What are you having for dinner these days?

Now that we have family dinners every night, I am struggling to find things that our kiddos will eat. I am trying to live by the idea that it is my job to prepare wholesome, balanced meals and their job to decide if/what they want to eat (this tests my patience daily!).

What are some of your family's favorite dinners? For us, lasagna, sloppy joes, spaghetti, etc. seem to go over well. However I am starting to tire of the ground beef/tomato sauce meals!!

And for all the effort I put into our Thanksgiving meal, they would only eat the rolls (no mashed potatoes, no gravy, no stuffing, no turkey, no green beans, etc.)

Please help

 

:good: that's such a great way to approach it - even if it is making you a bit batty!

tuna casserole's a big hit here (although you have to be careful not to serve too much tuna because of the possible mercury), stew (chicken or beef) is another favorite (especially done in the slow cooker - the veggies are so tender & easy for them to eat), chicken nuggets + veggies, my girls also love chicken breasts cooked with mushroom soup + veggies.

i also always try to serve a new food along with something i know they like - that way if they don't eat much of the new food (which, honestly, they never do), then at least i know they'll eat the other item & not be hungry AND i avoid the short-order-cook-issue. GL!

 

I try to serve stemmed veggies with most meals because I know if all else fails then they love steamed veggies. And so far they haven't turned down a veggie. I usually get the steamer bags from the freezer section. They take about 5 minutes in the microwave, so it's super simple too.
Then I serve whatever meat/protein for that meal and whatever else I'm making. It's just hit and miss. And they'll refuse it today and it next week. I guess it's just part of the age.

 

I try to do that, too. Mine love any kind of roasted veggies so I try to keep them on hand all the time! Rice and beans are a huge hit here, too, with a little shredded cheese on the side. They struggle with the rice unless I make it a little sticky, though, but they do their best to shovel it in. Mine are big bean eaters in general so we also eat a lot of homemade falafel and bean burgers. Eggplant parm and chicken parm are both good, but you're back to tomato sauce again...oh, mine also really seem to like any type of mild curry dishes that I make. They don't like plain chicken or even chicken nuggest very much, but when I add a little curry (mango curry chicken was a favorite) they love it. And I tried chicken piccata for the first time last week and they ate a ton - more chicken than I've ever seen in one sitting. If you like lemony chicken, let me know and I'll give you the recipe. We all love it here! GL!

 

I try to serve balanced meals too, even if I know that most of the time the veggies will end up in the dog's stomach. My kids unfortunately don't eat much else either, and they really don't eat much at dinner overall. They don't like pasta much unless it's raviolis (I try to get some with veggies inside so at least they have that) and Annie Mac'n cheese. For meat they only eat chicken nuggets and apple chicken sausages consistently... any attempt at regular chicken or turkey is a failure (even with ketchup on top). Fish sticks are hit and miss...

Oh and they only ate rolls at Thanksgiving too. Unfortunately in our case they are pretty consistent about not eating something they don't like, even after I've offered it 20 times...

 

Mine loved steamed veggies and I try to include it with every dinner...ours range from pork chops, fish, turkey breast, chicken, turkey burgers, meatloaf, roast beef, pulled pork, turkey sausage, london broil, pasta, shrimp & broccoli (which they don't eat yet)...we also will have a starch with every dinner (potatoes, noodles, etc).

 

I hear ya! I"m in a food rut..again!
My boys like different things, it's such a struggle sometimes. We also have a small farm and raise most of our meat, but often they don't want it!

eggs are big in my house...as is salmon and cheese for ryan...chrisopher likes his starches...but will eat yogurt if i mix it with pancake.

I have celiac disease so because of convience most of the food we eat is gluten free (but not always)

For awile my boys wouldn't eat anything unless it had salsa or curry on it...(but now christopher won't eat the curry because when he rubs his eyes it stings...poor pumpkin!)

I'll do grill cheese, homemade baked beans(there tends to be alot of sugar so its not often), haddock, pancakes, sausage, chicken pot pie.

I really try to focus on making sure they have some kind of protein, veggie, starch and maybe a fruit for dessert.
I drive myself nuts over this feeding thing sometimes...so I try to look at it on a weekly not daily basis. IE, if they get hotdogs and don't eat much else that day, i'm ok about it.)

 

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I have a list of new ideas to try!

Mamabee...I would love both your mango chicken curry and chicken piccata recipes! They sound delicious

 

So far, mine will not touch anything with tomato sauce. They like bread rolls/crosants, Love chicken [and the Turkey from Thanksgiving], and rice, lol. Those are pretty much our only fall backs [things they will definitely eat]. We're trying different things here as well. Thankfully they take their daily vitamin because otherwise I'd be afraid they're not getting all they need for a healthy diet. I just try to offer something healthy with each meal, something I know they'll like, and avoid super greasy foods. They don't eat meat much [same as DH and I] so I'm not too worried about the fatty/greasy stuff. I want them to eat their Veggies most of all Gina! What the heck do you do to the veggies to get your to eat em'? Adding cheese on ours is the best, but not 'for sure', way to get them to eat the veggies.

