else. He looks at his food if it looks different than it usually is, he will not touch it. He won't eat any kind of sauce. The only things he will eat is chicken nuggets, fish sticks, sweet potato fries, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwhich(no jelly), and mac n cheese...that is it. He is overweight. He gets picked on. He won't exercise, he won't go on walks with us, he hates going outside. He starts whining that his leg hurts. I don't know what to do. Doc told me to take all the junk out of the house, we tried that...he wouldn't eat. I am not going to starve him. So I am giving him smaller portions, less milk and trying to get him to drink more water :(
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
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    Ok, this video was almost painful to watch because these kids diets were so poor but there was a lot of time devoted to introducing vegetables and changing eating habits. I don't have kids so I really don't know if the advice and steps they took are really practical or would even apply to your situation but here's the link if you're interested. Best wishes.

    Fast Food Baby
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG-4H6EqlZ4
  • StarPanic85
    StarPanic85 Posts: 45 Member
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    Ok, this video was almost painful to watch because these kids diets were so poor but there was a lot of time devoted to introducing vegetables and changing eating habits. I don't have kids so I really don't know if the advice and steps they took are really practical or would even apply to your situation but here's the link if you're interested. Best wishes.

    Fast Food Baby
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG-4H6EqlZ4

    Barley starting to watch it now and can't believe how much grease and coke they give those kids wow. I know my son doesn't eat healthy but he is not allowed coke, I don't not fry any of his food, its all baked. And no fast food.
  • angelac1296
    angelac1296 Posts: 48 Member
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    If my kids didn't eat it, they went hungry. Period. No snacks if they didn't at least take 3 small bites of whatever was for dinner. They skipped a meal or two, but they did not die of starvation. (I also never made them 'clean their plates', if a person is full they should not force themselves to eat more because kids starve in other countries, what goes in my families stomachs or compost doesn't help starving kids at all)

    They're teens now, and they don't put as many veggies on their plates as I would like, but they know they won't get something else so they eat enough to not feel hungry. My youngest is overweight, but his issue is a lack of exercise, not picky eating.

    I forgot to mentions, allrecipies.com has a kid friendly section, maybe you can get some ideas there!
  • killer_cupcake
    killer_cupcake Posts: 45 Member
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    Thank you everyone it's a challenge but I know we will get there!
  • bowbeforethoraxis
    bowbeforethoraxis Posts: 138 Member
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    For the little girl I watch (60+ hours a week, so I deal with all meal-time frustrations), she usually gets 3 or 4 different things in a meal, and I make sure at least two of them are things she loves. She'll eat the things she likes, then usually wants more of those, but I make her eat some (usually three big bites, or five small bites if she tries to just eat a tiny bit) of whatever she hasn't touched before she can have anymore of what she wants. Sometimes it means telling her she has to have three bites of chicken before she can have more carrots, sometimes it means she has to eat three pieces of broccoli before she gets more yogurt. We also talk about how the food we eat makes us feel good and grow and get strong, so even though she's a toddler, she's still learning about nutrition.

    Also, I'm not sure how old your kids are, but when I was watching a 4 and 9 year old, they were both fairly picky and used to getting completely different meals because they liked different foods. Maybe I'm a horrible nanny, but I don't put up with things like that, so I let one choose a recipe for a side, and the other choose a recipe for a main dish, and I chose a recipe for another side, and we rotated every day. They each had something they wanted, they felt like they were winning because they still got to have a say in what they ate, and I wasn't making six different things for two kids. Maybe something like that could work?
  • bowbeforethoraxis
    bowbeforethoraxis Posts: 138 Member
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    Oh, also, generally if the kid chose the recipe, it meant they would like eating it. The kids enjoyed eating it even more when they helped make it. And I made them try everything (even if it was only one bite), and talked about respect, and nice ways to say no thank you and all that.
  • oliviaboston
    oliviaboston Posts: 27 Member
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    May not be the healthiest recipe ever, but oil free chips are really good and the kids wont realise that they are eating something healthier than a regular portion of chips.

    Basically cut up a large jacket potato (peeled) in to chip shapes. you can get about 24 out of one large potato so thats all you need. Par boil them for about 4-5 minutes then drain. then add to a baking tray and spray some fry light on covering the chips then add salt pepper and paprika and bake for 20 minutes. they taste really good and are millions of times better for you than regular chips!
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
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    I took a lot of my kids' favorite foods and just made it healthier. Grilled chicken nuggets instead of breaded and fried and baked French fries. I never had too much trouble with vegetables but I believe that is because my mom had a garden and they loved picking the vegetables and just eating them dirt and all. If you have a patio or small garden maybe try planting some herbs and sugar snap peas.
  • DisneyAddictRW
    DisneyAddictRW Posts: 800 Member
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    Hide them in dishes to start. My kids love having a dish of veggies and then make faces with them. We'll also build a train using celery, raisins, and peanut butter. Anything to make it fun.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    stop letting your kids dictate what you feed them.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I serve my kids spinach salad almost every meal. They have to eat it or they don't get anything else the rest of the night. It took a while for each of them to like it (it's a weird texture for babies learning to eat real foods) but they all like it now. They also really like raw cucumbers, sugar snap peas, carrots and black olives.

