What are your kids favourite dinners?

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What are your kids favourite dinners?

I have three under 7s. They're a bit fussy and I'm getting bored with making the same things over and over again. I need inspiration! What do your kids like? What always goes down well? Also, any tips for fussy eaters?

I won't list what they won't eat, it would take far too long...….

Some of mine are vegetarian so I often make one base and add different things, like vegetarian loved mushrooms but the meat eating one doesn't!
Homemade vegetable soup
Peanut butter stir fry
Gyoza
Lasagne
Chickpea/chicken curry
Tacos (loved by all and great as everyone adds what they want)
Mac cheese
Puy lentils with veg, mushrooms, tomato purée and creme fraiche (youngest doesn't like this!)
Risotto

Also, if they love bolognaise the make loads, freeze some and use for lasagne and tacos the next time (just changes spices a bit)

Quesadillas
One of mine is veeeeery fussy but I do build your own quesadillas and he'll eat them. Often with just cheese but it's a start!

Mine are fussy and like a mix different things but the things they tend to eat are roast dinners, spaghetti bolognese, macaroni cheese, fish pie, pizza, sausages, fish fingers, jacket potato

Pizza
Toad in the hole
Cheesy peasy pasta (literally just pasta with peas and grated cheese)
Gnocchi bake (exactly like a pasta bake but with gnocchi instead)
Jacket potato with cheese (we had some potatoes to use up so I baked some for my 4 year old and I one lunch time, she enjoyed it so much she asked me to buy more potatoes and make it again the next day)

Any kind of fish ... salmon is easy, in the microwave for a few minutes boiled potatoes and peas.

Baked potato with toppings
Pizza
Rice and chicken
Roast - normally have a midweek roast. Chicken in the slow cooker all day. Mash and veg easy.
Pasta

Normally meals take under 30 minutes.

Spag bol
Mac n cheese
Omelet
Sausages and veg
Lasagne
Deconstructed fajitas

Mine are fussy gits but things they both like are

• lasagne
• tuna pasta bake
• toad in the hole

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2 and 4yo both like:

Roast chicken dinner
Pasta bol or meatballs
Jacket potatoes
Chicken and salad Wraps
Bangers and mash
Tuna pasta bake w. Garlic bread
Fish fingers and beans / hoops
Cheese / ham sandwich w. Tomato soup
Pizza

That's about it I think (although they eat everything at a school / nursery!). They are not bad with veg we always have some kind of veg / salad, normally sweet corn/corn on cob, peas, broccoli, carrots or cherry toms and cucumber.

Homemade lasagne
Eggs and soldiers
Homemade pasty and potatoes

Make your own wraps (rule: at least 2 veg and 1 protein)
Soup (I don’t tell them what’s in it, they eat enough trying to guess what it tastes of to decide they like it. This even worked on courgette soup, and they all thought they hated courgette)
Tacos- the filling it part appeals
Lasagne
Roast dinner (pick and choose which bits to have from serving dishes, rule: at least 4/5 things)
Leftovers are frozen/ reused

Anything Mexican or Indian,
Most things you can make with mince,
Most kinds of stew, casserole or tagine,
Homemade pizza,
Fish pie,
I make a lot of the really easy flatbreads with plain yoghurt and s/r flour then fried, the kids love these with grilled meat or fish in various marinades, halloumi or paneer or various flavoured meatballs. I put the protein on the top of the flat bread and a sauce to match and then serve with salad. It's quick, can be prepared ahead and easy to let the kids help make.

Jacket potato with cheese & beans
Roast dinners - they always have seconds
Salmon & pesto pasta bake with cherry tomatoes in it too

My 5 year old likes
Chicken nuggets
Roast dinners
Sausages and mash
Turkey meatballs
Jacket potato and cheese
Tuna wraps
Spaghetti and cheese
Pepperoni pizza

She will reluctantly eat other stuff but they're her favourites.

My 2 year old likes
Ham
Bananas
Most vegetables (but NOT cucumber at the moment)
Weetabix
Chips

He gets given the same food as his sister which mainly gets ignored.

