Toddler and Family Meals: Recipe Exchange

[lilcapeanut]

I am quickly running out of ideas for foods to feed my 15 month old. I do post on the "What is your child eating today?" thread but I could really use some recipes. I thought it would be helpful for us parents to include recipes for toddler meals or family meals so that we'd have a nice collection and people could easily come here for ideas and recipes. Please join in!!!

[lilcapeanut]

Udon Noodles and Tofu with Orange-Soy Glaze

1. Cook udon noodles and set aside (I usually cook it 5 minutes more than the directions since my DS is 15 months old but not the best chewer).
2. Fry about 4 tablespoons of tofu cubes (medium firmness works well) until each side is light yellow and set aside.
3. In a hot pan, pour in about 4 tablespoons of OJ and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Simmer until it's been reduced to a thicker sauce.
4. Add tofu and noodles and stir. You can also not stir in the noodles and toss noodles w/some garlic salt for flavor.
5. You can also add some pre-cooked veggies for a balanced "one pot" meal.

[lilcapeanut]

Kung Pao Spaghetti

If your DC likes peanut butter, this should be a sure hit.

1. Cook about 1 cup of spaghetti noodles.
2. Marinate 1/2 lb. chicken w/ 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tsps. sugar and 1 tablespoon sesame oil.
3. Cut up some red bell pepper and broccoli florets.
4. Combine 1 tablespoon of peanut butter and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tsp. sesame oil.
5. Saute the chicken and set aside. Saute the bell pepper and broccoli (you can pre cook the broccoli so it's softer).
6. Lower the heat and add the noodles and pb/soy sauce and toss. Add the chicken.
Voila - enjoy. You can also replace the chicken w/tofu for a nice vegetarian version.

I approximated amounts, so you can adjust to taste. You can also omit the sesame oil, if you want to keep it lighter. My DS is a slow gainer, so I add tons of oil for extra calories.

[prudies]

This is a great idea!

It's too late for me to write up recipes, but I'll come back.

I've had great success (meaning everyone - DH, DS and me - liked it) with fritattas and a recipe I have for parmesan chicken. The Parmesan chicken recipe is pretty easy. It's kind of my go to idea when I have chicken breasts and no ideas. I just slice up the breast meat into strips, dip them in egg and then roll in flour with salt and pepper, and then egg again and bread crumbs with a little grated parmesan. I pan fry them until cooked through.

[linda_loo]

I'll have to think and then come back with a few recipes that everyone likes in our house... but I did want to say that I used to make special dinners, with the toddlers in mind. That got old, and now I just cook what we like and they eat it. I usually add something, by adding a certain vegetable fruit or grain that I know they will like, but never a special meal. I really wish I had done this earlier, it would have made life easier for everyone.

[Ohana]

Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 grated baby carrots
a few TBSP of very finely minced onion

Mix all ingredients together and shape into small balls. Fry in a little oil until browned on all sides and cooked through.

I freeze them in a single layer in a freezer bag so I have access to protein whenever I need some. I'll crumble a meatball in tomato sauce for spaghetti or drizzle gravy or sweet and sour sauce over them with rice.

[Ohana]

Disclaimer: I am a complete dump and pour cook and never really measure anything. I just mix everything together until it looks good

"Tuna Noodle" Salad

Cooked egg noodles
mayonnaise
canned tuna, drained

Mix everything together. Serve with peas and carrots

Fried Rice

Cold rice
Frozen peas and carrots
diced ham
soy sauce
egg (optional)

Scramble egg and push to one side of pan. Saute ham and veggies. When nearly heated through, add cold rice and gently stir fry. Add soy sauce to desired taste.

Chicken Tofu

5-6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (breasts would be ok, but may turn out a bit dry)
6 green onions
1/2 chopped white onion
1 package Chinese firm tofu
2 carrots, cut into thin slices
1/2 fish cake, sliced thin (optional)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 TBSP sugar
2-3 TBSP water

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Stir fry with green and white onion. When nearly cooked through, add tofu, cut into bite sized pieces, and carrot. When carrot is tender, add remaining ingredients, adjusting soy sauce and sugar to taste. Serve with steamed sticky rice.

DD (22 months) absolutely loves the tofu!

[Ohana]

One quick tip for veggies.

DH and I usually have salad with dinner, and DD doesn't really like it. So I give her frozen veggies instead. I pop a cup of water in the mcrowave and heat it until boiling. Add a few TBSP of veggies (peas and carrots or just plain peas work best) and let it sit until the veggies are warm enough to eat. Season as you like.

