What's for Dinner? Help!

I belong to Cafemom. They have several groups for cooking. The sight is free and you can just use the groups you want. I am in several groups for cooking and raising kids. I am back in mama mode with my granddaughters now, after a lot of years of just being granny.

Try www.kraftfoods.com. They seriously have some of the best recipes and they are super simple. Most of them have a prep/cook time less than 30 mins. I highly recommend the 1 bag 5 nights section. It's one bag of groceries and you can make 5 nights of dinners from it. (Granted the 5th night is a frozen pizza) You can also sign up to receive their free emails and magazine. When I first started cooking dinners for my husband and I, I was totally clueless in the kitchen. Kraft became my 'go to' place for recipes. Cooks.com is another good website, but some of the recipes are sort of lengthy. At the Kraft site, you just enter what ingredients you have and they'll bring up recipes for you. Happy Cooking!

Don't forget breakfast foods aren't just for breakfast! I get in a rut too, so we will have bacon and eggs, or pancakes with sausages. Toast, o.j., grits, taters, fruit, etc. All at 6PM!
I even shake things up at breakfast on each of my kids' birthdays. We have birthday cake for breakfast! I decorate the kitchen with streamers, balloons, and party hats. They wake up to a party AND get cake for breakfast. LOL They love it.

Have fun!

Great question K.! I stole some of the recipe ideas below, I love to try out new things. I'm a big fan of cooking a lot over the weekend then only having to reheat during the week (I work 2 days/week so those days we reheat). Anyway, I get a free weekly email from parents.com with recipes that are all kid friendly. Hope that helps!

K.:

I am in the same boat with my 9 month old. Below is a recipe that is super easy. I'm not sure if you're trying to limit sodium exposure (If so, you can leave the soy sauce out and season the way you want it.) but it has a great mixture of meat, grains, and veggies. In total it takes about 30 min to prepare and 30 to bake. Good luck!

CHICKEN, VEGGIE AND RICE CASSAROLE (EASY!)

1 1/2 - 2 lbs chicken (cooked and cubed, or ground)
1/2 c. chicken broth
3-4 c. white or brown rice (cooked)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1/4 c. milk
2 T. soy sauce
1/3 c. sour cream
1 c. corn (drained)
1 c. green beans (drained)
1 c. frozen peas (cooked)
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
(You can add any other veggies if you want, carrots, broccoli, lima beans, etc. or you can just cook 3 c. frozen mixed veggies in place of the three options above)

Cook chicken in broth in skillet, cut in bite-size pieces, and set aside. Cook rice (minute rice or rice cooked in a rice cooker) and set aside. If using frozen veggies, cook and set aside. If using canned, go to next step. Combine in a large bowl mushroom and chicken soups, milk, soy sauce and sour cream. Add chicken, all veggies and cheese to sauce mixture. Pour into 9x12, greased (I prefer non-stick spray) baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 min. or until warmed through. Makes about 6 adult servings.

I have a cookbook called 6 Ingrediants or Less and 6 Ing. or Less Cooking Light and Healthy. They have a bunch of great recipes in there and its 6 ingr. or less. For the most part its stuff you have already in the kitchen pantry. Its also great for us moms who arent "kitchen friendly".
SZ

Tatertot casserole is a great one that most kids really like. Also, I subscribe via email to Better Homes and Gardens daily and weekly recipes. If you go to www.bhg.com and click on recipes, there is a box that says sign up here for them to come to your email. Each day I get new ideas and they send a weekly one too. Sometimes they have some geared towards kids and a lot of times you can find quick easy meals. Good luck! I know my kids were picky when they were younger (12 and 6 now) and sometimes they still are!!

I make a goulash recipe from the food network that is easy and very good. It consists of ground turkey and ground beef, macaroni and other simple ingredients. Just log onto foodnetwork.com and in the search put in Bobby's Goulash. The only modification I make is that I cut way down on the salt content! It is really become one of my family's favorite things!

H.

