Healthy eaters with no allergies/special diets: What do you cook that your kids will eat?

[becoming]

We are horrible eaters.  I'm trying to do better, but I'm getting a LOT of resistance from my picky kids who are used to eating a certain way.  What things do you make with healthy, whole ingredients that still seem normal/desirable to kids?  I'm hoping to introduce new things in small amounts, too, but right now I'm really interested in how to feed them healthy things without them knowing the difference.

[BetsyS]

Mine like homemade lara bars.  http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/02/home-made-lara-bars-energy-bars-part-3.html 

They love, love, love salad.  The dressing is the least healthy part--they love Good Seasons Italian.  I make it with white vinegar and olive oil, so it's not terrible, just not great.  They'll happily eat lettuce of any kind, spinach, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes, snow peas in salad.

They also really like salsa, if it's blended (not chunky like pico).  So, I make it blended.    Tomatoes, cilantro, onions, peppers, salt, and lime juice.

I start lots of kid-friendly type recipes (spaghetti, sloppy joes, chili, Spanish rice) with a mix of very finely chopped veggies.  Usually onions, peppers, celery, and often zuchinni.   These sort of meld into the meal, and they never notice it's there, adding some flavor (imo) and nutrition to an otherwise boring meal.

[berry987]

Burritos with beans, cheese and avocado; green smoothies (kind of a cheat because they taste like fruit but have spinach in them); eggs (any style); sausage and kale soup; roasted drumsticks (skin on); roasted broccoli. 

That's all I can think of at the moment. I have three kids- two who will eat anything I put in front of them and another who is incredibly picky. So everything I listed are the things my picky eater will eat.

[Chamomile Girl]

Artichokes are a huge hit in this house. They are fun to eat which increases the attraction. My kid also likes anything smothered in cheese sauce (which I make with Kerrygold cheddar cheese and hvy whip cream) but oven roasted cauliflower is a favorite.

[Alyantavid]

We eat pretty simple, basic stuff.  I do have one who's allergic to dairy, but the other isn't.

spaghetti

tacos

pizza

hamburgers

roasted chicken drumsticks

grilled chicken

quesadillas

mac and cheese

roasted veggies

tomato soup

There's lots more but those are the most popular.

[madskye]

I cook a lot of plain foods, where you can break the components down.  Kind of the idea of "clean eating"--not a lot of sauces or breading or frying.

Sliced chicken breasts, steamed baby carrots and couscous is an easy and healthy dinner that DD likes.  You can top the chicken with a fresh salsa or a pineapple salsa--that's really good.

My DH was veg for a long time--so we eat a lot of veggie sausages and soy crumbles.  They make things like chilis and pastas a lot lower in saturated fat.

Greens are big--DD (6) actually likes spinach and kale and broccoi rabe.  It amazes me!  But I think it's because her dad and I like it.  She is kind of a fancy Nancy, so if she thinks it's very grown up, she only wants it more.

We hate whole grain pastas and breads.  That's our diet problem.  But I like brown rice and quinoa a lot and mostly I'm just happy that I'm not in the trap of having to cook separate meals for all of us.

[catnip]

As a disclaimer, we're vegan, but I still may have some ideas for you.

I serve fruit at every meal, veggies at dinner and lunch. Most days breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, sunflower and hemp seeds, brown sugar and a splash of soymilk, sometimes fried tofu and toast or toast spread with peanut or almond butter, plus a serving of whatever fruit is in season and cheap/in our garden. We just finished off the last of the oranges, and are on to strawberries.

Lunch is almost always peanut butter and homemade jam on whole wheat bread with some sort of fruit and carrot sticks.

Dinners that are a hit -

Soup and bread (bean soup, creamy broccoli soup, minestrone, etc)

Whole wheat or brown rice pasta with cashew alfredo or marinara, broccoli, beans on the side (Brown rice pasta, Tinkyada is a good brand, tastes more like white flour pasta than whole wheat does)

Tacos with beans, avocado and lettuce

Polka dot rice (equal parts brown rice, mixed diced veggies and finely diced chunks of tofu with a little bit of coconut oil and a splash of soy sauce)

Tofu 'fish' sticks or 'chicken' strips (tofu dipped in a homemade breading of cornmeal and ground almonds seasoned with herbs and spices and baked)

Dinner shaped dinner - lentil loaf, baked potatoes, veggies

Black beans and diced sweet potato (I dish hers out before finishing the dinner for my husband and I, which is a layered enchilada casserole with a spicy mole sauce)

[gardenmommy]

Roasted chicken with veggies (could be roasted potatoes, green beans, steamed broccoli, cooked greens, black-eyed peas, etc.)

Pot Roast with lots of veggies (we usually get two meals out of this)

Chicken noodle soup 

Vegetable beef soup

Chicken stew

Chicken pot pie

Tortilla soup

Hamburgers (usually grilled)

Salad (usually made with leftover steak or chicken breast)

Quesadillas

Tacos

Fajitas

We usually have meat several times per week, in small amounts per person, with lots of veggies and a few grains to fill us up.  

[Sol_y_Paz]

this place is full of ideas

http://blog.superhealthykids.com/

[Gator-mom]

Originally Posted by catnip 

As a disclaimer, we're vegan, but I still may have some ideas for you.