DS likes chicken or fish fingers with green veg and boiled potatoes
Pasta with cream cheese, pesto and vegetable sauce
Spaghetti bolognese
Pizza
Omlette and cherry tomatoes
Hummus bagel and cherry tomatoes
Filipino/Chinese food - made by PILs!
'Ham bamboo' - the antipasto where you wrap prosciutto round breadsticks

Macaroni Cheese
Lasagna
Sausage and chips
Pizza
Roast dinner
Build your own burrito
Teriyaki chicken and rice

I have a very fussy 4yo ehose always been fussy but what he will eat (most of the time) is...
Anything on toast!
Chicken cucumber & mayo wraps.
Sausage & beans (won't eat potato products of any sort)
Plain rice (sometimes with chicken)
Plain pasta (sometimes with sweetcorn & cucumber but cannot be mixed or won't eat it)
Toad in the hole.
Pitta & chicken with tazeiki dip.
Pizza - I buy a base & let them make own with selection of toppings (usually cheese, pepperoni & pineapple end up on it)
Fish or sausage and chips only from chip shop (this is rare that we get takeaways though)

Jacket potato cheese and beans

@AtleastitsnotMonday sorry to thread hijack but just wondering if you could post me your pasta bake recipe, sound like something my children would love but I literally don’t have the first clue how to make pasta bake, we always just have pasta and a sauce with chicken and broccoli! Do you cook the ingredients first? Use a sauce? Cook the pasta? Thanks so much

Teenagers who generally aren't fussy:
Chicken curry
Spag meatballs
Toad in a hole
Leek risotto
Roast
Beef a rendang
Stew
Stir fry
Soup, bread and camembett from the oven.
Left over day-whatever goes buffet

Top 5 joint favourites (or ‘brainless crowd pleasers’ which I heard as a description on the Lazy Genius podcast and loved... in fact it’s a good listen for stuff like meal planning etc)

1. Wraps/fajitas. Fill your own (but must include 2x veg). Usually do corn on the cob alongside too. Or dry-fried as quesadillas.

1. Risotto. Usually chicken because I make stock from a roast carcass and use the pickings in the risotto. Bung in whatever veg to hand e.g. frozen peas.

1. Meatballs in a tomato sauce. Serve with pasta or rice. Usually add broccoli on the side.

1. Turkey steak bashed thin and coated in spiced flour & Parmesan. Goes with whatever you like - spaghetti in tomato sauce, mashed potato, fried potatoes, chips, salad, whatever.

1. Any sausage-based meal!

Also, any tips for fussy eaters

Do meals in ‘components’ so it’s easy for them to avoid what they aren’t keen on with the minimum of fuss e.g. 2 types of veg (sweetcorn & broccoli), chicken separate from a sauce, pasta not coated in sauce etc.

Give them as much control as is possible/reasonable- we try to eat at the table together as a family and serve from the middle in dishes rather than plate up.

Keep cooking things they might not like as part of a week’s menu. I mentally think ‘well, they’ll need a more substantial breakfast tomorrow’ if they didn’t like tonight’s dinner, or I’ll give them a more filling lunch of something they particularly like if dinner will be more challenging.

Don’t get drawn into any drama. ‘I know’, ‘Don’t you?’ and ‘I understand’ with a neutral tone go a long way when there’s moaning and fussiness happening! Your job is to provide good food choices and a calm atmosphere, their job is to decide what and how much to eat.

My 5 year old is pretty limited and the toddler isn't much better. Our most reliable meals are spaghetti Bolognese (both will now eat sauce and spaghetti mixed together which is great progress) and fajitas/tacos (children eat plain chicken, sour cream, grated cheese and cucumber, DH and I have fillings with actual flavour). I put everything in bowls on the table, making sure there are a couple of things each one likes, and let them serve themselves.We

Meals I can get my 3 to eat are:
Meatballs in tomato sauce, rice, veg
Homemade pizza
Roast dinner
Spag Bol
Chickpeas, fried with green veg, rice and haloumi
Baked pots with tuna/beans/cheese
Noodles with edamame, quorn pieces, cashews
Burgers in bun and salad
Toad in the hole
Sausage and bean casserole
Beef and broccoli stir fry
Macaroni cheese
Pasta with tomato sauce
Nachos with mince, sour cream, avo, salad

My two are primary aged and good eaters, very thankful for that as we have always eaten the same food and I always cook from scratch. I dont eat pasta so it's actually quite rare they have it even though they love it.

Lasagna
Burritos or fajitas with all the veg/cheese/sour cream
Spaghetti bolognese
Macaroni cheese
Chicken curry
Risotto
Chicken noodle stirfry with veg
Homemade soup, usually carrot and lentil or butternut squash or leek and potato every weekend
Dahl and rice
Biryani
Chilli con carne/veg chilli and cous cous
Roast chicken and accompaniments, intact any roast dinner always with yorkie
Salmon and new pots/cous cous and veg
Tuna mayo jacket potatoes
Tuna pasta
Sausage and mash
Sausage and lentil or bean casserole
Chicken and chorizo tray bake with potatoes and peppers and onion
Baked cod with pesto crust and roast tomatoes