 

The chicken picatta recipe is one from my friend's grandmother so I'll just have to type it out for you. It's pretty easy...you just beat one egg with a tbls of lemon juice in one bowl and combine 1/2 cup flour and a few shakes of garlic powder and paprika in another bowl. I like to cut my chicken into smaller sections or strips, but however you like it, you use 4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless). Dip them in the egg mix and then the flour mix and then brown it in a skillet on the stove in about 1/4 cup of butter/smart balance/etc. (I use SB when I make it just for us, but now with the babies eating it I've been doing butter...). Meanwhile, you can either use 3/4 cup chicken broth with a little sea salt or 2 bullion cubes in 1/2 cup water. Once the bullion is dissolved and the chicken is browned, add the liquid (broth is less sodium, bullion tastes better - your call) with 2 or 3 more tbls lemon juice to the pan with the chicken. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Very yummy with brown rice or couscous and veggies sauteed in garlic and olive oil I made it last night with a bag of frozen stir fry veggies with a little olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice and they loved it.

For the curry, I kind of adapted my own thing from this recipe I think. My mangoes were very over ripe the first time I made it so instead of chopping, I kind of squished them up with the spices. I skipped the raisins and heavy cream because I didn't have it, and honestly, I've just done it the same way every time without looking back at this recipe! It tasted good enough to us. But I should warn you, my kids LOVE going to this Indian restaurant near me so they are used to curry and spicy things.

A few other good recipes are this easy bean burger and this kid friendly meatloaf - I make it with ground turkey because I don't eat beef and I throw in some cheese, but it is delicious!! A little on the sweet side, but if it gets these kids to eat meat it's ok by me

 

I am doing a lot of meatloafs (beef, turkey or lamb) at the moment because they are soooooo easy to do and they love them with either gravy or a tom based sauce - goes well with mashed pots and veggies. they love sausage cassarole at the mo too. Today they ate salmon fish cakes and baked beans. We do all the pasta dishes and I always try to do fish a couple of times a week - fish pie is a great one.

 

My kids are big fans of smokies and perogies, chicken fetichini alfredo, and mini meat loafs. They seem to eat almost any kind of veggie but we often have problems getting starches down.

 

Love the meatloaf idea! I am in a rut too. I rarely plan ahead so we eat what's easy. They love rotisserie chicken meat, veggies, fruit, grilled cheese. They love applesauce so I buy or make one without sugar and put it on turkey, chicken, etc. We have canned salmon on hand and they love it! Surprises me, because I don't care for it but they devour it. Chicken soup is handy too, if you make a big batch then I just give them the good stuff without the broth to keep it not too messy. Black beans are a favorite here as well. We buy frozen lightly battered fish at Costco and coook that up for all of us, kids like it. Great to share ideas

 

When you make them foods like this, do you just cut or mush it up into a mash in their bowl so that they do not really care what things look like? Are you finding that they do not mind eating foods all mixed together?

The lemon chicken sounds great, can you post the recipe?

 

I'm with you on the feeding dilemma. One of my DD's loves finger foods, the other is more interested in seeing how far she can throw them :ibiggrin: I smile, but it truly drives me crazy. I hate to clean, and all I ever seem to do is cook & sweep the floor these days!

Pot roast is a big hit in our house; the girls also like roast chicken (I tend to puree the chicken, veggies and gravy all togeter, they love it.) I still tend to puree most stuff, I can get more down their throat that way, but I give them bite size pieces of whatever we're eating as well. A good website I've found is www.weelicious.com. There are some really nice ideas for family meals. Meatballs, meatloaf and any type of frittata are really easy things that I know the girls will eat. They also like quesadilla's, so often I'll put whatever I can find between 2 wheat tortilla's and they'll gobble it up.

This thread has given me some great ideas - thanks!

 

So many yummy ideas! I just made a sausage/gruyere/spinach cheese quiche and the loooooooooooooved it! Super easy and a good way to sneak in some veggies (mine are not a fan!

 

I just cut things up and put them on their plates. I have some plates with divided sections that they seem to like, although half way through they usually want the food dumped straight onto the table :unknw: Mine will eat some things mixed (like rice and beans with cheese) but others they like separate (like meat and veggies - they like to pick up the chunks of veggies by themselves). Does that make sense?

If you were asking me for the lemon chicken recipe...um...that was it! I just sort of put it all together like I described. It's not a real recipe.