Great question! We all get in dinner ruts. I have to mention this one since no one has mentioned it yet (maybe it's just too obvious!).... Tacos are an easy dinner that everyone loves. Rice and Roni makes a really good whole grain Spanish rice that is a great side dish and is so easy to make. Pick your meat of choice - ground chicken, turkey, beef whatever. Add a packet of low sodium taco seasoning to directions. Serve with corn or flour tortillas or crunchy taco shells and your favorite toppings - cheese, guacamole, salsa, etc. I give my 2 year old chunks of the meat, rice and corn on the cob. He eats it up and asks for more.

I am sure you are getting tired of some of these but:
Meatloaf is quick, easy to chew and can be healthy.
Macaroni salad if fixed with meat in it such as tuna or chicken and peas, served cold is quick, easy and easy to chew.
Chicken with Spag. sauce. The chicken can be cooked in the micro in less than ten minutes, drained, Spag. sauce poured over it and heated.
Ham can be cooked on the weekend, cut into finger sticks like chicken and served during the week with any of your favorite vegetables and fruits. It is great cold too.
Alfredo noodles with boned chicken added, you can use frozen broccoli and fresh tomatoes. Quick and easy to chew.

Hope at least one of these helps.

Naturally you can always resort to hamburger, chicken, or tuna helper type dishes, they come in a variety of flavors and children love them. Just like they like boxed macaroni and cheese to which you can always add tuna or chicken with peas.

Well...I know I have responded to a few other requests, with the answer of a chart. My son, who is 3 1/2 now is VERY picky when it comes to eating. He is a very healthy eater, no doubt about that, but when it comes to his "choice foods", it's very limited. And he has been very difficult to get to try new things. I got Jessica Seinfeld's book, "Deceptively Delicious", and I think that whole idea is awesome. However, most of us don't have nannies and whatnot so that we have time to prepare all of the stuff in the cook book. What has worked wonders for me with my son, on a variety of different things, is a chart. My parents and friends always scolded me for making my son his own dinner while we ate something else. "It was never like that when you were little, you ate what we had for dinner or nothing at all...", so on and so forth. So I have started to implement that. Some nights, for dinner, if it's something simple he wants, I will make him his favorite little bowl of spaghetti or whatever. But I have made him up a chart, and everytime he tries something new, he gets a sticker on it. (He also gets stickers for everyday activities) But to get a whole day's worth of stickers, he has to try something new. At the end of the day, he is thanking me, because he really liked what he tried, and is going on and on about how it is so good to try new things. I hope this helps! If not, I would wait it out a little bit...Their little taste buds are really sensitive at a young age! Good luck!

One of my favorite cookbooks is one written for kids from Pampered Chef. It's called "Let's Eat". I went to www.pamperedchef.com to see if you can buy it on-line, but it doesn't look like they have it anymore. You might check with their customer service to see if they have any available. My whole family loves the Meatball Soup recipe, the Pita Pizzas, and the Burger Bites!

This is so easy and good for all ages! I usually make double the recipe and make 2 at one time - one for dinner that night and put the other in the freezer for a quick dinner another night. (I do that with most "casserole" type dishes - lasagna, meatloaf, soups, etc. for quick meals.) It's also a great meal to take to a friend who is sick or recovering from surgery/baby.

I serve this with steamed broccoli and a salad.

CHICKEN POT PIE

Ingredients
2 - 9” pie crusts
1 can veg-all, drained
2 cans cream of potato soup (or other cream soup of your choice)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/4 tsp. Thyme
1/2 - 1 cup cooked, diced chicken

Directions
Line pie plate with 1st pie crust. Mix all ingredients together and pour into pie plate. Cover with 2nd pie crust. This can also be made with only one pie crust to cover the top.

oh this is a fun one i'll have to save this thread, lol.
anyways tonight is
cube steak, brown in a skillet on both sides
add a can of cream of mushroom soup and about half a can of water
cover and cook on low till the steak is fork tender
you can add baby carrots and potatoes as well

or you can make with mashed potatoes and have instant gravy

or serve over rice

this also works for chicken and pork chops or even pot roast

another easy substitution is to use onion soup mix

Hi K.! I think the pasta brand is Barilla (the blue box) that now makes some of our fav pasta shapes in smaller sizes which would be perfect for both your kids. While you're in the pasta aisle, check out the varieties of whole grain and some that offer omega 3s.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is to cook w/ boneless chicken breasts and balsamic vinegar: saute the chicken and add some of the vinegar which cooks down to a thick sweet glaze that my kids LOVE. This goes great w/ pasta or you can add to salads. Cook extra because any leftovers can be served cold the next day!

