What are your favourite very quick and very healthy meals (that kids like)

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I'm a really bad cook and have very little time to put dinner together. I can make a few things and by a few I mean mostly pasta with tomato sauce. Except for that everything else I make I have to force it down my kids (20 months and 5 years old) at gun point. So we eat a lot of pasta, a lot of ready made food and a lot of take aways. I really want us to eat healthier but I have very little time and I suck at cooking.

I actually got a couple of ideas from the "can't be arsed to make tea" thread (and was heart broken that my pasta with tomato sauce was one of the arseless tea ideas) but I could really desperately do with some quick ideas that don't include lots of highly processed food and are still loved by kids.

(Also, I'm a vegetarian. I don't mind giving the kids meat but I've got no idea how to cook it so unless it's ready to eat like ham slices or tuna. I don't risk it)

I don't know if it counts as "very healthy" but mine like a picnic tea. If I'm absolutely stumped for ideas and sick of them turning up their noses at perfectly nice food, I do a picnic. Sandwiches/cold cuts, salads, tortilla, hummus etc. We get a picnic blanket out. If I cba with the blanket, I call it a smorgasbord and we eat at the table and include chicken skewers

Do they like the takeaways and if so what dishes? It might give us an idea of what they like and we can make suggestions for similar quick and easy meals.

Pizza wraps - fajita wraps with tomato, and cheese on into the oven for 10
minutes. They pick their own toppings- sweetcorn, ham etc. Generally serve cucumber on the side.

Fajitas - I just cook chicken with peppers, cumin and a tiny bit of paprika. Then we put all the bits in bowls and they make their own. Yoghurt, guacamole, tomatoes, sweetcorn, tortilla chips. They LOVE this.

They both love pasta and very plain steamed vegetables. They are quite good with their vegetables (especially the older one but she hates most other things) so whatever other crap I dish up I usually add a bowl full of steamed vegetables with just olive oil or butter. They like potatoes in any form. If we get take away it's usually pasta or pizza as the older one won't eat any other take away (and I try not to give the younger lots of take away food). They both like molten cheese on bread.

Boiled noodles, microwave steam veg and microwave frozen fish fillets with a big blob of butter.
Plain omelette, cucumber, pepper, tomato, toast
Couscous and veg with some cold chicken (buy some already cooked fillets)
Would they eat falafel and toasted pitta and Hummus?

crepe style pancakes spread with marmite with carrot sticks on the side

I keep those little rolls in the freezer that are part cooked and you heat up in the oven and cook one of those with soup

Pesto pasta with frozen sweetcorn/peas/ham/salami or whatever is in the fridge

Cheese and apple (grated and mixed) quesadillas

If they like fish then mixing a tin of tuna into your tomato pasta sauce would be fantastic.

It doesn't have to be complicated - omelettes or frittatas with veg mixed into the eggs would be a great tea (torn up bits of ham if you like for the kids).

Fried rice - pre cook rice and let it go cold then you fry it off with whatever veg and flavouring you fancy - soy sauce/garlic/oyster sauce for Chinese style, curry paste for "biryani" style. If you're worried about cooking meat then pre-cooked chicken shredded in would be great for protein for the kids.

Similar to this 'fridge tapas' worked when mine were that age.

Some protein - ham, cheese cubes, smoked salmon or prawns with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, apple slices and a hummus dip. Add some toasted pitta bread strips, bread sticks or potatoes (can do in the air fryer quickly), cold new potatoes, cold pasta etc.

Aside from that lots of things on toast are quick and healthy - beans, eggs, tinned mackerel, peanut butter.

Could you make mild chillis and curries to have with rice? Chicken and salad/veg in wraps?

Something we've just discovered that's immediately everyone's favourite dish is meatball soup. I made it for the first time last week and we've had it twice since then at DC's request 😄 Takes 20 mins from walking into the kitchen to dishing up.

Saute 1 finely chopped onion and 2 finely chopped peppers until slightly soft. Add garlic (I put a lot because we love it) and 12 beef or pork meatballs and fry until the meatballs are slightly browned. Add 2 tins tomatoes and 500ml veg stock. Simmer for 10 mins until meatballs are cooked through. Add a bag of spinach for the final few mins and stir through. DH has some chilli flakes in his but me and the kids don't like heat.

