Suffering for inspiration lately on chef duties for the kids – we had cheesy beans on toast for dinner last night. Wasn’t bad tbf, but I need some new ideas – what’s a quick, healthy and tasty dinner for a 6 and 3 yo?

My safe bet, as well as the aforementioned cheesy beans, on toast, or with baked spuds, is chicken tortillas

They have the added benefit of putting them together themselves. Just supply them with cooked chicken, flour tortillas, salsa, sour cream, grated cheese, salad, and leave them to make them themselves. Be warned… this will get messy! But they’ll enjoy it, and they’ll eat it! And its reasonably healthy

Dominos pizza.

bread, meat, veg, even fish !… anything you want…

donuts covers dessert too.

the same as you have?

(not trying to be ‘funny’, honest)

I’ve worked at home for the past 7 years and have always cooked dinner – the kids just get the same as my wife and I. Cottage pie, spag bol, chilli (without too much chilli – we just sprinkle fresh chilli on ours to spice it up), chops, baked spuds, anything really.

Kids always used to like ‘bacon and potato pie’ which is just chopped grilled bacon with layered with sliced potato and cheese melted on top. Serve it up with some veg.

Rice with peas sauteed onions, peppers and fish fingers. Add some chickpeas and a sprinkle of Garam masala to max it out.

Lamb chops, sautéed pots, and veg of choice:

Lamb, 20 mins in oven at 180. Boil up little pots and then fry/burn then in pan, add veg. Add gravy if that’s what they like.

Current quick kids faves;

Macaroni cheese with cauliflower, broccoli and ham in it, sort of a pasta bake.
Pesto pasta – and add in what you want (chicken, broccoli etc)
Prawns rice and peas (stir fry prawns in butter and garlic and add to rice and peas)
Mini ‘roast’ – stir fry or bake (in foil) a chicken breast, par boil and thinly slice potatos and fry (almost dry fry) in a small amount of olive oil plus veg
Meze – pitta, humus, chopped carrot and cucumber

fish fingers / chicken dippers always a winner.
My little girl loves finger food so sliced pepperm carrots and tomatoes with some cheese.

Spaghetti with Pesto and Peas

Cook spaghetti and add frozen peas with 5 mins to go, drain off, stir in pesto (& cream Cheese if you fancy) and your good to go. If you haven’t added the cream cheese, grated cheddar or parmesan on top.

10 minutes, one pan, minimal faff. and relatively healthy 🙂

Pizza? Make your own, or buy ready made, pizza bases, add pizza sauce (home made or shop bought), pile on the veg, add cheese (or just olive oil), into a hot oven–best tea ever!

Chicken Kiev, chips, veg
Curly pasta, spinnach & philadelphia cheese (massive fave)
Tuna Pasta bake
Sausage mash & veg
Pasta carbonara
Chicken in tomato sauce with rice & veg
Meatballs/burger with mash and veg covered in horseradish gravy
Roast chicekn/beef/whatever
Fajitas
Steak & chips
Chinese takeout!
Macaroni cheese (what I’m making tonight)
Pasta, fried chicken, chorizo, green pesto & parmesan cheese
etc.

bangers and mash is always a winner

the same as you have?

(not trying to be ‘funny’, honest)

I’ve worked at home for the past 7 years and have always cooked dinner – the kids just get the same as my wife and I. Cottage pie, spag bol, chilli (without too much chilli – we just sprinkle fresh chilli on ours to spice it up), chops, baked spuds, anything really.

Kids always used to like ‘bacon and potato pie’ which is just chopped grilled bacon with layered with sliced potato and cheese melted on top. Serve it up with some veg.

+1

Never subscribed to this ‘kids meals’ and adults meals. just gives them an excuse to kick off when you serve something ‘different’.

But less sanctimoniously – use your Google – hundreds of recipes out there to inspire.

My kds are fussy as hell.. I dunno what went wrong

Spag bol is always a sure fire hit and another winner is mashed spuds, broccoli carrots with baked fresh fish fillets..

There’s a concoction my Mum always called ‘Schoolboy’s Dinner’ which I loved, when my son was young he loved it too and we still eat it now. It may be no good for this evening but this is basically it:

Get a large ovenproof dish

Chopped onion lightly fried
Sausages browned
Bacon cut up into (about) 1 inch chunks – lightly cooked
Tin of baked beans
Tin of tomatoes
Worcester Sauce
Pepper to season
(Mushrooms can go in there too if desired)
Chuck them all in the dish together, put them in the oven at a lowish temperature and cook slowly for several hours. As you get to within an hour or so of eating, turn it up.

Serve with baked potatoes.

it is a great post (winter) ride meal too.

ours have a nice curry lined up for tonight.. 4 and 7

Get a cookbook – My Daddy Cooks has been a favourite in our house when they were younger. proper recipes but simple enough that they can help to cook it too.

They eat better when they’ve taken some pride in making it themselves.

http://www.mydaddycooks.com

Puff pastry parcels are good – ready-made pastry, bit of cheese, ham and beans inside, bake for a bit. Nom.