Dinnertime is my least favorite chore, too, w/ an almost 10-yr old daughter and 3 1/2 yr-old twins and hubby who works later. But...I do guess it's better than cooking only for myself!

K., Ohio

Hi! I thought I would pass along one of my faves for dinner. Do you have a crockpot?? If so, an easy roast, potatoes, and carrots. Line the bottom of the crockpot with potatoes, then add the carrots (not in the can! buy a bag from the produce at the store), then lay the roast on top. Season with salt, pepper, maybe a little garlic or other seasons that you like. Chop alittle onion for flavor. Add enough water to fill just above the roast and cook on low for 8 hours. Should come out nice and tender and the little ones should be able to eat it easily. I have a few more if you would like them.
~H.

You have lots of good ideas form other posters. Here are a few more.
My husband is on a sodium-restricted diet so I have to be careful about what I fix and how it's prepared which means no box dinners, prepared soups, pre-packaged rice or side dishes, etc. I pretty much only shop th eouter ring of the grocery where the fresh stuff is. Only periodically do we eat something made with a cream soup base or a prepared sauce.

With that in mind, my favorite thing to cook for dinner this summer is packets on the grill. Take a pound of raw protein, sliced into thin strips or bites, add a pound of your favorite vegetable cut into cubes or chunks, add some olive oil and seasoning (we got some good seasoning combos from USA Weekend magazine's article "Dinner in a Foil Packet"- no time to google the link for you now, sorry), stir and divide into four large pieces of heavy duty foil. Fold up the foil into packets, crimping the edges several times to prevent leaks, and cook on a hot grill for about 8 minutes. Poor each packet over a serving of whole wheat pasta and there's dinner.

If your kids are into chicken fingers, buy the better frozen kind (all white meat, larger pieces) and make mini cordon bleu for you and DH, kids too if they're up for it, by adding a slice of deli ham and cheese to the top for the last few minutes of baking.

I've posted this suggestion before for finger food, but it's a great side dish too. Edamame (soy beans) are a great source of protein and pretty light flavor-wise so kids don't find them as offensive as some other beans or veggies. You can find them in the frozen veggies at the grocery, in the pod (which is not edible) or already shelled (which is usually cheaper but less fun at the dinner table since there's no shelling to be done).

HTH-
J.

Here's an easy one:

Chicken Tetrazini...Oven @ 350
Cook some spegetti noodles - set aside

In a pan saute about 1/2 an onion (I buy frozen bags of chopped onions - it doesn't go bad - I don't have to chop and clean-up - REALLY handy!)
Add 2 cans of chicken chunks (or cook 2 chicken breast and shred)
Add either 2 cans of cream of chicken or 1 can cream of chicken and 1 can of cream of mushroom
Add milk (just over 1/2 of one of the cans)
Mix together until smooth.

This is baked like a lasagna.

In a rectangular dish. Layer:
noodles
Sauce
Cheese (I use colby/jack)
noodle
Sauce
Cheese

Cover and bake for about 20 minutes.
Serve!
Tastes even better the next day as left-overs!

Good luck!

Hi,
I have a hard time also, work part-time as a nurse and my husband and I aren't always home with our 3 year old daughter at the same for dinner, so I found putting stuff in the crick pot is always easy and turns out good. The veggies and meat are always tender and you can let it cook all day while you are doing other things.You can get may recipies on line and crockpots are fairly inexpensive! Good luck!!

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

1 8 ounce package medium noodles
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup chopped green onions
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Cook noodles in boiling salted water. Rinse and drain.

Brown meat in butter, then add salts, pepper and tomato sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, chopped onions and noodles.

Alternate layers of noodle mixture and meat mixture in a 2 quart casserole dish,
beginning with noodles and ending with meat. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned.

Serves 8.

Hi K.!

