Quick, Healthy & Yummy Kids Recipe Suggestions
arun on Jul 07 2007 at 9:09 am | Filed under: health & nutrition, others wisdom, wellness | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
I have been encouraged by the recent debate on this site to put renewed energy into food and cooking. We do this every so often but then go through a “cyclical slackness” with food where we tend to ignore the whole issue for a while. But for now Im motivated so…
I wanted to ask you to click on the comment option below and leave your favourite children friendly recipes that are a hit at your place. Feel free to provide a web link or recipe book you have found useful where appropriate.
Im particularly on the hunt for recipes that:
- my children will eat (so “kid friendly”)
- are nutritious and healthy
- are easy to make
All three criteria are important to me. I am pretty culinary challenged so please keep the recipes relatively straight forward.
Open to hearing your ideas on anything from dinners, deserts, snacks, lunches etc.. We tend to have our five or so “standard” meals and variations on them, which we are very keen to expand on… so Im also curious to hear of your “standards”.
We are relatively dairy free but always ready to make exceptions. Anne is gluten free but the rest of us are not… but please do not limit yourself, just tell us what works for your family.
Also please feel free to make multiple posts. The more ideas the better!
One of our standards at the moment (a firm favourite with 2 year old JJ) goes a little like this.
* I wok fry veggies and tofu - usually what is in the garden veggie wise… so say broccoli, asian greens and carrots (which we alway have in the fridge not the garden) in olive oil and a little sesame oil. you can add a veg stock cube if you like
* soak arame seaweed and shitake mushrooms
* then I prepare buckweat soba like is says on the pack (boil and rinse basically) you could use any noodles really
* then I make a sauce which is a secret made up ‘Chrissy extravaganza’. I am willing to share though in the name of everything yummy. Young rice miso, brown rice miso, tahini in equal quantities and then add a fair bit of crushed garlic, boiling water to make it the right consistancy and a little agave nectar… oh and a little of the soaking water from the shitake. (JJ and T make this sauce while I make the other stuff.)
* I then mix all of the above with love in the wok and a handful of fresh garden herbs finely chopped by JJ
eat with chopsticks
5 year old T swaps her broccoli for 2 year old JJ’s shitake mushrooms and they both have double helpings of tofu. 35 year old M adds fresh chilli to his and takes left over for his lunch at work
even at the worst case scenario your kids only eat the noodles - the arame and sauce will be all over them and be healthy and delicious on their own
We can give it a road test next time you are over
love Chrissy
I tagged you for a Meme Arun
I want some of my bloggin’ friends to visit your site as I think they would enjoy it!
http://shawna-thoughts.blogspot.com/2007/07/meme-filler.html
hmmm… getting hungry Chrissy. Might have to book us in for a visit
thanks for the tag Shawna but I responded to a Meme tag from some other bloggers a little while ago http://theparentingpit.com/2007/06/18/8-things-meme/“>right here. I dont think i can do the restaurant focussed tag of yours (just to fill people in… Im meant to list my top 5 local restaurants) because we have only been in Byron Bay, NSW for 6 months and have not been to many places yet… Ill start researching though
Actually if people’s recipes are good enough perhaps i wont bother!
Popcorn is a good one Arun. Pop organic popcorn in butter and coconut oil, then sprinkle sea salt or if going for a sweet taste then honey. Yum yum and a great way to get saturated fat into your children.
Taiji loves fried rice - this is how I manage to get lots of vegies into him. I chop them up really fine and then stir fry then add egg, meat or whatever. I often add coconut oil to this too.
Filippa
Monkey Platters!
We have numerous favorites the hands down always eaten is pasta and sauce. The trick with sauce is to remember that it is already good for you so you don’t have to make it too chunky with extra vegetables. Here’s my recipe pretty basic.
1 16oz can of diced stewed tomatoes.
1 Can of tomato paste
1 Pinch of Salt
2 Garlic Cloves
2/3 cup sherry or red wine
1 pinch sugar (only if you are cooking stainless steel or with a stainless steel spoon, it gets rid of the metallic flavor left by the acid in the tomatoes reacting to the metal)
Olive Oil
[Tomato based foods always taste better cooked in something nonreactive like enamel or cast iron, and stirred with a wooden spoon]
-Heat oil until water sizzles on it. On Medium)
-Add garlic cook for one minute.
-Add diced tomatoes cook five or so minutes.
-Add tomato paste, really mix it in.
-Add wine salt and sugar cook lower temp to low.
-Cook for at least twenty minutes, this can simmer all day if you want the longer the tastier, just occasionally add a cup of water to loosen it up.
To make it really good cook the pasta a little underdone and add it to the sauce for a few minutes in the end.
If you make this with rice pasta make sure to eat it that day, rice pasta does not make for good leftovers.
We just bought
“The Vegetarian Family Cookbook” by Nava Atlas and we love it! Everything we’ve made so far has been a big hit with my 3, meatloving, teenage boys. Even my self-proclaimed “tofu hater” son tried the “Teryiaki Tofu Triangles” last night and had to admit they, “weren’t bad”.
We aren’t Vegetarians but try to eat a couple of meatless meals a week for health and budgetary reasons.
I don’t have any special recipes really, I just add little touches to simple foods that I know they already like. Such as shredded carrots in homemade quesodillas, or finely diced raw spinich in scrabbled eggs. Pizza is almost too easy to find foods in, even a “plain cheese” pizza. I can dice and shredd almost any veggie and add it to the sauce for a bit of a healthy kick.
