Ideas for Dinners

I am not a cook, but I feel like one whenever I prepare one of Rachel Rays 30 minute meals...granted, they take longer than 30 minutes when I try a new meal, or when my little one is looking for attention. There is a great variety of foods (all on the healthier side) in her cookbooks (my fav is 365 No Repeats). Her magazine, Everyday with Rachel Ray, has good recipes as well and always includes a kid's recipe that they can make. Whenever I am looking for something new, I always go to her recipes first because they are easy and tasty.

-M.

When my son was five, he wanted to help cook. So, I got two great cookbooks. FamilyFun Cookbook by Deanna F. Cook & the experts at the magazine & Betty Crockers Kids Cook!. He still loves to help cook and will eat what he makes.

Good luck!

I just borrowed a book from my public library called "Super foods for Children" by Michael van Straten and Barbara Grigs. It has great information about different foods and their nutritional value as well as some great looking recipes for kids from 4mths to teen years. It's easy to follow and set out in a logical manner. I've found the library to be a good place to go when I want to try out a cook book. If I find I like a number of the recipes in it I'll hope on line to amazon and buy it for myself.

familyfun.com has tons of kid friendly recipes. Rachel Ray has lots of kid firendly recipes onher website and magazine. I'm sure she has a cookbook out for kids too. There are 2 different cookbooks out that have sneaky ways of throwing in healthy things. Deceptively delicious and the sneaky chef I think. check them out on amazon.

Hi V., I am a Southern Living at HOME consultant and we have several cookbooks that could help you. We also have a kids cookbook to help you get the kids involved. You can browse my site at www.southernlivingathome.com/dawnjones
If youd like to receive a catalog, please let me know and Ill send you one. Good luck on your search.

My best friend is a Southern Living at Home consultant... their cookbook "Easy Weeknight Favorites" is full of family friendly, tasty dishes. My self-proclaimed vegetarian 10 year old is crazy for the creamy chicken casserole. Everything is quick and easy to prepare with lots of eye appeal and simple ingredients.

good luck!
S.

You should check out Jessica Sienfeld's cookbook "Deceptively Delicious." She also has a related website www.deceptivelydelicious.com.

Hi V. - I like the book called deceptively delicious by Jessica Seinfeld which has great tips on feeding children nutritiously and kid friendly recipes that have fruits and vegetables in them. I'm not sure how quick and easy they are though. Making every attempt to get your kids to eat 5-9 servings (cups) of a variety of fruits and vegetables every day will really help their overall and long term health. With their meals, I highly recommend you add Juice Plus chewables or gummies to your children's diet. It's fresh produce and whole grains in chewables for kids or capsule form for adults. It gives me total peace of mind knowing that my whole family is getting high quality nutrients from 28 fruits, vegetables, berries and grains every day. I still try to cook healthy, well balanced meals, but as a busy mom of three I know we don't eat enough, so Juice Plus is our nutritional seatbelt. Feel free to call me if you have any questions at ###-###-####, email ____@____.com, and check out my website at http://www.juiceplus.com/+cc42230 to read about the research proving this nutritional supplement is effective to help improve immune system and lower risk of illness. I hope this helps!

Have you used www.epicurious.com? I use the site all the time. I type in the ingredients I want to use along with specifics "kid friendly," "quick" and "grille" or whatever and it gives you options. I love it!

My friend showed me that placing a big pile of fresh fruits and veggies on the table and requiring that all of the fruit and veggies were eaten before the rest of dinner was served made it so her children were VERY healthy. Might I add it added to my own recovery and health quite well too.

My kids hated chili until I made them a pot of chili, added chocolate(Nestlies) and sugar...now they love it.
(Not sure about healthy)

They love taco salad-tossed salad(Lettece, tomato, cucumbers,grated cheese, eggs ) Fry the hamburger,sprinkle taco powder, drain/cool. Combine veg./Hamburger and a bottle of French dressing(Catalina) when ready to serve crush a bag of Doritos and throw this in.

Garlic Chicken Salad-
Chinese cabbage diced to bite size, chicken strips put in big bowl...
dressing: Blend 32 OZ mayo, 1/3 c. milk, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. vinegar, 8-12 cloves of garlic (To taste)Refrigerate

add dressing to veggis/chix and when ready to eat add a bag of Wun tun chips...My kids love this!!!!

W/extra dressing---fry shrimp in it...kids suck the shrimp down before peeling.

I never knew what to make for dinner, then I found a book called "A Dinner a Day" it is full dinner plans for every weekday of the year, with shopping lists and easy step by step instructions for cooking the maincourse, side dishes and dessert all at once. The recepies are healthy and offer a variety each week. The best thing about this book is it takes all the work out of planning dinner. My kid's were not picky eaters, I introduced a variety of foods at a young age and encouraged them to at least try new foods, often they found they liked them.

Hi V.,

Have you ever heard of a Dream Dinners? That is my business. When you said you didn't have much time to spend in the kitchen but wanted to prepare healthy meals . . . that is exactly my business. Dream Dinners is a meal assembly business where we do you menu planning, shopping, chopping and cleanup. Every month the menu changes and we have 17 items to choose from every month. Here is the link.

http://www.dreamdinners.com/main.php?page=locations&s...