Pack of Quorn sausages
Tin of tomatoes
Tin of black eyed beans
Some garlic (I use the tubed stuff)
9-12 small salad potatoes
Put it all in a Pyrex bowl, stir then cook in the oven (180 fan assisted) for about an hour and a half

I often do bits and bobs. So usually some vegetables, avocado and eggs in some form. The older one is a very reluctant eater and severely underweight. It's a constant worry trying to get enough calories into her. Another reason why I desperately need ideas. I look up and use recipes but nothing has really been very popular. The younger one is quite fussy but she does eat enough quantity. If she doesn't like what we have she will happily eat toast with something but again I'd like her to have a more balanced and healthier diet. Unlike her sister she's quite chunky and the health visitor has asked us to keep an eye on her weight.

I think they might like this. Do you use fresh tomatoes, tinned, Passata or do you make tomato sauce?

Recently I started watching cooking shows with my 5 year old. There’s one with Nadiya from Bake off which is all about quick meals. She’s picked some of those recipes and we cook them together.

• Chicken/cheese/black bean quesadillas
• Wrap pizza (with chicken/ham/cheese/sweetcorn)
• Maggi butter chicken (add mushrooms, onions and spinach) - so quick and tasty
• Meatballs and pasta with Jamie Oliver’s hidden veg marinara (I make loads and freeze)
• Chicken Alfredo
• Chicken fried rice
• Chicken chow mein
• Baked cod with veggies
• Jamie Olive cod traybake

Thanks so much for all the great ideas!!

Veggie family here with an autistic fussy eater. "Mum noodles" is a favourite here, chop a bit of broccoli or any other veg your kids will eat. Get it boiling with noodles. Drain add seasoning and soy sauce, my kids love sesame oil. Either stir fry eggs or add chopped boiled eggs on top. Sounds fancy but you can hard boil the eggs in the same pan as the veg. Sainsbury's do a pack of 4 clumps of noodles in a pack that are perfect, use one clump per person. You can buy garlic pepper seasoning in jars, it transforms this and a lot of other dishes

When mine were little 5 minute dinners were chopped veggie hotdogs, noodles and broccoli boiled then drained with a bit of any vaguely Chinese sauce. Or ‘pizza wraps’ - a tortilla in a frying pan topped with pizza sauce, grated cheese and any pizza toppings, second wrap on top and cook both sides then slice. Or fridge frittata- beaten eggs, cheese and whatever leftover cooked veg and protein happens to to lurking in the fridge.
nb we were poor, my children’s cousins were taken out for dinner when their parents couldn’t be arsed to cook. If only.

The older one also won't have anything with gravy or very "wet". She won't have curries and she doesn't eat anything very chewy like steak. She does like rice but just plain with butter or with yogurt. I think one of the issues we have is that we don't know what she likes (as she seems to dislike most food) except for pasta and jacket potato (but she has that in school all the time so don't want to make it at home as well).

These ideas are great. I'll try the ones we haven't had yet and hopefully a few of them will click.

The younger one won't eat chicken though she's young so she might change her mind if I offer it often enough (or maybe when she's got more teeth to chew it).

Just use a thin layer of chopped tomato from a can. This is literally 10 mins prep. 10
in the oven.

I actually really like these. I've had pizza wrap before but didn't know what it's called so couldn't look up how to make it.

Need to look up frittata. I make a decent crustless quiche that the kids like. I'd totally forgotten about that. Haven't made it in ages.

Mine also love rice noodles, veg and a bit of soy sauce. Super quick and a ch far the from endless pasta.

Scrambled eggs / omelette with soffritto mix / chopped onions & cheddar. I have packs of these in my freezer just for this!
Boiled egg + avocado
Sautee chopped chicken with soffrito mix & add garlic and no salt chicken broth. Bring to boil and add egg noodles. DS and DH both love this noodle soup.

Blitz a whole broccoli, squeeze half a lemon, tblspn of cream cheese and handful of grated cheese. Stir into pasta. It’s quick and they all eat it!

My toddler will eat almost anything if it’s mixed through fried rice.

You can make it really quickly if you use those sachets of microwaveable rice (just fry it instead if microwaving it). Fry some egg in a wok (or just a pan if you don’t have a wok) and then add the rice. Add a tiny bit of soy sauce at the end if you like.

You can put almost anything in it. Just stir fry it, put it to the side, then mix it through the fried rice just before you are done cooking it.

Frozen soffrito mix (carrot, onion, celery) works well in it (tiny bits!) or any frozen veg (peas and sweetcorn is a classic!). If you have time for chopping things like mushroom, pepper, mange tout all work well. And/or handfuls of fresh spinach. You can add garlic or ginger or whatever you like too. It’s a good way of just using up stuff lying around.

You can add any kind of meat too - chicken, pork, beef, prawns, whatever you like. Cook it first (like or with the veg) or chuck in cooked meat (leftovers are good, or chopped up ham, or even chopped up hot dogs?) while you’re frying the rice.

versatile and quick.