Healthy easy dinners and tips that work for you (kid friendly)

Pricelessmommy3

now that I can smell food cooking again (yay!) I've begun making dinners for the family again, what are some easy healthy kid approved dinner you stick with? I'm so stuck in a dinner rut. 
I've been cutting out steps to make my life easier, like bag salad mix where I can add a few more veggies and my salad is done. 

We've got food allergies we deal with so we can't eat most processed easy prep meals/and can't do most casseroles type dishes ...so for those that typically make from scratch what's your go-to dinners?

our allergies are gluten, eggs and dairy...but we have subs we can work with. 

nktrodden826

Following! I have THE PICKIEST toddler ever. I have celiac and he's allergic to eggs so we're sorta in the same boat over here! 

I can always get him to have noodles and butter, chicken nuggets, bagels with peanut butter, French fries, all fruit except pineapple, and cucumbers. Everything else is like pulling teeth.. cue ALL the tantrums if I even dare put spaghetti or fish sticks in front of him. 

squirttheturtle

Pricelessmommy3 said:

now that I can smell food cooking again (yay!) I've begun making dinners for the family again, what are some easy healthy kid approved dinner you stick with? I'm so stuck in a dinner rut. 
I've been cutting out steps to make my life easier, like bag salad mix where I can add a few more veggies and my salad is done. 

We've got food allergies we deal with so we can't eat most processed easy prep meals/and can't do most casseroles type dishes ...so for those that typically make from scratch what's your go-to dinners?

our allergies are gluten, eggs and dairy...but we have subs we can work with. 

What will your kids eat/not eat?

I love Pinterest for new recipe ideas and if there is something that your family can't have (gluten, etc) you can always sub (my sister is gf so we've learned to make modifications).

Some of my favs that we've tried from Pinterest are spaghetti squash enchiladas, Philly cheese steak stuffed peppers, pad Thai, chicken fajita rollups and Shepards pie.  Most of these are 15 min to prep and then just bake.

OperaSingerMommy

Stuffed peppers are a go-to here and my 14 month old daughter will eat the stuffing without a pepper.

cut the top off bell peppers and scoop out insides
add stuffing inside peppers (black beans or cooked chicken or ground beef or turkey, rice, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chopped green onions, mozzarella cheese)
You can skip the cheese for your allergies- still delish!
bake 20 minutes on 350

usually one can of black beans (or one cup if you soak fresh beans overnight) and 1 cup of rice will make enough for 3-4 peppers

We also love salmon and DD is pretty good with fish too.  I've been struggling with the smell of meat cooking so beans, fish, and soups have been a hit around here lately.

Pricelessmommy3

@OperaSingerMommy that sounds delish! They might go for that and it sounds fun to scoop out of the pepper. 

My my go to dishes for my kids,( and toddlers), are turkey burgers, spaghetti, I made a lemon chicken pasta last night that everyone ate (I subbed coconut milk for the cream and you couldn't even tell), teriyaki chicken with rice, they love meatballs so I've done those in a gravy over mashed potatoes. We actually just ate meatballs in BBQ sauce with a salad tonight lol, Tacos with crunchy shells are always a hot over here too. 

I have have to make so many extra steps and subs for things cooking is always so much work!

Pricelessmommy3

@SquirttheTurtle I've got a really picky snacker and my other 2 come and go on what they'll eat. I have a handful of meals everyone will eat, but if 2 out of 3 eat I call dinner a success! 

I have lots of Pinterest recipes pinned so I do need to go though that more to refresh my ideas when I meal plan. I try to print out the successful recipes and add to my cookbook if my kids actually eat it. 

mrsdrmatney

I love this thread.  
Skinny Taste has great recipes and my kids (3,7,17) love the spicy peanut sauce chicken (we had this Saturday). https://www.skinnytaste.com/grilled-chicken-satay-with-spicy-peanut-sauce/

Tonight we did Rachel Ray 30 minute meal Southern Captain Chicken - it's a little curry.  https://www.thekitchn.com/dinner-recipe-country-captain-144491

Christopher Kimball has great tried and true/food science based recipes (America's Test Kitchen and now Milk Street). I am doing this one again on Wednesday:
https://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/oven-poached-salmon-with-thyme-dill-and-vermouth

Tuesday will be a throw it together Bulgogi chicken with veggies on rice noodles. 

We don't have food allergies just dietary restrictions but I think some of these could work. We are currently on a baked potato streak our 7yo loves them and we literally have them as a main meal every week and with dinners as much as we can. 

Our go to Sunday meal for the kids is making homemade pasta and meatballs the sauce can be a marinara or a Alfredo depending on the ingredients in the house but they love to roll meatballs and dough.

nktrodden826

I forgot to add my kiddo will eat taco meat so we do that fairly frequently! The biggest issue with him is one day he loves something and asks for thirds and the next time we make it it's become the nastiest thing he's ever put in his mouth (of it even gets that far- he often won't try anything which is frustrating because I know if he just tries it he'll like it!)

RunRestRepeat

My easiest go to meal is dumping a bunch of chicken breasts in the crockpot, covering with a jar of salsa (spicy, not spicy, chunky or not, totally your - or your toddler's - preference) and cook on low for about 8 hours. Pull out, shred, and serve on just about anything - our favorites are over brown rice and black beans, as tacos, or as nachos!

SPurp13

Oh, I am HERE. I do not cook, but my husband does. We just got an InstantPot, but I'm kinda seeing that it's a lot of hearty soups and stuff--does anyone have one and have HEALTHY recipes? I've already gained like a million pounds this pregnancy (ok, like 6), and I'm not even out of 1st tri. I need to do better. Christmas and leftovers for weeks killed me.

