Cheap, easy, healthy recipes for picky kiddos?

What kinds of things will your picky kids eat? I have a very picky eater who basically lives on bacon, waffles, pancakes, cheese pizza, french fries, junk (chips and candy). The only healthy things I can get him to eat are most fruit, yogurt and occasionally string cheese. He will sometimes eat tacos (crunchy shell with meat only), fried chicken legs, grilled pork chops and ribs (but who can afford to fix those very often). On rare occasion he will eat corn on the cob but no other veggies.

Anyway what we do is try to fix some kind of meat he will eat and offer fresh fruit to go with it and fix whatever else we (husband, myself and daughter) want to go with it. He will snack on more fruit later if he gets hungry.

We try to limit the junk we keep around the house as both kids will go "junking" and then won't eat meals because they filled up on garbage.

My suggestion would be fix one item you know they will eat and then whatever you want to go with it and offer fruit for dessert. Serve them a bit of everything. They will probably just eat the item they like, but you never know they may try the items you have added to the meal.

Or you can try modifying whatever you're fixing to serve both of your needs. Like if you fix them cheese quesadillas, you could make yourself a chicken, bacon and mushroom quesadilla with salsa and the fixings. Or if they only want meat and taco shells, fix yourself a nice big taco salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, meat, salsa and whatever other topping you like.

We like chicken fajitas, but son will only eat the meat. He likes it served with white rice. So we just take his chicken out before we add in all our fajita veggies and sometimes we will eat ours over rice, but most times he eats rice with his and we eat ours either just meat and veggies or served on tortillas.

What I don't do is cook two completely different meals.

If you think they are nutritionally deficit then you can try some of the pediatric protein drinks or carnation instant breakfast with frozen yogurt and blend with some fruit. If they will eat spaghetti, add V8 to the sauce to get more veggies in there (or puree veggies and put in, they will "disappear"). Try raw veggies with dip, apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on it or a side of PB. Many kids prefer raw fruits and veggies vs cooked. Try unsweetened applesauce or fruit cups in natural juices. Smart pop popcorn or pretzels are good snacks. Try cheese sticks (string, cojack, whatever). Belvita "breakfast cookies" are popular in our house with the grand kids. Great job limiting the junk food! It is easier to fill on that then eat regular food:) Hard boiled eggs? Make your own english muffin pizzas? My kids loved bean burritos (refries on soft taco shells, with or without cheese) over tacos. Worst case I told them to make there own dinner because I wasn't cooking a different one (of course that was when they were a little older:)

As a picky kid who grew into a picky adult (but eventually found at least something from each food group to eat), I second the suggestion to have them cook their own food when old enough. I not only learned to cook, but after a while, I took over most of the cooking for the family so that I always knew it was something I would eat.

Try to encourage them to come up with new combinations of the things they like and if they only say things like pizza, chicken nuggets, and fries - show them what those foods are made of and then try those foods made a different way. Find a vegetable they like (there has to be at least one!) and cook it different ways (boil, roast, steam, pan fry, etc.) and with different sauces.

A basic chicken stir fry recipe (like this one: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/02/21/a-decent-meal/) can be adjusted to many different tastes and whatever is available in your kitchen. It doesn't even have to be chicken, if you don't have any or the kids don't want chicken.

My favorite flavorful recipe right now is cooking chunks of chicken and cauliflower in italian dressing and lemon juice until all the sauce is either absorbed or cooked off, then putting it over rice. It's something easy and tasty that I came up with one day just looking through my fridge.

I do "cod cakes" and my kids love them. Boil 1 potato, when soft take out and mash. Add a bit of parsley, parmesan cheese and 1 egg. Then add about 1/2 pound of cod or any mild fish to the boiling water. When its cooked add to the potato mixture. Form the mixture into 2-3 inch cakes and press each side into panko. Pan fry in olive oil and serve with lemon wedges or ketchup. We do a salad and yellow rice on the side.