When in a pinch, I make cheese quesadillas. Flour tortillas with shredded cheese in it. My girls love them, though they take them apart to eat. I put in left over grilled chicken and onions for my husband and I. I will serve with some fruit and a salad. I put a few lettuce leaves and a tiny bit of dressing on it for the girls. I always put whatever we are eating on their plate too. Just in case they are feeling adventurous. It also helps that at dinner, I serve them on divided plates so things that they do not like don't touch - can be an issue some times.

If I have time and I am thinking about it, I will make a package of yellow rice and maybe some black beans. My girls love the rice, even though it is messy.

This is definitely one of my go to meals when I do not have much energy or time has slipped by and I need to put dinner on the table quickly.

Good Luck!
K.

My kids and I love Scalopped chicken and its easy to make

8oz chicken cooked and cut up (or Canned chicken drained)
1 10.5 oz can cream chicken
1 10.5 ox can cream mushroom (if you dont like mushroom use 2
cans of cream chicken
10oz of Velvetta cheese
16 oz bag noodles any brand
1 can milk (use soup can)
crushed saltine crackers

Bring soup, cheese, and milk to low boil and stir till cheese is melted stir in noodles. Continue to cook until the noodles are almost tender/al denta. Stir in chicken. Put in 9x13 baking dish. Cover with crackers. Bake 350 for 25 to 30 mins

I have another if you like rice hamburger and peas let me know
Good Luck!

K.- I have 4 children ages 6, 3, 22 months and 5 months. My 3 older sons love to have easy to eat meals. I have recently went on the Kraft web site and found about 5 different meals that you can make in under 45 minutes and you can customize them for picky eaters, allergies, ect. Also use other name brad web sites. Almost all web sites have a recipe section. Our new favorite is chicken and rice soft tacos. My kids love food they can eat with thier hands and so do I less dishes to mess with. Hope this helps.

I know you have a lot of suggestions, but I'll add my two cents!! :) I use allrecipes.com I like it because it has reviews of the recipes. People will write in and make changes or let eveyone know how well it was like by their family, etc. It has many categories and different variations to common recipes. I can browse through and find the recipes for what I happen to have on hand. The site has categories for different cooking methods as well as the foods themselves, such as "Mexican", "Italian", "chicken", "side-dish". Anyway, I hope this helps.
PS- I also agree that crock-pot cooking is pretty slick. You won't want to put veggies in it to cook, unless it's at the very end, but those can be whipped up in a very short amount of time. It just takes a little bit of forethought to what you want to make for that day or the next day. The meats are really tender and would be easy for your son to chew.

I fix this one skillet meal that my mom made for me as a kid and my 12 mo. old LOVES it! I use ground turkey but you can use hamburger if you want. Fry 1 lb. of turkey in a skillet, drain, and set aside. Then get beef Rice A Roni and make it according to the directions. When you get to the point where it simmers for 15 minutes I add mixed veggies the last 5-10 minutes then I put the turkey back in. SO easy to make and the entire family loves it! Plus it's a home cooked meal so it makes you feel good you cooked for your family, too :-) Enjoy!

Hi K.,

I've been using 3 of Annabel Karmel's cookbooks. They're great for having leftovers to freeze for later in the week. She also gives us lots of tips on how to make meals healthy and fun for the kids. I have three of her cookbooks. My only complaint is that some of the recipes are duplicated in the books, but she more than makes up for it with the other information she has included with each recipe. Her recipes are easy and fairly quick to make. Most of her recipes take less than an hour. Many are around 30 minutes cooking time. I like cooking, but I have a disability with one of my hands. I was originally left-handed, but now have to do everything with my right hand. I accidently cut the tendon in my left thumb. Anyway it greatly slows down my preparation time when cooking, yet I can still manage to get these recipes done fairly close to the times she has suggested. I guess that any of her books are going to be good, but here are the ones I have and what I like about each one.

Top 100 Baby Purees: I made my son's babyfood. He loves all the veggies that I have given him. Some of the recipes in here are so delicious that I have addapted them to make adult food, by simply not pureeing them at the end and adding in some extra veggies.

