School night meals for kids

[Ebby71]

Hi everyone. I’m looking for fast (picky-eater) weeknight dinners. Both my husband and son are the picky ones and feeding them has been quite a challenge. I need advice.

[Lil Reads]

What foods do they refuse to eat? Are there food allergies, food sensitivities, or religious restrictions involved?

[thaservices1]

My Mom would often make egg noodles and add a cream soup, like cream of mushroom, celery, or chicken, and then a half portion of meat, usually ground beef or leftover chicken. Corn, green beans, or spinach on the side. It's under 20 minutes prep and cook, and you can adjust it to their tastes. If they don't like cream soups you can use a quick gravy powder too. It is very like Hamburger Helper but you get to adjust the flavor and portions.
Crock pots, slow cooker are a big time saver too. Spaghetti and other sauces can be started in the morning and then you only need 10 minutes for the pasta. I am big fan of BBQ sandwiches, beef, chicken, pork can be tossed in the slow cooker in whole chunks with bbq sauce and water and will be fine shredded by the evening. Same with meat for tacos and burritos. Casseroles can be made up and frozen for during the week. Bacon cheese burger casserole usually gets past the pickiest of eaters. Just throw slices of bacon in the bottom of the dish, a layer of burger, some cheese and a layer of instant mashed potatoes. It's a longer cooking time, over an hour from frozen but it just pops in the oven a leaves you free to do other things. Frito pie is another quick casserole that goes over well, corn chips, a can of chili, can of corn, and cheese on top, always a hit. With some salsa and sour cream, very yum.

[Corina Elena]

It depends on what your family likes to eat, right? You can try meal prepping, look it up.

[Thehorselover]

I make a five day meal plan for the week and let the kids pick what I’m making. So I’m always stocked on the ingredients and know what we’re having and they’re always happy.

[Browneh]

An excellent way to help children sneak in their 5 a day is to make a tomato/marinara sauce with hidden vegetables!

You can find some great recipes out there but the easiest way to describe it is to get some vegetables (peppers, onion, tomato and courgette work the best) and blend them into a tomato-based sauce. Great with pasta, meatloaf, as a base for curries, chicken, etc.

[RavingReads]

One pot meals are the best. There are several pasta dishes that are quick to make and are versatile for picky eaters.

[PeterRabitt20]

When my mom was too tired to cook, she would put a long baguette and a plate of all types of cheese and olives. That was dinner.

[Cheryl Erickson]

When my two boys were younger, they enjoyed spaghetti, chicken nuggets, turkey melt sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, beef stew, macaroni and cheese, chicken drumsticks, turkey burger meat patties with cheese on top, and pesto angel hair pasta. On the side they liked corn, green beans, carrot and cucumbers with ranch dip, broccoli with cheddar cheese on top, and fruit salad. They always loved a sourdough roll or Hawaiian roll as well.

[Brunette2]

It only depend with their preference, prepare what they like

[Crs webco]

Check out freezer meals online for some quick easy meals. My favorite sites are Freezer Fit and The Family Freezer but there are many others as well. Both sites do videos of free recipes. I'd be happy to send you a link to them.