Discussion » Kid Friendly Food

Got a youngster ten or under? Here are some great kid-friendly meals. Tip: Get them involved in the cooking, or on a playdate with friends, and you'll be amazed how much more willing they are to try new things!

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New to Group... Hello

Hi everyone, I just joined this group and wanted to say Hello. I have a family of very picky eaters... my husband, and two boys ages 4 & 5. I on the other hand enjoy a wide variety of foods, which I rarely get to eat at home as I really don't want to make more than one meal at a time. Dinner planning can be very frustrating for me so I thought this group may help me out a little. I just posted my first recipe (Oh So Cheesy Spaghetti Casserole) which is one of the few that my whole family enjoys!

Mini hot dogs

I'm helping with my nephew's 1st birthday party.The parents want to have mini hamburgers and hot dogs.For the hamburgers I will cut bread to fit the mini burgers but I need suggestions for the hot dog buns.Anyone?

10 year old vegetarian

Earlier this year, my 10 year old started refusing to eat meat. In a sense that is great, however the rest of the family are meat eaters. I am willing to make the adjustment for her however, I am having a difficult time finding & creating kid friendly vegetarian meals. She still will eat chicken nuggets and sometimes hamburgers or meatloaf. Please give me some suggestions.

6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

Good article from the New York Times:

6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

Just joined to check it out

I have a six year old who wants to cook so I am seeing what we could do together.

Bengal Red Lentils with Spices

Hard to believe, but it's true. I took some liberties with Bengal Red Lentils with Spices. I dialed the heat way down, and I left out any spices I didn't have on hand. Because I just wanted to find a way to cook the red lentils I had on hand.

From the moment I started frying spices in butter (oohhh, butterrrr), I had their attention. The whole house smelled wonderful. And, because I minced the onions VERY fine in the food processor, I didn't even get any complaints about the onions. This was such a winner, I decided to blog about it.

No special skills involved. Next time, when I know what I'm doing, I can get the kids involved. I'm sure they'd love to run the mini food processor.

Simple muffin kits.

we took an idea from a book on Make Your Own Mixes and adapted it for a Chistmas gift. a write-up of the method and some pictures are posted as

www.bigoven.com/recipe164871

Just Joined

Hi everyone. I just joined this group and wanted to come in and introduce myself. My name is Frances and I am mommy to three kiddos. Emily is 15 and can eat me out of house and home (despite being a while 95 pds!), Katie is 10 and my picky eater and Andrew is 6 and just too busy to slow down and eat. I live in the Kansas City area (Parkville to be exact) and my fiancee is a firefighter here. I love trying new recipes and especially need the kid friendly kind! I look forward to learning more about you all!

Frances

Food Allergies

This morning I had my 4 1/2 year old daughter tested for food allergies. Food allergies run in our family; and she has asthma and eczema. The results were very interesting!

She has a food allergy to green peas. On a scale of 1 to 5, she has a 4. So, it is not like we need to carry an epi pen (like people with peanut allergies). She has a moderate allergy towards green beans, cantaloupe, barley, and strawberries. The only food she really likes out of all of those is strawberries. The other foods she really does not care for at all. I have to laugh about the green peas because she has never liked them- even as a baby. We have made her eat them for 4 years now. She's off the hook now! I guess you should listen to your kids likes and dislikes! I will be interested to see how she does once we limit her on these foods. Does anyone else have experience with food allergies?

One Week of Kid-Friendly Dinners

Here is one week worth of dinners my kids heartily endorse. Except for the stewed tomatoes, which their parents insist on making. Everything here is made from scratch, except for the pasta (boxed or frozen) and the white beans (canned, unless I plan ahead and get out the pressure cooker). We typically spend 30 to 60 minutes preparing a dinner. The Maple-Roasted chicken has to be started earlier, but then can be mostly left alone.