I serve fruit at every meal, veggies at dinner and lunch. Most days breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, sunflower and hemp seeds, brown sugar and a splash of soymilk, sometimes fried tofu and toast or toast spread with peanut or almond butter, plus a serving of whatever fruit is in season and cheap/in our garden. We just finished off the last of the oranges, and are on to strawberries.

Lunch is almost always peanut butter and homemade jam on whole wheat bread with some sort of fruit and carrot sticks.

Dinners that are a hit -

Soup and bread (bean soup, creamy broccoli soup, minestrone, etc)

Whole wheat or brown rice pasta with cashew alfredo or marinara, broccoli, beans on the side (Brown rice pasta, Tinkyada is a good brand, tastes more like white flour pasta than whole wheat does)

Tacos with beans, avocado and lettuce

Polka dot rice (equal parts brown rice, mixed diced veggies and finely diced chunks of tofu with a little bit of coconut oil and a splash of soy sauce)

Tofu 'fish' sticks or 'chicken' strips (tofu dipped in a homemade breading of cornmeal and ground almonds seasoned with herbs and spices and baked)

Dinner shaped dinner - lentil loaf, baked potatoes, veggies

Black beans and diced sweet potato (I dish hers out before finishing the dinner for my husband and I, which is a layered enchilada casserole with a spicy mole sauce)

We eat a lot like this as well.  I'm also a big fan of sneaky sauces.  My spaghetti sauce has blended up spinach, garlic and walnuts.  My Ds used to completely refuse to eat anything green, so if I want him to eat something that has green in it I puree it.  If I make a soup with peas or kale, or broccoli, I puree a portion for him, and he has no idea, and doesn't taste the 'green'.

It's also helpful to supplement some of your simple carbs for more complex.  So, trade plain white pasta for a whole grain or if you make a pizza crust supplement part of your white flour for wheat or any other whole grain flour of your choice. 

We aren't vegan, but eat a lot of vegan foods, and I found the cookbook, 'Vegan Lunch Box' to be very inspirational for both Ds' lunches and how to add more 'oomph' to our dinner meals.

[redvlagrl]

HEre are a couple of things that DD just loves and are healthy:. For the record, lately (since age 2 or so) she's been less keen on veggies in general (peer pressure?) but here are some no fails.

Homemade mac and cheese with ww pasta, browned ground beef (grass fed etc), and broccoli and lonked in a large dish and baked.

Jerk Chicken with rice and beans (balcked eyed peas and rice cooked with nions, garlic and coconut milk). I do half the marinade without the chilli and DD will eat a drum and a thigh!

Roasted broccoli and cauliflower

Just about anything smothered in cheese sauce.

Creamed Spinach. She love it and will eat a vat. You can do it by whizzing all the ingredients (butter, flour, milk, spinach, seasonings etc) in the food processor and then cooking it until it thickens. It's bright, bright green.

[syn_ack89]

Salmon cooked at 450 for 15 minutes with a shaved parmesan crust
Chicken marinated in italian dressing and grilled (we grill on the weekend and use the chicken throughout the week)
Snack on raw broccoli, carrots and cauliflower
Soup - split pea is fav, but really any flavor

Mine doesn't like sandwiches or spreads (not hummus, not ranch, nothing!). He also doesn't like nuggets, pizza or burgers so we never order off the kids menu.

[catnip]

Sneaky sauces! That reminds me - smoothie pops! Mine are usually a handful of spinach, a big chunk of carrot, strawberries, banana, almond butter, flax oil, hemp seeds, flax, wheat germ, whatever supplementish stuff I want in there, soymilk or juice to make it blendable, and then a big handful of frozen blueberries to 'fix' the color. Then I blend it and freeze it in popsicle molds.

Also, my daughter's favorite meals tend to be the ones where she does some of the cooking or final assembly- so I serve toppings on the side of oatmeal, a bowl of rice with seperate bowls of veggies and tofu for her to put together, little dishes of taco fixings to build her own, etc. 

[amma_mama]

A lot of good ideas here. Without knowing exactly what your kids are accustomed to, there are a lot of ways to make "typical" kid-friendly food more healthy. So I would just take a look at what you normally eat and figure out how to make it more healthy while retaining the primary flavors and textures. As others have mentioned, use whole wheat pasta - some brands are heavier than others so you may have to try a few before finding one that passes muster. You can also get fun shapes - we get whole wheat pasta shaped like bugs, which are an instant hit. As others have suggested, if your kids like cheese, cheese sauces are great with almost anything. You can even sneak in some pureed carrots or orange lentils (they cook up yellow) that can go pretty much unnoticed. You can also puree other veggies into a marinara type sauce. If you can find it, you can whole wheat bread that is made from winter white whole wheat - looks and feels almost like white bread, but with whole wheat nutrition. You can also buy white whole wheat for baking. If your kids like fried foods, we make a lot of "mock" fried foods such as fish sticks, breaded in cornmeal and panfried or baked until golden and crunchy. As for introducing new healthy foods, start by targeting ones that are "fun" for kids - a PP mentioned artichokes, another good one is steamed edamame in the pods, almost anything on a skewer, things that go with their favorite dips or sauces, etc.

[Dr.Worm]

My dd loves oatmeal with milk; a drop of sugar; butter and fruit

zucchini pancakes yum  http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t044600.asp#T044605