Dinners for Kids

Loire

Hi,

We have two kids (4 & 2). Does anyone have any tried and tested meals that can be prepared in advance (evening before) and simply re-heated the following evening that kids like? I find it a bit hit and miss at the moment. We have them in a good creche and they get very good meals but we are thinking of taking them out of the creche in Sept and need to replace these meals with something decent ourselves!

Thanks!
Loire.

LaChatteGitane

I don't know what your kids like, but most kids I know just eat what their parents eat just much smaller portions.
Make nutritional meals with plenty of veg.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

The Big Red Button

I'd agree that you should do your best to get your kids in the habit of eating whatever you're eating, but smaller portions.

If you're looking for convenience, one idea might be to buy lots of assorted veg. Chop it all up, cook it, and stir it in with passata, garlic and herbs to make a nice sauce. Divide it into portions, and freeze it.

You can then thaw it as required. Fry up a bit of chicken/mince/whatever, and mix it in with the veg sauce. If you want, you could serve it with pasta/rice/potatoes/quinoa as well ... if you use plenty of veg, though, it should be filling enough on its own.

The Hill Billy

There are several threads on this topic already. Use the forum search function to look for "family dinners", "bulk meals", etc.

tHB

Loire

The Hill Billy wrote: »

There are several threads on this topic already. Use the forum search function to look for "family dinners", "bulk meals", etc.

tHB

Thanks tHB I'll do a search. I suppose what I'm really looking for is something along the lines of "My kids really love xyz " as opposed to just family meals in general...The reason is that my wife is working 2-3 evenings per week and it'll be me with the kids for dinner. Ideally, I'd prefer to eat with my wife when she gets home and and maybe something small with the kids. There are things which I regularly cook for myself and Mrs Loire, but I've tried these with the kids and they're not too gone on them: Thai curry (too hot), beef provencale stew (meat to hard).
What does work are homemade beef burgers (Rachel Allen), Lasagne and Chicken Pasta Bake. I'd just love another few!

Thanks to the previous posters re mixing up lots of veg...will give this a go. One of our kids would eat anything but the other's fussy!!

Thanks,
Loire.

ElleEm

What about trying homemade fish fingers or chicken goujons/ nuggets?
It's very easy and you could freeze them too.

Or you could make a big pot of bolognaise and half it, leaving some as bolognaise for spaghetti, and use the other for a lasagne or make a chilli con carne with it for them (with a little bit of chilli).

LaChatteGitane

I think it would be obvious that children would not eat Thai curry (I don't mean this in a condescending way)
I followed a blog for a while where a mother was trying to make her son eat vegetables and they made a succes of it with interesting recipes.
She stopped writing for a good while but she seems to be up and running again.
So moderators, I hope you don't mind me posting a link to the blog in this case.
http://greatbigvegchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

The Lovely Muffin

I don't have kids myself, but have made these dishes before and have frozen the pie, the other dishes can be frozen too.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775643/cottage-pie - I froze this in smaller portions and it can be cooked from frozen or you can thaw it out before cooking. I left out the red wine and thyme as I had neither and don't like red wine anyway.

Also, when I cooked a portion from frozen for the last 20mins or so I put some grated cheddar cheese on top, I don't know if your kids would like it though.

I've made this too, but didn't freeze it. I had no savoy cabbage, so used frozen spinach, which I cooked in a seperate pot.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2628/chorizo-and-chickpea-soup

I've also made soup in this recipe, and while I've never frozen it, I think it would be OK to freeze, it also keeps for 3-4 days in the fridge too.

I've made this before and it was scrumptious.

http://harryroberts.co.uk/2011/03/spicy-chorizo-pasta-bake/

This is nice too - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1563/creamy-mustard-pork

I made this recently and it was delicious - http://www.cookuk.co.uk/soup_starter/Mushroom_soup.htm

I also made this tomato sauce http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/953/basic-tomato-pasta-sauce.aspx and added some cream, mushrooms and parma ham and had it with pasta and chedder cheese sprinkled on top, it was lovely but I didn't like the tomato sauce tbh, have had nicer tomato sauces.

The Hill Billy

I have to say my kids (9 & 5) love curries - thai & indian. It is what they were reared on.

LaChatteGitane

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I have to say my kids (9 & 5) love curries - thai & indian. It is what they were reared on.

Oh sure. It's just if they are not used to spicy food yet it is wise to introduce it gradually.
I'm sure Thai children already get used to it with the breast milk.:D

SlimCi

My young man loves italian meatballs and also spag bol. Favourite is chicken curry and homemade chicken goujons. Hes 8. Likes the marinated port chops you can get in Supervalue 3 or 4 for 3 euro something too. Hes good at eating veg since small though, you have to introduce the spicy stuff slowly but try to introduce as much variety as possible as it will give them a great non fussy attitude to food!

fenris

My kids love chilli and curry, you can tone it down a bit with natural yoghurt or even bettter make sure that they have milk.

The only real allowance that you have to make in terms of difference from parents food is to take into account the lack of teeth be they growing or falling out - that and get rid of the salt.

You can get a lot of good stuff into them by using a blender, that way they get the flavours if not the texture.

A firm favourite is Cincinatti Chilli which is cinnamon based and served with pasta and a sprinkling of cheese.

Cous cous is also your friend as a change from rice or pasta.

When making chilli I usually get the kids to help - particularly when we add the "Shhh don't tell any one, secret ingredient" AKA a couple of squares of chocolate, my better half then pretends not to notice the sniggers and smirks from the kids who are asking for seconds!

We usually do a bulk cook and freeze at the weekend, then all we have to do is cook the pasta, rice etc while the defrosting is going on, 15 - 20 mins in total from coming in the door to getting food on the table on a busy night, just as quick as fish fingers/ frozen pizza ready meal junk.

size5

fenris wrote: »

My kids love chilli and curry, you can tone it down a bit with natural yoghurt or even bettter make sure that they have milk.

The only real allowance that you have to make in terms of difference from parents food is to take into account the lack of teeth be they growing or falling out - that and get rid of the salt.

You can get a lot of good stuff into them by using a blender, that way they get the flavours if not the texture.

A firm favourite is Cincinatti Chilli which is cinnamon based and served with pasta and a sprinkling of cheese.

Cous cous is also your friend as a change from rice or pasta.

When making chilli I usually get the kids to help - particularly when we add the "Shhh don't tell any one, secret ingredient" AKA a couple of squares of chocolate, my better half then pretends not to notice the sniggers and smirks from the kids who are asking for seconds!

We usually do a bulk cook and freeze at the weekend, then all we have to do is cook the pasta, rice etc while the defrosting is going on, 15 - 20 mins in total from coming in the door to getting food on the table on a busy night, just as quick as fish fingers/ frozen pizza ready meal junk.

Have a 4 and 2 year old myself and god damn it the 4 year old is one fussy eater- best meal beef stew( use jamie Oliver's recipe from ministry of food) left overs froze. Or just same dinner next day.

After that spaghetti bologense and don't give them the garlic bread till the slag bolo is eaten.

Also do up a good veggie based pasta sauce( with plenty if sneaky veggies blended in. Freeze and use when needed just find u can do anything with it eg tuna & pasta etc