Hi Arun. Two big favorites at our house these days:
HUMMUS (couldn’t be easier to make. It makes a huge amount–I sometimes halve it.)
2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed
2 T tahini
2 T olive oil
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c water
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t ground cumin
cayenne pepper, to taste
1 t sea salt
Mix all ingredients in food processor until smooth, adding a little more water if needed. Cover and chill. Serve with pita bread or raw veggies.
GUACAMOLE (My daughter’s have been hooked on this–so nutritious. They like it with tortilla chips. I like it on top of a romaine salad.)
1 avocado
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1/2 lime
sea salt and pepper to taste
Mash together ingredients.
I second the hummus suggestion. It’s incredibly easy, yummy and WAY cheaper than buying it pre-made.
We like having pretzels or crackers to dip in creamy goat cheese, hummus or other dips. Dipping is popular with the younger crowd.:)
My kids adore tofu. We drain it really well, usually letting it sit on a towel for a while to really suck all the extra moisture out (buy the extra firm block too) then marinade it in some “Dale’s Seasoning” or whatever marinade you choose. You can also skip the marinade and just fry it on a pan with some Spike seasoning. Major yum. If you marinade, just follow up with the pan frying until it’s golden brown. A bit of sea salt and olive oil in the pan make it perfect.:)
Once it cools a bit, you can put it on the above mentioned monkey platter for a snack.
We keep raw nuts around, corn chips for melting cheese on (great with sour cream and salsa of course) and small fruits.
One of my friends brought some really great wraps over the other day…you just wrap up yummy fillings inside a flour tortilla. Slice and serve.
Our latest craze has been…
NACHOS
Actually, its our super-quick “TV dinner” standby for when we dont feel like cooking, and the meal costs like $4 to make, even with organic ingredients
-one onion finely chopped, sautee in hot oil until browned with some salt, pepper,sweet paprika, garlic and chilli to taste (if Littletree is eating we leave off on the spicy stuff). If I’m feeling bothered I’ll add ground coriander and fresh herbs.
-Throw in one can of chopped tomato (I use the organic ones)
-and a can of drained Red Kidney beans or Three Bean Mix, or both if you want a bigger serving (Again, organic at our home)
-cook for a couple of minutes.
DONE!
-Serve over corn chips and grate cheese on top. (We tend to get the Woolworths’ Home Brand corn chips - they’re so cheap and have only 3 ingredients; corn, oil, salt. Though the oil is palm, which isnt so good… Though we do often get the organic chips too)
It takes literally five minutes to make, and Littletree loves having the chips. Beans are full of protein, you can add whatever vegges you feel like, or black olives or feta cheese… you can add mince if feeling carniverous - just brown it with the onions.
And the beans are a great meal base or side, even without the chips, sometimes we serve it over mashed potato.
YUM!
Hi Arun and Anne,
A steadfast quick and easy fav at our place is a deviated fried rice.
I put a small amount of oil or ghee in a frypan (large) and fry the raw rice until it becomes opaque, then I add at least 2l of stock, some curry powder and let it simmer until the liquid is absorbed - don’t stir or the rice will go gluggy.
Once the stock is absorbed I add tamari, fried egg, onions, any vegetables you want and sometimes chicken or ham.
Another quick recipe for kids is to cut up organic chicken thighs or breasts into small pieces. Dip into egg and milk mix then dip into rice crumbs (like bread crumbs) that have dried herbs added. Then shallow fry and serve with dipping sauce of your choice.
Another vote for hommus!
My 5 and almost 4yo both love our Friday night TV dinner - served on a big platter so they can help themselves with fingers - lots of cos lettuce torn up, cherry tomatoes, avacado, olives, fetta cheese, tuna chunks in oil, green beans sliced, anchovies if you like them, pickled green pepppercorns, fresh herbs; sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and dig in
You can add anything you like to it, lavosh crisps are crunchy, sourdough is good for mopping up the dressing etc.
They like choosing what to put in, helping prepare the food (some picked from the garden) and they *love* being able to choose what they want from the platter as part of our family group. As they have grown older I’ve noticed that they are more aware of what the other people in the group are eating and are conscious of sharing (one of them might say “here mum, I’ll leave this olive/tomato for you” even though I know they love that particular thing…) - which is an awareness they have developed themselves. We talk about the foods, especially if there are new ones added, and they enjoy being part of the exploration.
Two guaranteed crowd pleasers at our house:
#1 Peanut Noodles (mix 1/4 cup peanut butter with 1 Tbs. brown sugar, 3 Tbs. soy sauce, 1 crushed clove of garlic, some fresh ginger–add sambal (chili-garlic paste) if your kids like it spicy) add hot noodles (any shape), stir to coat. This is good, hot cold, lukewarm, leftover and upside down (my daughter likes to throw her head back and dangle the noodles into her mouth).
#2 Tofu Mush - Yucky name, delicious dish, invented by my then 4, now 7-year old. In 9×9 pan melt 1/4 butter, 1/4 honey 1 Tbs. mustard, 2 tsp curry power. Break up a big blog of extra-firm tofu into melted goo, stir until coated, bake in 400 degree oven uncovered until carmelized and yummy, serve with rice and veggies. We have served this for picky company and had to go buy more tofu to make it again the next day.