[Ohana]

Other ideas for toddler (and mom and dad) friendly dinners:

Potstickers (I buy them at Costco) with sticky rice
Anything pasta (spaghetti, yumghetti, beef stroganoff)
Burritos
Pita pizzas (get the pitas that are flat breads, not pockets, to use as a crust)
Gardenburgers (sans buns for the little ones)

[Pink_Converse]

Reviving a very old thread!

Anyone else have any ideas? We have been eating horribly around here. DS pretty much will only eat bread, pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets sometimes with ketchup, french fries, no fruit except applesauce, no veggies, very little meat, pinto beans, black beans, rice, tortillas, spaghetti, Easy Mac, pancakes, eggs sometimes, cheese, milk, diluted juice, his diet is just terrible. He's hard to trick into eating foods disguised in things, but maybe if I cut them smaller it would work? They tell me he eats mashed potatoes at daycare he eats peas, pears, pineapple and other things he won't touch at home! It's crazy!

So does anyone else have healthy recipes for the whole family? Maybe someone has healthier versions of childhood favorites like nuggets, fries, etc.?

TIA!

[Pine Tree]

For juice I just puree fresh fruit and add a bit of water to it. That way we have watermelon juice and strawberry juice and it has no more added sugar.

Current dinner favourites:

pasta with meat sauce

pierogis (buy them frozen - boil unti they float then quickly saute in a bit of oil with diced onions until they're golden. Serve plain,with applesauce, sour cream, mustard or ketchup for dipping)

Roasted cauliflower - break cauliflower into florets and toss with a bit of olive oil, roast in a 400 degree oven until light gold in colour -- DD loves this - easy for self feeders to eat (also good way to cook carrots and sweet potatoes)

Broccoli - saute sliced garlic then add broccoli and 2 teaspoons of water, cover and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Broccoli should be very bright green and tender - easy for self feeders to eat (also good way to cook green beans)


Scrambled eggs - add in chopped veggies

Soup - saute mild sausage or bacon, carrots, onions until cooked. Add in garlic. Add in can of crushed tomatoes, can of white beans. Season with basil. Simmer for a few minutes. Toss in a small pasta (like shells) and cook until tender. This really thickens up a lot in the fridge so for leftovers you may have to add in water or stock to thin it out. This purees and freezes nicely too.

French toast - beat one egg with either milk or water. Add 1/2 t of vanilla. soak bread and then pan cook until golden. Can serve with syrup, mashed up fruit or plain

Egg drop soup - boil chicken stock with chopped carrots until almost tender, add small pasta like stars. Beat an egg with a little water and then drop small spoonfuls into the boiling stock. Can also add other veggies like green beans.

Hummus and steamed veggies for dipping (green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower)

[Renrel]

Mediterian chicken


This is not an exact recipe we made it up and the amounts are what we have and feel like at the time.


saute some boneless chicken breasts in the oil . DH does them whole and then cuts them I cut them and than saute.

Cut up in to bite sizeish or smaller pieces: marinated articoke hearts, sun dryed tomatos, olives, mushrooms, peppers, and/or any mediterainian vegs you like/have on hand. Fresh or marinated. We sometimes add potato and/or sweet potatoe.

Saute up the vegis in some oil and maybe some of the marinate from the vegis.

Make a sauce out of marinade from the vegs (we get a huge jar of articokes from Costco and use this) and some broth - chicken or vegi. Add the chicken and the sauce to the sauting vegis along with some capers.

Heat it all till hot. Serve over rice, noodles or potatoes.

We like this recipe because we always keep the marinated vegis in the fridge so we don't need to have shopped specificly for the ingredants.

You can also make extra of the vegis and use it to make a frittata on another day. We add left over fish, potatoes and sweet potatos to the frittata so that it is not so heavy on the cheese and it is really yummy. Makes a great brunch or dinner item.
----
Roast chicken
--
Make a marinate/paste out of oil, lots and lots of garlic, some salt and paprika. Let marinate sit for at least an hour. Rub it all over a whole chicken- under the skin as well. Let chicken marinate for at least 8 hours. The longer the better, though of course you need to be careful that the chicken if fresh if you are going to let it sit for over a day. Roast in a covered pot with carrots, potatos and onions at 450 till done. Uncover it about 10-15 minutes before you think it should be done to brown. For presentation you can brush some apricot jam over the skin, it makes it shiny but does not really add any taste.

(sorry there are not times or amounts. The time will depend on how big a chicken and the amounts are always by eye.)

[Chimichanga]

My DD loves Naked Nuggets. We buy them at costco. Bascially they are chicken nuggets sans the breading. Easy to pop in the microwave and serve.

