Kid-Friendly Dinner Recipes

Define 'kid unfriendly'? My kids eat what we eat pretty much.

Well most recipes I know take some work. Honestly in a pinch we just grill some meat or sausage on the foreman grill and nuke some frozen veggies, lol (and will boil some egg noodles if we have time).

My kids eat whatever we eat. That's not to say they always like it... and when they genuinely don't and have tried what's been prepared, I'll make them a pb&j.

Some of our weeknight favorites are tacos, meatloaf with a side of veggies, baked chicken fingers, and pasta. As long as I'm measuring and logging my portions, I find I'm able to stay within my macros, and still prepare meals everyone enjoys. Since I'm a carb fanatic, I've had to stop making carb-heavy side dishes with every meal. We still have pasta (often) and I still have carbs throughout the day, because they're not bad. But I've gotten so that a meat and a side of veggies comprises the whole dinner, rather than requiring a side of mashed potatoes, noodles, bread, etc. Also, I love me some pinterest for recipe ideas.

Mine eat mostly whatever we eat as well! It's true though, they don't always like what my husband and I eat, that's when we break out the grilled cheese & turkey sandwiches, ha.

On a weekly basis we will include taco night (we purchase the fiesta flat taco things to save calories), chicken stir fry with rice, breakfast for dinner night (scrambled eggs, bacon, a pancake), hamburgers (we buy the pre-packaged, pre-made ones), grilled chicken with veggies, salmon with veggies + carb (the kids don't usually like this one, though), goulash (hamburger meat, potatoes, corn + zucchini).

Edit: www.allrecipes.com has a lot of kid friendly recipes, and I think they have a specific kid-friendly area on the website. There's even a search where you can enter ingredients that you have on hand and it'll pull up recipes that fit.

Well, this might not be what you are looking for - but I treat myself to one "fatty" mid week meal a week.... and actually this one really isnt fatty, it's my boyfriends fav.

I saute an onion, chopped green pepper, and tons of chopped garlic in some EVO. The I add a package of jenny-Os lean ground turkey and brown it. Then i throw in a can of diced tomatoes (with the liquid portion) and a little bit of sauce or paste just to thicken it, but just a little.

I heap this on a HUGE pieve of italian bread for my BF (whos very active and can ise all the extra food he can get) - I usually skip the bread, or just have a very small pieve. i call it "healthy sloppy joe". A descent portion of it is about 320 calories without the bread - and i mean a decent sized portion :-)

Last week I made us pizza, which netted at 420 calories... but, i did have a ginormous piece. i used crusty bread and sliced it the long way, so I got alot of crust and not alot of "meat" as in bread meat... Topped it with pesto, a ton of sliced tomatoes, then some thick chunks of fresh motzarella and baked it for a while in the over. YUM.

I also do a ziti once in a while - which feeds him for four more days, so its great. This one has pasta though - so a cup and a half of it is about 420 calories... I use tomatoe and/or wheat pasta. Boil it till aldente. Brown up some lean turkey in onions and garlic. Get a can of tomatoe sauce and layer the bottom of a greased glass pan, throw in a layer of pasta, a layer of turkey, a layer of sauce. I then use "light" ricotta and greek yogurt mixed - spoon some of that on there, layer more pasta, meat, sauce, you get it...then top with fresh motz.

Im also a big advocate of "taco salad" which I make sunday and eat all week - which is again ground turkey, half a packet of taco seasoning...and I put it over a lettuce bed and switch it up by either mixing in fat free re freidn beans or corn. Instead of sour cream I use greek yogurt and garlic salt, and sometimes i throw some avacado in there... Add some rice and youve got dinner - throw it on a buritto and the kids will love it.