meal ideas for kids dinner?

Question

my wife is away for a few days and i want to try something other than nuggets, noodles, pasta all ideas welcomed.

Answer 1

Some ideas: Taco casserole, lentils & rice, lentil casserole, shephards pie, meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes, homemade mac& cheese, breaded and fried fish, salmon with rice and corn, roasted potatoes, pot roast, sausage and rice stir-fry.

can't think of anything else right now but these are all things my 9 year old eats and likes. Good luck.
two recipes below:

Taco casserole:

1 lb. ground beef
¼ t. whole oregano, crushed
1 c. chopped onions
1 can kidney beans, undrained (15 oz.)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 c. corn chips, crushed
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz.)
1 ¾ c. shredded lettuce
1 T. chili powder

Combine beef, onions and garlic in skillet. Cook until meat is browned; drain. Combine meat mixture, tomato sauce, water, and seasoning in a medium bowl. Stir well. Place half of meat mixture in lightly greased 2 quart casserole. Top with half of kidney beans. Sprinkle with half of crushed corn chips. Repeat layers, cover and bake 350 deg for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake additional minutes. To serve, top casserole with shredded lettuce.


Lentil Casserole

2 c. lentils, washed
1 (1-3/8 ox) onion soup mix
1 qt. water
1 t. cider vinegar
1 lb. ground beef
1 t. prepared mustard
½ c. salad oil
1/8 t. pepper
1 c. catsup
1 c. water

Combine lentils and 1 quart water in saucepan. Cook, uncovered over medium heat for 30 minutes. Brown beef in oil. Stir in lentils, catsup, onion soup mix, vinegar, mustard, pepper and the one cup of water. Pour into casserole and bake, uncovered, in 400 deg oven for 30 minutes. Serves 8 Less oil may be used.

Answer 2

Here is a couple of dinner ideas that may appeal to kids and are fairly cheap and healthy. The old standard beanie weenie can be fixed up. Buy hot dogs only when on sale, and in bulk when possible. Heat a very large can of Campbell's pork and beans and to it add two tablespoons of brown sugar or regular sugar, A little BBQ sauce, some finely diced onion, garlic powder and pepper. Add sliced hot dogs and cook and stir until hot. Serve with garlic bread or what ever bread You have, or with a pasta like macaroni for example. Kids love pizza but tomato bread is cheaper and tastes good. use sturdy white bread slices or Italian bread slices, or french roll halves, what ever is on sale and cheap, Spread a little tomato sauce on the bread then top with Parmesan cheese, oregano, very thin sliced or diced tomatoes, and shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees until bread is toasted and cheese is melted. This is a recipe made for a budget and appropriately called Slum Goo, but tastes better than it sounds. Cook a pound of ground beef and drain excess fat. Cook a pound of macaroni, drain and add a little olive oil, or vegetable oil like Canola. To the beef add a very small amount of olive oil if desired. Then a diced onion. cook and stir until onion is tender. Add a 16 oz. can of crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes chopped up. Some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook and stir until hot, then add to macaroni. Heat and stir for a short time until macaroni is hot.

Answer 3

The more kids can do to help, cook or fix their own, the more you will get them to eat..Keeping that in mind I will suggest the following:
1. Tacos---let them build their own. All you have to do is the meat and 'help' them.
2. Pigs in a blanket--- they can roll out the biscuits using a glass and then wrap the biscuit around a cut hot dog, add cheese if they like it. All you have to do is cut the hot dogs in half, 'help' with the rolling , and place and remove from oven.
3. Chicken salads---have all ingredients set out on table and let each child fix their own salad.

Well that's three, but I hope it helps you..if you need more, let me know...

Here's another one:
Pizza
Buy a premade pizza crust and a jar of pizza sauce. Make sure you have toppings that everyone likes. You spread the sauce on and then let each child do one of the other ingredients. Like have one child put the cheese on, the other child can put the pepperoni on, then the mushrooms, onions,, whatever you all like. Plus if one child likes pepperoni but the other one doesn't, you can skip putting the pepperoni on 'their' pieces of the pizza, and by doing this, it really becomes THEIR pizza.