A thought to increase fruits/veggies - have you tried V8 Fruit Fusion? My DD LOVES it! I've tried it too and it's good. There is only natural sugar (no added) and has *I think* 1.5 servings of fruits and veggies per serving. I mean - it's V8 it definitely is good for you :)

Our DD eats what we eat. She gets a mini burger, pasta, whatever we have. Sometimes it takes her longer to eat, or she'll only eat her bun and not her burger. When she says she's hungry later; guess what she gets? Her burger :) She will eat it and be full. Surprising how that works ;)

[AlisonCO]

So does anyone else have healthy recipes for the whole family? Maybe someone has healthier versions of childhood favorites like nuggets, fries, etc.?


I do make homemade pizza and nuggets occasionally but my kids eat what we eat.

If your kiddo will eat tomato sauce on pizza or noddles you could make your own - cans of tomato (I do crushed, diced and sauce) some finely chopped veggie but you could also puree the whole thing (zuchini, onion, garlic, carrots, bell pepper). I do the veggies in a bit of oil until soft, add tomatoes and simmer. I also use this sauce for baked ziti. Cook some pasta add sauce, riccotta or cottage cheese, mozzerella and mix and put more cheese on top- put in a dish, cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes at 350

For nuggets I cube some tenders or breasts and coat in a small amount of mayo and dijon mustard (I know it sounds gross but it keep them way more tender and flavorful than egg) and then coat in seasoned bread crumbs. Bake at 400 for 15-20.

For fries you can cut sweet potatoes into strips and lightly coat with oil and salt - bake in a single layer on a cookie sheet until crisp. It takes about 45 minutes at 425.

We do beans once a week in quesadillas, burritos, taco salads or beans and rice.

Homemade mac and cheese is pretty easy, freezes well and you could add some small veggies that are orange like the cheese. My kids love it with peas and ham.

I don't do seperate meals for the kids but all of our dinners are fairly kid friendly - roast chicken, bbq chicken, apricot chicken, veggie/turkey burgers, baked pasta, homemade pizza, stir fry, mexican, chili, soup, eggs.

[Renrel]

We do burgers every couple of weeks. I mix in a puree of spinach, broccolli and blue berrys along with some whole wheat flour and wheat germ to make them healthier. DS eats them with avacado, tomato, ketcup and pickle. A day or two later I will make burrittos out of the left overs. I break up the burgers, make a guacamolli out of the avacodo (adding a bit of puree spinch for good measure, the tomatos get cut up and DS also likes to add olives, chopped pickles and peanut butter. The pickles are a bit much but the rest all work well. The peanut butter not only tastes good and adds a bit more protein but it does a great job of glueing the darn thing closed so DS does not get frustrated by it falling apart.

[Renrel]

Our latest time saver is trying to make a dish early in the week that can be turned into cold left over sandwhichs later in the week. Mostly chicken but we were going to try meatballs this week and meatloaf would probably work. So nice not to have to cook or think about dinner one or two nights a week.

We also just did fruit salad with sour cream one day a week or so ago when the heat was unbarable. Everyone really enjoyed it and for once the fruit did not go bad in the fridge before we ate it.

Last night we grilled chicken breasts and potatos. The breast were ehh but the potatos came out well. I just sliced them, sprayed them with oil, salted them and put them on the grill, watched to see when one side was browned turned and did the same. The trick was paying attention so they did not burn. We also had a cumber and tomato salad since DS refused to eat leaves, but he decided he did not like cucumber last night either. ERRRR.

We also occassionally do eggs for dinner. Corn beef or salami fryed up and then added to a egg that is being scrambled, very yummy. Omlets would also be filling by DH does not like them.

We had a seasoned tofu call toffetti to mac and cheese to make it a bit more of a meal.

In the winter we do homemade pizza every couple of weeks. We get the dough and sometimes the sauce from burtuchis and out on our favorite toppings and cheese. We have a pizza stone which I think is critical to having these come out well.

[Mystikal]

Juicy Juice Harvest has fruit and veggies in it and is 100% juice.

Also, check out the deceptively delicious cookbook. Lots of good recipes in there that are kid friendly.

[Renrel]

I am partial to the Secret Chef cookbook myself though I have found a few recipes in the DD book. The egg puffs have worked well for a quick dinner on aa few nights.

[meatpie]

My son loves taco night (we make it with turkey). Just brown the turkey, serve with rice, tomatoes, avocado and cheese (he also loved tomatoes).

I also do pizza bread. Basically I take whole wheat bread, smear pasta sauce and cheese and bake for Jack. That way I can somewhat control the amount of sauce and cheese on the "pizza".

I agree that pasta with meatballs is really easy and goes over well.

The chicken parm sounds good and I'll try that soon.