Parents of little ones...

Autumn_P
Autumn_P Posts: 101 Member
in Recipes
Do you have any recipes that your kids love? My 6 year old can be very picky, I'm trying to put together a list of meals or snacks to try. :smile:

Replies

  • raylenebrooks
    raylenebrooks Posts: 137 Member
    weelicious.com
    I have made many but all 3 kids from 12-2 like the oat wheat pancakes
    the granola bars and balls and rice crispwee I might have the names off but the site is easy to navigate
    Oh yeah the chocolate chip cookies are always frozen raw in my freezer

    for just simple I have found grilled chicken goes over well with all my oldest 2 are picky the youngest I learned introduce over and over she is much better
  • peggyalex
    peggyalex Posts: 174 Member
    if your kids like tacos or quesadillas here is a really easy one............taked canned chicken breast and a tortilla, put some of the chicken in the totilla, some cheese, some taco seasoning and some taco sauce, spray skilled with cooking spray, fold tortilla in half and cook in skilled for 3-4 min on each side, done.............my kids love them and if you use whole wheat tortilla shells and reduced fat cheese they aren't to bad for you. Good luck! Its hard to feed picky eaters.........trust me I know I have 4 boys! :)
  • punkrockmama
    punkrockmama Posts: 142 Member
    If they're picky there's little you can do to force them to change! Don't stress out about it and make sure you keep introducing them to new options. My oldest will turn an item down 10-20 times before deciding she actually does like it!
    If you're trying to make more healthful meals/snacks then my biggest suggestion is to stick to what they like, but beef up the health quotient. For instance: Instead of boxed mac n cheese, make it using whole grain pasta or something like Barilla Plus and fresh cheese. Make veggies and different sauces to dip them into...like ranch dressing using greek yogurt. Fruit smoothies, cheese sticks, grilled anything usually goes down easily in my house! Apple slices, whole grain breads, homemade mini pizzas using whole foods, tortilla roll-ups filled with a variety of options, (turkey and cheese, apples and pb, veggies and hummus, etc.)
    And if you try something new require them to try it before allowing them to get something else.
    Also, we offer our kids veggies at every meal, although they don't always eat them. I don't force them to eat anything, ever. That seems incredibly counterproductive to me.
  • felice03
    felice03 Posts: 2,644 Member
    If they're picky there's little you can do to force them to change! Don't stress out about it and make sure you keep introducing them to new options. My oldest will turn an item down 10-20 times before deciding she actually does like it!
    If you're trying to make more healthful meals/snacks then my biggest suggestion is to stick to what they like, but beef up the health quotient. For instance: Instead of boxed mac n cheese, make it using whole grain pasta or something like Barilla Plus and fresh cheese. Make veggies and different sauces to dip them into...like ranch dressing using greek yogurt. Fruit smoothies, cheese sticks, grilled anything usually goes down easily in my house! Apple slices, whole grain breads, homemade mini pizzas using whole foods, tortilla roll-ups filled with a variety of options, (turkey and cheese, apples and pb, veggies and hummus, etc.)
    And if you try something new require them to try it before allowing them to get something else.
    Also, we offer our kids veggies at every meal, although they don't always eat them. I don't force them to eat anything, ever. That seems incredibly counterproductive to me.


    this! it just turns into a battle of wills. I look at my three y.o. diet more on a weekely level instead of daily. she will eat little for days and then eat everything in sight. I offer her good choices and she can choose to eat them or not...if she doesn't, than she doesn't.
  • christy_frank
    christy_frank Posts: 680 Member
    Salsa meatloaf recipe from Betty Crocker.
  • his_kid1
    his_kid1 Posts: 177 Member
    I started giving them small portions of each thing I was serving. In order to get a bigger portion of the thing they love, they need to try 2 bites of their less favorite things. They had gotten to be REALLY picky, where my 5yo would not eat any fruit except a banana, or any vegetable except canned green beans (which I hate even serving). He's still picky, but his diet has opened up quite a bit, so it is working.
  • thekacks
    thekacks Posts: 146 Member
    My one son (7) HATES veggies. But I make a veg soup with lots of cabbage, cubed ham, zuchini, asparagus, yellow squash, tomatoes, celery, onion soup mix, split peas, and barley. He loves it... I put carrots in it too but those I do have to remove from his bowl lol. Also I make fruit smoothies with 1 banana, 1 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 kiwi, 1/2 cup greek nonfat yogurt, and add 1 cup of spinach. Both my boys love it... and that makes 3 servings of about 6 ounces:) You don't taste the spinach at all because of the banana:)
  • ShannonMarie81
    ShannonMarie81 Posts: 88
    I have the same problem with my 6 year old son...