The meals are affordable and most of them are kid friendly. This Saturday between 10:30 and 1:00, we have a person coming in to give a mini spa to our guests and its also open house meaning you can come in and check us out and if interested can purchase some meals too. The chicken is 100% natural and the meat is restaurant quality.

Come by and check us out. You will be pleasantly surprised and this does give you more time to spend with your family and to yourself.

A little about me:

Mother with a great husband of 21 years with 2 big boys!

foodnetwork.com

Gotta love Rachel Ray and her 30 minutes meals. I've been on maternity leave and I can't get enough of the food network.

My husband and I really love the book "Family Kitchen: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Every Family" by Tana Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay's wife. There are recipes from breakfast, lunch and dinner to even healthy snacks and desserts. The recipes are delicious and flavorful. The kids may even enjoy cooking/baking with you!

Mommy Made & Daddy Too! by Martha & David Kimmel and First Meals by Annabel Karmel.

deceptively delicious is a great one for kids and family

Checkout www.bluedominoes.com. They have a nutrition and recipe section and some of the recipes have been written by kids. Also, if you're near Encinitas, Healthy Creations has meals that you can make that are kid friendly and healthy.

Try Relishrelish.com

I would go out and buy "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. You can puree stuff ahead and freeze it and there are also goodies that still have good stuff in them for the kids. Good Luck!

V., The Barefoot Contessa Family cookbook has a section of kids recipes that were a huge hit in my home. My now adult children still ask me to fix them when they come home!! Also, BettyCrocker has a cookbook just for children and the kids can help!!

www.bakespace.com has great easy recipes.

Hi V.,

I also have a 5 year old and a 3 year old so I know what you mean about wanting quick recipes that appeal to this age. As a consultant for Southern Living At Home, we have a variety of cookbooks that offer quick and tasty recipes for all family members to enjoy. We have two books in particular that are for children. I own both and have used both. My two love what I make. Let me know if you want specific recipes or if you'd like check out the cookbooks at www.southernlivingathome.com/A.

Best to you and your family!
A.

edit (oops I guess I should see the other postings before I post the same thing)

Have you tried Jessic Seinfeld's book? This is great. http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/
You can get it cheap at Costco

I also love my Cooking with all Things Trader Joe's book, not sure what your kids would eat from it though, mine isn't really picky.

have you looked into "deceptively delicious" by jessica seinfeld? GREAT recipes (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks), plus you get to sneak in real healthy stuff that the kids won't know about. :)

V., I saw that a few people already said Decepitivly Delicious, but no one put their experience with the book. I love it, it has ideas for home made chichen nuggets, and meat loaves, as well as desserts that you sneak veggies in to. My kids eat it all! The purrees are a little time consuming to make, but if you spend one afternoon a week and freeze them it works out great. My kids only eat CANNED corn and green beans. So I use this to sneak in veggies when they think I am giving them a treat. Plus my husband and I both like the food. I highly recomend it.

V.

Here is a site that I always use

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf

I also subsribed to the free magazine and use that all the time as well.

M.

check out annabel karmel's book, First Meals.

I make mostacholi (or what i call my version of mostacholi) :) and my kids absolutly love it!!!! I have twin 7 year olds, a 10 year old a 13 year old and a 16 year old. Its really easy I just fry up ground beef, put a jar of ragu traditional in it boil elbow noodles, keep the noodles separate from the sause, then i take grated cheese (which ever you prefer) (I find I like to use mozarella mixed with another cheese, or just mozarella alone)Get a cake pan start layering the noodles on the bottom first, then a layer of sauce,then a layer of cheese,and repeat again making sure the layer you end with on top is cheese. then pop it in the over at 350 degrees for about 20-25 min. let it cool for 5 min when you take it out. I serve it in bowls. My kids would eat this every day if i let them. :) good luck P.

Deceptively Delicious by J. Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld's wife). This book uses recipies which hide fresh vegetable purees in yummy foods, so kids don't even realize they're eating healthy. GENIUS!!

Hi V.,
I went on Kraft online and they have quick recipes that the kids love. It worked for me.

Heya! I don't know about you but I have a TON of cookbooks that I don't use. One thing that I do use is http://mealmixer.com/ It is awesome! You enter in the size of your family, your likes and dislikes (they have practically everything there to choose) and they plan an entire week’s worth of meals for you including snacks! They also allow you to enter in your own recipes so that you can have those to choose from in your weekly mix. Once your week is set you can print the menu along with the recipes and the entire shopping list! It is soo easy!

The recipes have been easy to make and good and healthy. I love the site.

Hi Valarie :)
I've heard only good things about the cookbook Jerry Seinfeld's wifee just had published .. it's called "Deceptively Delicious" Do a little looking on the internet and you'll see what makes this book kid-friendly and mom-happy :)

Best of luck, and have a great weekend!!
~W.

One of the most difficult issues we have every week is trying to put food on the table. We can easily go through the motions at times and get in the car and drive our lovely little ones from school to gymnastics and back to home but to create a meal at the end of the day, that requires planning and thought...who has time or energy for that!

I am a foodie through and through but not every meal can be gourmet and if it was, my kids would never eat! So I try and use fresh local ingredients that are in season to prepare delicious meals to keep my kids sitting at the table. Well, my oldest is 4 so I pretty much have to tie him down to his chair to keep him seated but you know what I mean.

Please check out my Market Menu each week for what is on sale in our local grocery stores and a listing of great menu ideas that you can make for your family.

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