As far as toddler meals, we make and freeze ahead things. Lots in muffin tins. Things we have done so far:

Mac 'n Cheese with peas/ham (she loves it) frozen into little cups
Pasta with hidden veggies (loves it) also frozen into little cups
Pumpkin pancakes (we all love them)
Muffin Tin Omelettes (I do this for both of us)
Sweet potato/kale bites (she used to like them, we're trying them again now, so we'll see)
Southwest bean cups (I personally love them, but she doesn't)
Breakfast sausages in a blanket (she loves them)
Oatmeal cups (hit or miss, but I like them)
Mini muffin tin pizzas (loves them)
mini pot pies (loves them)
Zucchini cakes (loves them)
Southwest meatballs (hates them with a firey passion)

If anyone wants recipes, I can try to look them up. I have them all pinned.

SPurp13

mrsdrmatney said:

I love this thread.  
Skinny Taste has great recipes and my kids (3,7,17) love the spicy peanut sauce chicken (we had this Saturday). https://www.skinnytaste.com/grilled-chicken-satay-with-spicy-peanut-sauce/

Tonight we did Rachel Ray 30 minute meal Southern Captain Chicken - it's a little curry.  https://www.thekitchn.com/dinner-recipe-country-captain-144491

Christopher Kimball has great tried and true/food science based recipes (America's Test Kitchen and now Milk Street). I am doing this one again on Wednesday:
https://recipes.177milkstreet.com/recipes/oven-poached-salmon-with-thyme-dill-and-vermouth

Tuesday will be a throw it together Bulgogi chicken with veggies on rice noodles. 

We don't have food allergies just dietary restrictions but I think some of these could work. We are currently on a baked potato streak our 7yo loves them and we literally have them as a main meal every week and with dinners as much as we can. 

Our go to Sunday meal for the kids is making homemade pasta and meatballs the sauce can be a marinara or a Alfredo depending on the ingredients in the house but they love to roll meatballs and dough.

I thought you were telling us you had 3,717 kids. I was like "she must be stopped."

mrsdrmatney

@SPurp13 ha..  I love it. I love my Girl Scouts, my CASA kids but definitely do not have that many!  

cielaw89

I agree with @SquirttheTurtle about Pinterest! So many great recipes and it's really easy to define your searches or substitute what you need. 

DH and I are fans of zucchini noodles with shrimp or chicken. It's really easy to create amazingly yummy zoodle dishes with a spiralizer and some creativity. We also are big crockpot users. I love to "set and forget" for 6-8 hours. 

In the crockpot, we have done:

enchilada soup (6-8 hours)
chicken tortilla soup (6-8 hours)
mac and cheese (3-4 hours) ((we love to dump some beanless chili in for chili mac occasionally))
pulled pork w/ & w/o BBQ sauce (6-8 hours)
chili with ground beef and Italian sausage (4-8 hours)
sweet fire chicken-Panda Express inspired  (4-8 hours)
among many others...

but seriously, Pinterest is where it's at. You can even find crockpot prep recipes that you can store and then cook when you want.

dancegurl1118

One of my go-to easy peasy for everyone meals is salmon just seasoned with salt and pepper in an aluminum foil packet, at 425 for 20 min in the oven and tossed in a salad. 

nktrodden826

@SPurp13 those all sound amazing! Idk why I haven't tried these! Simply adding peas to Mac and cheese would be such an easy tweak and I'm sure my picky boy would barely notice!

thismplsgirl

Have you heard of Instantpot? There are so many allergy friendly and super quick recipe ideas on Pinterest that use the IP pressure cooker that my kids all love. Pesto pasta plus a protein, Cajun Salmon and coconut shrimp are easy things I've made recently that the kids have gobbled up.
I'm still having a smoothie each night for dinner because my nausea is still out of control.

Pricelessmommy3

I've had a pressure cooker for years and have never opened it! I got it as a gfit from my grandmother and I've heard so many people rave about them. I really need to try it out. 

mrscate88

I haven't read all the posts so forgive me if these are repeats. But I love my crockpot. You can throw in some sliced chicken, potatoes, veggies, stock and spices and have hearty soup for dinner. Super easy and delicious, my baby eats crockpot meals to no end! Also, easy one pot spaghetti with lean turkey, whole wheat pasta and sliced zucchini. Baby eats that to no end as well. I just make simple food and sneak in as many veggies as possible, and my family is always thrilled. 

Dovahkiin_99

I was finally able to cook for the first time in ages without getting nauseous. The recipe I made was one of my favourite soups, west african peanut soup. Very easy to make, quick and healthy. We finished it yesterday and I already want to make another batch. The only change I make to this recipe, is I briefly sauté the onions, ginger, and garlic before I throw it into the stock. Oh, and I use kale instead of collard greens, but that's just my preference. I also find that it turns out best when I use natural, unsalted peanut butter. 
I highly recommend it! Make sure you have good toasted bread with butter for dipping!
https://cookieandkate.com/2013/west-african-peanut-soup/ 

satsumasandlemons

RunRestRepeat said:

My easiest go to meal is dumping a bunch of chicken breasts in the crockpot, covering with a jar of salsa (spicy, not spicy, chunky or not, totally your - or your toddler's - preference) and cook on low for about 8 hours. Pull out, shred, and serve on just about anything - our favorites are over brown rice and black beans, as tacos, or as nachos!

Hey I've been meaning to ask so I'm glad this came up again - do you need to completely cover the chicken? I get salsa in a plastic pint cup (no jars) and I don't think that would completely cover the chicken. 

satsumasandlemons

@mrsdrmatney - I love Christopher kimball/ americas test kitchen!