SuperFoods for Babies and Children: This book is full of useful information on how to make meals more nutritious. It has tips for coping with fussy eaters, meal planners which help keep me organized, and some of the presentation ideas are eye pleasing to children (and adults too)which helps to make eating fun for everyone.

Favorite Family Meals: The best thing about this book is that she starts out with how to organize a healthy pantry, freezer, and refrigerator to always have food on hand that can easily be transformed into many different meals which kids will eat. The book has chapters on breakfast, lunch, and dinners, as well as some low-fat recipes, vegetarian recipes, and desserts. Some of the recipes can even be made with the kids helping!

When I ordered these, I was worried if it was going to be worth the money and effort to read them, but I have been completely satisfied. It is such a good feeling to cook healthy home cooked meals for my family. Plus, I don't really have to think about what I am going to make for dinner anymore. I know that I have the ingredients on hand. I still make my old favorites sometimes, but her books have become my staple on cooking. You can check out her website at www.annabelkarmel.com to see some samples of her recipes. Happy Cooking,
D.

Dear K.,

In addition to the recipes from kraft.com and Kraft's free magazine, my family loves food from the Desperation Dinners cookbooks.

The recipes are very family friendly - you can find meals that little ones and adults enjoy, then work your way into some new ones as taste buds grow up.

But the best part is, all the meals are designed to be cooked in about 20 MINUTES OR LESS! It really works! Most are stovetop, to eliminate baking time, but even the few that include baking are super-fast. My kids adore one of the baked chicken recipes that cooks up in 15 mins.

Hope that helps!
S.

When I find myself getting into a rut the first thing I do is sit down with a pen and paper and write out all the things I know how to make. Sometimes I just get into the routine of certain things because the kids all like them or they are easy and I forget other things we used to eat, or that I had made and they liked. It helps jog my memory.

Then I go to www.recipezaar.com and start looking up new recipes. If you go to recipes and then click to open the recipe sifter you can narrow down your options to make the search more specific. For instance you can click on "beef", "main dish", "5 or fewer ingredients", and "30 minutes or less." and then it will give you all the recipes that fit all 4 of those combined criteria. Then of the results I usually sort them by rating so I only look at the ones alot of people have tried and liked. I have found lots of good stuff on there.

Good luck looking!

L.

That's a tough one.

My daughters LOVE chicken nuggets. They'll really eat about any kind of chicken, but nuggets are preferred. They like spaghetti and breadsticks. Bananas and apples/applesauce are always hits. Mac-n-cheese is hit-or-miss. Cheese always works.

One thing that's worked pretty well is a Mr. Food recipe called "Fancy Fast Chicken":

**4 chicken breasts (I usually use chicken tenders and cut them up before putting them in the casserole dish)
**Swiss cheese - 4 slices
**Cream of something soup (I usually use cream of chicken with herbs
**maybe 1/2 cup of white cooking wine
**seasoned stuffing (I've used stove-top, butterball, or Pepperidge Farm - Pepp.farm's usually best)
**Stick of butter, melted

>>Place chicken in a casserole dish and place a piece of cheese on top. (optional - if you want to put sliced mushrooms in at this point, you can)
>>Mix the soup with the wine, then pour over the chicken/cheese
>>Put the (dry) stuffing over the entire casserole (however much looks right to you) - then drizzle with the butter
>>Bake for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is done.

You can make long-grain wild rice (not sure the kids will like that much), or regular rice - we usually make egg noodles.

Our girls typically do a good job with this - and it's something that (aside from chicken prep) that your 4 year old would LOVE to help mommy make!

I'm on Babycenter for moms due in September. Recently there was a thread where lots of recipes were posted. I copied them into a file and organized them. I can forward the recipes to you if you want. Email me at ____@____.com if you want them.

one easy dinner is -

make mac and cheesse from the box - add a can of tuna and a can of mushroom soup - heat through and then add some frozen "peas & carrots" then heat again to make sure all is hot... it is great!!! We make the mac and cheese then only make about 1/3 of the noodles with half a can of each - and freeze the rest for next time - everyone LOVES mac and cheese a little more than the tuna noolde... but it is great, too!

I have another recipe for something similar to lasagna but much easier and quicker... let me know if you are interested in that :)