    Other kid friendly health things I make:
    Pizzas with whole wheat english muffins for crust
    Spaghetti with turkey meat
    Red beans and rice with chicken sausage
    Fish nuggets made with shake and bake and sweet potato french fries
    Nitrate free hot dogs, usually in chicken or turkey
  • atiana19
    atiana19 Posts: 94 Member
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    Mac and cheese is great for hiding veggies and meats..I buy the healthier version like Aunt Annies and then I sneak in tuna or chopped chicken and broccoli thats been pureed. They only notice the color is a bit greener than usual lol but the taste is the same. Or try smoothies with choc carnation instant breakfast powder, milk,kale and ice . My kids even know that I put the kale in there and dont mind because it tastes like chocolate...just experiment and make them at least taste it they will probably be pleasantly surprised.
  • mrs_jorgenson
    mrs_jorgenson Posts: 10 Member
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    I really like weelicious.com, for good and healthy lunch ideas. Anything my kid helps me make, usually gets devoured. Do you think your children would like to grate, chop (with assistance), or even load stuff into a blender? I really love the Klutz children's cookbook, it comes with measuring spoons and my son likes it a lot.
    Also, my kid must at least try everything on his plate, and I usually serve him vegetables and meat first, so he fills up on the good stuff. I heard that the average kid needs to try something 7 to 10 times before he will eat it! So I say persistence is key, too! Good luck!
  • fionarama
    fionarama Posts: 788 Member
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    My pet peeve in today's world is how there seems to be "children's" food and "adults " food. When I was growing up we all ate the same, just smaller amounts. and yeah, some of us picked at our greens or didn't like pumpkin or whatever but no one really made a fuss, and one day the child grew out of it and started eating veges. We didn't expect a dessert after each and every meal and ice creams and coke were were parties and special occasions only.
    Sounding like an old granny but really I get so angry about the way many kids eat these days.
    Someone earlier on suggested ground turkey, thats also my go to. It halves the calories and fats of beef mince, but many many family favourites are based on tomato ground meat dishes - lasagne, pasta, with mash potato, with sweet potato, with rice, with rice noodles. I make my daughter spagetti bolognaise but with turkey bolognaise and wholemeal spagetti, she loves it and its totally nutritious. Loads of veges chopped through the meat sauce.
    Those Uncle Ben rice packets are great, as a side dish with some grilled fish and veges once again a good nutritious meal for both adults and children.
    I am flabergasted at the idea of pureeing normal nutritious food like tuna, chicken or brocolli? Why???
    Another issue I think is that kids really want to eat food which is easy to eat nowadays, like pasta for instance. Pasta should not be the base of every meal, potatoes are so much more nutritious.
    The main thing is keep away from the super processed foods and no junk in between meals . Too many kids won't eat basic normal food such as potatoes or grilled meat, as they are so used to chicken only being presented as nuggets, fish only presented as fish fingers etc. So I don't agree with making healthier versions of these things, I believe any child should happily eat a simple grilled chicken leg, with potato mash and peas as an example which is very nutritious and good for a growing child. They shouldn't have to have chicken nuggets with baked chips and peas in silly shapes or faces just to get them to eat.
    Ooooohhhh really I could rant all night about this one!!!!
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    My pet peeve in today's world is how there seems to be "children's" food and "adults " food. When I was growing up we all ate the same, just smaller amounts. and yeah, some of us picked at our greens or didn't like pumpkin or whatever but no one really made a fuss, and one day the child grew out of it and started eating veges. We didn't expect a dessert after each and every meal and ice creams and coke were were parties and special occasions only.

    Ooooohhhh really I could rant all night about this one!!!!

    AMEN
    That's how I grew up. (and no you don't sound like an old granny- I'm not anywhere near granny stage and I fully back this post)

    And were I to decide to have vagina spawn of my own (which I do not intend to) they would eat what I ate- or they wouldn't eat at all.

    Period. I"m not making you a special meal you rug rat. You eat what the rest of us eats or you go to bed hungry- then for breakfast you can have what you didn't eat the night before.

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