    bump..........
  • shanlynt
    shanlynt Posts: 718 Member
    My four year old is extremely picky and it stresses me out. I know that picky eaters are made, not born. I know he'll grow out of it eventually but still.
  • Diary_Queen
    Diary_Queen Posts: 1,314 Member
    I make homemade chicken nuggets a lot....and it's taken a long time to find veggies that my kids like, but I've found if I roast them in the oven, they like them a whole lot more. My boys (both 7 y.o.) hate beans.... so if I make chili with beans in it, I take 1/2 the amount of beans and smash them until unrecognizeable and put them in with the mix... they eat them without knowing and often accidentally forget that they don't like beans and eat the rest anyway. I've run the gamut on beans though... black, white, pink, brown, little, big, smashed, boiled, in dishes, beside dishes, on dishes. Sometimes it just take a while. My boys do love asparagus with lemon pepper, but only the fresh kind... never out of a can & roasted fresh brussel sprouts & broiled or boiled broccoli. Still working on things like eggplant and zucchini.
  • beckyinma
    beckyinma Posts: 1,433 Member
    my kids both love grilled chicken caesar salad with croutons (40 cals for 5 croutons). THe chicken is grilled, and rubbed with Mrs. Dash garlic & herb seasoning and served warm with Ken's light creamy caesar over romaine, with some parmesan sprinkled on.

    They also enjoy Chili lately, which is weird because my son hates beans.

    Grilled chicken breast with just about any mrs. dash seasoning.

    Turkey tacos, they get tacos, I make a taco salad for myself with a shell, or a few chips broken up over the salad,

    my 'dressing' consists of salsa, light sour cream, ff refried beans OR part of a Morning Star Farm chipolte bean burger mashed up, a little mexican cheese and some guac, all mixed together over lettuce and tomatoes. (squeeze a tsp of bbq sauce for some extra flavor)


    Sautee up some chicken breast with steamed spinach, feta, and Hannah or Joseph's/Cedars tzatziki, with some evoo and garlic. serve it over rice. they loved that one.

    Last week we had sauteed mahi mahi, sprinkled with mrs. dash, a little parm, and evoo. served with steamed spinach and brown rice. The spinach always has a spray of butter or a little parm or feta for the kids. I like it that way too. They are really starting to like spinach, which I hated as a kid.

    My kids re 7 and 9 now and have become much more adventurous within the last year. :)
  • minussam
    minussam Posts: 127 Member
    My 3 year old seems to be only picky at home! Him and I are both very headstrong so I try to avoid battles of the wills. I agree with not forcing them to eat up their plate. I have found some recipes from the sneakychef (you can google her). She sneaks veggies/fruits/whole grain into every day meals. I will do that and as well offer the offending veggies because I want him to learn that veggetables are part of the meal. However, if he doesn't eat them (or only very little) I don't stress out any more because I iknow he just ate x amount of veggies hidden in his meal. I've just started and it has made our meals a bit more pleasant already.
    The other things that works for us is dip (greek yoghurt with ranch) and giving raw vegetables when he's super hungry right when we come home from daycare.
  • Autumn_P
    Autumn_P Posts: 101 Member
    Thanks for all of the great ideas and suggestions. A few weeks ago I made a cauliflower crust pizza and my son loved it! He woke up the following morning asking me for more. I made it again a week later and he hated it! He does this to me all the time!
  • rukelly
    rukelly Posts: 3 Member
    I have a Facebook blog page that I post to daily with mainly lunches, but also snack and dinner ideas. I believe all kids can be good eaters if we approach food the right way! They will only eat what we give them, so keep it healthy and keep offering previously rejected foods, and teach by example! :)

    http://www.facebook.com/whataremykidseating
  • minussam
    minussam Posts: 127 Member
    Thanks for all of the great ideas and suggestions. A few weeks ago I made a cauliflower crust pizza and my son loved it! He woke up the following morning asking me for more. I made it again a week later and he hated it! He does this to me all the time!

    the unpredictability gets me every time, too

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