And do NOT forget to tell the children what good jobs they have done, and how good it tastes....

Answer 4

Kids love fish pie!! Sounds odd I know as you think most don't eat fish but you might be surprised.... just pour some milk into a saucepan, add in a finely chopped onion and a diced up carrot & some peas. Then add to the milk some fish - white fish, smoked, like haddock, or even salmon is good - and then while it is cooking put on some potatoes to boil. When they are cooked and the fish is cooked, mash the potatoes using the milk from the saucepan, once mashed, tip in the fish & veg and stir around. Pour into an oven dish, grate cheese on top and bake in oven until cheese is browned on top. Total classic and a favourite in our house! Good luck and good on you for trying something different!!

Answer 5

As `a chef of few years standing, quite a few in schools, I find that children like quite simplistic food. Like stew without the vegetables.The other idea is to serve lots of different things as tasters. I tried this idea in a 4 star hotel I worked in and it was extremely popular. I used a chicken breast, cut into 4 and pan fried. 2 small blocks of cheese. Baby sweetcorns. A couple of baby sausages and some broccoli. In the centre of the plate I'd put a couple of small dishes with their favourite dips, and place the food all around the rim.

Answer 6

If you want to eat truly healthy, lose body fat consistently, normalize your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, prevent cancer, and even boost your brain health and energy levels, you may have heard all over the news that the Paleo Diet has been found to be one of the best methods of achieving all of these benefits compared to any other popular "fad" diets out there. Go here https://bitly.im/aMICG

The truth is that the Paleo Diet will never be considered a fad because it's just simply the way that humans evolved to eat over approximately 2 million years. And eating in a similar fashion to our ancestors has been proven time and time again to offer amazing health benefits, including prevention of most diseases of civilization such as cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, and other chronic conditions that are mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle. One of the biggest misunderstandings about the Paleo Diet is that it's a meat-eating diet, or a super low-carb diet. This is not true

Answer 7

When I was a little girl my grandma used to make little pizzas.

1. 1 small can of biscuits (in the refrigerator section) not the large one, get the smaller rolls.
2. take the biscuits out and flattin them and place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
3. smear a little ketchup on them
4. add cut up lunch meat(ham, pepperoni)
5. add a little cheese
back for the time on the rolls.

My kids love eating them, and for my picky eater I don't put any meat on his.

Answer 8

Involve them in "special treats". Instead of beans bangers and mash ask if what shape sausages they would like -square ones, round ones, doughnut shaped ones, long ones (all intriguing for kids) - Just get sausage meat and shape your sausages accordingly, flour and fry. Give the beans a kick with Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup and a little mustard. Offer them their choice of mashed potatoes - special mash, super mash or superdooper mash - regular mash just has margarine mixed with them - add milk and whip them for special mash, add milk and an egg for super mash (and whip) or the ultimate addition: grated cheese to the super mash to give you superdooper mash.

They obviously have to agree on the type of mash but their sausages can be to individual choice (you can even let them make their own if you wish).

Answer 9

Buy a pizza bases, some cheese, tomato paste and your kids favourite toppings.

Give each of your kids a small pizza base, and spread on tomato sauce and cheese and then let the kids decorate the pizza with their favourite toppings, then bake the pizza for 15 minutes. The kids will have fun making their own pizza and i guarantee that they will eat it.

Answer 10

Tacos sounds like a good idea. it's easy to make and could be fun to let them make their own.

Fried rice is good too and very easy to make. here is an easy recipe we do at my house.

Polish sausage (hot dogs work fine too)
Onions (diced small)
carrots (diced)
frozen peas
2 eggs
cooked rice
soy sauce
sesame oil

over med heat. in pan cook carrots and onions until onions start to go clear. add diced sausages. cook for a couple minutes. add cooked rice. mix until rice is well incorportated. add a touch of soy (to your taste) and a touch of sesame oil (a little goes a long way) toss well. turn heat to high. crack 2 eggs over rice and again toss well untill all the egg is well incorporated into rice and cooked. enjoy.