Turkey Meatloaf with ketchup, brown rice, beets with olive oil and allspice, broccoli, green salad with Greek olives
Sweet-and-Sour tofu served over rice, green beans, green salad with sliced fresh fennel.
Fettucini with Chicken and Vegetables in a creamy, sour-cream and parmesan sauce, green salad with tangerine sections
Maple-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables, brown rice or whole wheat bread, green salad.
Tortellini and white bean soup, biscuits or muffins, green salad
Pork with apples, brown rice or egg noodles, baby peas, mini carrots, green salad
Baked Macaroni and cheese, stewed tomatoes, broccoli, green salad

[edited January-14-2008]

picky eaters

I have a young child with Asperger's Syndrome and meal times for him can be rather tricky at times. He'll only eat about a dozen different foods - which is more than most Aspie kids will eat, so I suppose I'm lucky.

His big favourites are pizza - he likes it with mummy's special pizza sauce (my bolognaise sauce), but refuses to eat tomato sauces, chicken nuggets and chips - frozen chips for ease of use and chicken breast cut into small cubes then coated with egg and matso meal make for a nice crunchy nugget, and sausages.

What you call food, I have found, can be even more important than what the food is.

Hiding nutrition?

I'm reading "The Sneaky Chef" by Missy Chase Lapine. She describes how to puree various vegetables (Spinach, Blueberries, Squash, etc.) and "sneak" them into foods that kids like. She adds cauliflower to Mac & Cheese, and sneaks chickpeas or squash into spaghetti sauce. Her manta seems to be, "They'll eat vegetables tonight, without a fight".

While I can see some value to her methods, I question the basic logic. If a child will only eat a limited range of "Kid Foods", where did they learn that behavior ? To my mind, somebody messed up way early on in the development process. While there is a certain amount of bad eating habits learned from other children (and through natural desires) the ability to continue those habits at the home table is fostered by the parents or care givers.

Am I totally out to lunch with modern childrearing ? What are your thoughts on the topic ?

What defines Kid Friendly ?

Is this something that that:

1. Won't hurt the child to eat or is even good for them.

2. The child will eat or enjoys eating

3. The child can participate in making

4. The child can make themselves (with guidance)

More likely it's a combination of all the above.

Fun with pancake batter (and granddaughter)

I just posted updated pictures to my "Face Cakes" recipe. http://www.bigoven.com/164008-Face-Cakes-recipe.html

I made a batch this morning with my Granddaughter's help. By adding some cherry syrup to a bit of the batter the "faces" came out darker brown. I also used 1/2 a cherry for the nose. On Christmas morning she thought it was more important to "Bake something with Grandma" than open presents so we did that first.

Equipment for kids

I think it is important for aspiring young Jr chefs to have equipment of their own for several reasons. First, it reinforces their 'ownership' of the dishes they create. Second, you can get equipment that fits their hands better. Have you over used equipment that was too big or undersized for your hands? Third, it teaches them responsiblity for maintaining kitchen equipment that many adults never learned.

The best benefit is that it inspires them to WANT to cook. Near dinner time, he was chomping at the bit to cook dinner for his 19 y/o brother! So this is the simple dish he made for him (with very close oversight by me). See next post.

Can An Overgrown Kid?

Since I totally reject the title of Sr. Citizen, can an over the hill kid join this group? Aside from wanting kid friendly recipes for when my fussy grandkids come to visit (not very often unfortunately), I myself love what most kids love (chicken nuggets, and mac and cheese).

Hey, we do have to feed our inner child, don't we?

Anne

Just created this group

Hi Moms and Dad's!

You know, one of my original reasons for creating BigOven was that I had just become a parent, and started to realize what a hassle the weekly meal-planning and grocery shopping had become. I really wanted a place to go (on the web) where I could see all my favorites at a glance, then grab the ones I wanted, and make a grocery list from them.

Well, BigOven continues to grow, along with my family! We now have 3 kids, all under the age of 10. Our youngest and oldest are pretty adventurous eaters, but we're kind of struggling sometimes with our terrific middle-child, whose main challenge right now is in variety of food. What's your strategy?

Recipes in this Group

Oh So Cheesy Spaghetti Cassero...1	Cherry Pie Filling Using Canne...2	Sweet Potato Orange Muffins2	Sweet Potato Orange Muffins0
Broken Glass3		Italian Meatballs Sandwiches4	Flavoured Breadsticks1
Boston Market Cinnamon Apples5	Low Fat Chicken Nuggets6		Fruit Sundae1