I need easy, fast, kid-friendly dinner recipes....

How about Tuna pasta bake? This is the UK version, so hope the quantities etc. make sense... This serves a family of 6 with leftovers - it keeps well in the fridge for a day or two, tastes not bad cold too and freezes and re-heats reasonably, so you could split into smaller quantities and freeze a couple of batches. The tuna can also be switched for chicken, just switch the soup for Chicken too - works best with shredded leftovers I think.

500g Elbow macaroni pasta cooked
2 small tins Tuna drained
1 tin sweetcorn drained
1 tin condensed Condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
1 tin of milk (fill the soup tin once emptied out)
Grated cheese & breadcrumbs for topping

Mix the tuna, sweetcorn and soup in a bowl - use a fork to break the tuna up into small pieces. Stir in the milk until you have a thick sauce.

Pour the sauce over the cooked pasta in a oven proof dish, stir through, top with the cheese & breadcrumbs and bake for 20-30 mins (time depends on how cold your pasta was before you added it to the sauce basically).

You can leave out the topping, pour it all into 1 pot & reheat on the stove if you want too.

It comes in around 150cals for 100gs I think.

Do you have time where you can make food ahead, and then just heat it up? I make my own burritos (which can be very healthy and pretty cheap when you use lean meat and lots of beans and veggies) and split them between the fridge and freezer...they only take 15 or so minutes to bake when thawed. Top with salsa and serve with a side, and they're great. You can also let him make his own personal pizza using whole wheat pita bread for the crust. And of course, there's always tuna mac (a can of drained tuna mixed in with shells and cheese, homemade or boxed, plus as many veggies (peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and minced carrots are my favorites) as you can fit. I also like making fried rice with leftover chicken and a bag of stir fry veggies from the freezer section. Just throw it all in a skillet with a little oil to heat it up, then add some cooked rice, soy sauce, and seasonings. You can add scrambled egg, too. The trick is having both precooked chicken and precooked rice.

I have 3 kiddos and 1 is 2 keep introducing foods as you do not want them to stay picky. My 2 year old still loves pureed baby food and does not eat other veggies well and chicken is her favorite but do keep introducing I learned my older two are not good with vegies.

Now for helpful weelicious.com love the site you should be able to find new recipes many are fast and easy also lots of them freeze well. of course preplanning and maybe weekend/day off cooking. oh the website is aimed for kids and there are no calories posted but mfp you can enter if need be.

Whenever I make dinner, I always end up having left-overs. so I always freeze the extras, so that on days when I don't feel like cooking I'll just un-thaw them and its kind of like my own frozen dinners.

I guess I was the mean mom. I would only cook one meal, if they picked at it and didnt eat then oh well. I had a picky eater too, he didnt like anything so I'd give him his dinner, if he didnt eat it he still had to sit there. Sometimes he'd eat, sometimes not. I'd always allow them to have a bowl of cereal before bedtime if they were still hungry. My boys are grown now and very health conscious and both very slim and healthy. And, neither of them are picky anymore. My youngest, the picky one, now always wants to try new things. The boy ate sea urchin sushi... seriously, that's just gross. I guess I'm the picky one now.

But if you dont want to be the mean mom, there are cookbooks out there that will offer you a myriad of new ideas.

That's how my mom was and how I plan to be. Your kids will only stay picky if you let them. Sure they're not going to like everything but if you don't make them try it they won't know. My nephew is 3 years old and all he eats is chicken nuggets, fries, and pizza. He is underweight not healthy at all. But my sister won't even try to get him to eat anything else. You don't have to be "mean" but fix dinner for everyone and if they don't like it tough cookies. As long as you make sure they do eat something, like cereal, not fries haha, they'll be fine and eventually they will start eating more and more.

Slow Cooker Chili

1/2 pound dry kidney beans or 2-3 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 pound 93/7 ground turkey
1 pound very lean ground beef
2 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. chili powder
3 1/2 c. tomato juice

1. Eight hours or so before you plan to assemble the chili, sort and wash dry beans, discarding blemished beans or debris. Cover with water in the crock and soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain.

or

1. Place the drained and rinsed canned beans in the crock.

2. Brown the meat and place in the crock.
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir. It can go in the fridge now if you want to.
4. Cook. Low: 10-12 hours. High: 5-6 hours.

Agree with the above poster that they will stay picky if you let them. My 19-year-old step-daughter was never made to eat vegetables or fruit as a child, her mother doesn't cook anything that isn't out of a box or can. I came along when she was 9 and tried to get her to eat better without much success. The only vegetable she eats is iceberg lettuce drowned in ranch dressing, occassionally some carrots, once in a great moon she will have a banana (but this is usually to make a point to me -"see, I'm eating a fruit"). Anyway, my eight-year-old does not get a choice as to whether he eats what I make. Anything new he has to have a little bit. I put his vegetables on his plate and they have to be eaten before he gets his meat and side dish. I give him one peice of veggie for every year he is old for the ones he dislikes (eight pcs broccoli, eight pcs brussels sprouts), more for the ones he does like (heaping pile of spinach, carrots, green beans). The list of foods he eats is ever expanding. My advice to moms of picky eaters: just keep pushing, it takes 15-20 times of trying something for a child to like it, makes them eat the least enjoyable first, and hide extra veggies in other places. My son hates zucchini and mushrooms, but will knowingly eat them in soup or spaghetti and ask for seconds! Just keep at it.

I like the pasta or rice packets, steam in the bag veggies, and any meat you want (shrimp is very quick and low cal). Toss the veggies in the microwave, cook the pasta and sautee the shrimp with some garlic, toss them together and you have a real meal in about 15 minutes. The crock pot is great for easy dinners, toss it all in at night, plug it in in the morning, and you have dinner when you get home.

Chicken Quesadillas!!
So easy.

Ingredients:
Canned Chicken
Monterey Jack/Cheddar/and / or Monterey cheese grated.
Salsa
Cilatro- just a pinch

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Place a layer between 2 tortilla shells (go wheat if you can), and cook in the oven at 375 for 10 min. You can pre make these too and just cover in tin foil and cook later in the day.

Dip in sour cream. So yummy. and pretty healthy.

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