Sorry, a Mum here, but my husband has the following repertoire…

Pesto Pasta
Waffles and fried eggs
Fishcakes (frozen), Mash (microwave), Veg (micro steam veg)
Cheese omlette

I tend to push the boat out a little more, tonight it’s Chorizo and butterbean stew, serve in wraps with cheese.

http://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/butter-bean-paprika-and-chorizo-stew.html

Oh and in my house they’ll eat absolutely anything if it’s accompanied by both cheese and mayonnaise 🙄

Lasagne.

Shepherd’s Pie.

Bolognese.

Chilli.

Curry.

Our kids love tortilla wraps with allsorts in (not the liqourice ones..), but veg chilli, cheese, humus, guacamole – all sorts of good stuff.
Hidden veg tomato sauce for pasta etc – make a tomato type pasta sauce adding veg (peppers, courgette etc) and liquidise.
Mac cheese
Passanda/Korma type curries (on hob as I type)
Fish

Bangers and mash. Right now. Onion gravy too….nom nom

My 4 y.o. grandson loves making bread with me. Prefers doing it all by hand, not using the Kenwood Chef and it’s great to see the dough going from a squidgy mess to a less sticky ball. You need twice as much as you think as most of it gets lost in the process. Mostly on the floor and on clothes.

Cottage pie is also a hit. Both making and eating.

chicken portions, onion, garlic, chorizo, bit of smoked paprika in oven, serve with potatoes and veg of choice.

Healthy = Whatever you eat

Fun = Get the kids to poke dried spaghetti through hot dogs, boil in pan, make up a simple tomato sauce, eat the spider sausage contraptions that you have made

dried spaghetti through hot dogs,

Like that – tomorrows camping hut fodder sorted I reckon, ta

Spag bol, home made pizza and saucy sausage pasta are the top 3 in our house

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1487/saucy-sausage-pasta

We ease up on the chilli powder and garlic but chuck in a few mushrooms and peppers too if we have them.

Pasta bake the current new fave here

Staples of fish fingers, baked potatos, sausages, panini with something tasty on the side

Aldi pizza tonight – MrsMC was cooking mind.

Getting them to eat what you eat asap is something we wish that we had done, but coming from a long line of fussy eaters, MrsMC thinks cooking 2-3 different meals at once is normal.

We love rice and mince – rice cooked with veg stock cube – mince cooked either english (onions, mushrooms bit of diced carrot) or chinese-ish (soy sauce and garlic) – with stir fry pack of veg) all the excess liquid drained off then mix the 2 together.

Another fav is chicken noodle stew.

add in a load of chicken thighs (or I often use a leftover roast chicken – can do this raw or pre-cooked) to a big pan. Chopped to whatever size the kids like, add water, and start to boil up, add chicken stock cubes and you can keep european (herbs de provance) or go chinese-ish with soy sauce and garlic.

get to the boil for 5 mins (pre-cooked or chopped small), 10 mins for raw. If you want remove the flesh from the bone.

Then add loads of chopped/small veg (sweet corn, carrots, mange tout, onions, scallions (save some for the end) etc, whatever is handy except spuds.

boil for 5 mins.

Add a shed load of egg noodles, we like medium and boil for another 5 mins. SImple 1 pan cooking, I like to add an egg to mine that the hot water cooks.

another is pasta cooked up, then add a tin of sardines (slightly mashed) and a tin of tomatoes and 3-4 blocks frozen spinach along with a splash of lee& perrins

Pasta and simple cheese sauce (grate cheese and Parmesan, add flour and mix, then add to pan of milk, bring to gentle boil stirring all the time, soon as you see the first bubble stop heating keep stirring). then add garlic italian herbs and either bacon lardons/panchetta which has been cooked chrispy.

cheers Paulosoxo 😀

ps. if you’re doing cheezy beanos (Cheese and beans on toast) remember to do smiley faces on each one with squeezy tomato ketchup/brown sauce. (add half a cherry tomato to make each one a nose if you’re feeling extra healthy 😉 )

High GI potatoes and cheese seem very popular.
No wonder obesity rates are so high

Dried spaghetti hot dog contraption is teh bizness

Pasta, tomato sauce or whizzed up tinned tomato, ham/chorizo, peas, sprinkled cheese.

yetidave – Member
ours have a nice curry lined up for tonight.. 4 and 7
POSTED 4 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Aren’t you the clever boy? How about a recipe or more details? Children do eat curry you know? Yours aren’t special.

Anyway… Our girls like poached salmon, noodles (bung shit-loads of soy and honey over them) , toasted sandwiches (tuna + cheese a fave at the moment) beans, beans, beans.

Ohh and curry, they like that too – especially as a night out at the local curry house. 5 and 5 years old.

Hot dog pasta was a favourite with mine when younger, generally with peas or sweet corn

coca cola chicken

My dad was an ex sailor so we grew up with Cheesy hammy eggie, skinheads on a raft, babies heads, elephants footprints etc. always raised a smile

Omelette tonight, quick and easy.

The old “do your own topping” jus-roll pizza works a treat too as it’s a bit more “interactive”… Anything you can cook in twenty minutes is a winner.