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

[GinAndToeNailClippings]

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)

Miso soup with rice noodles. Soak the noodles in boiling water, drain. Make up the Miso soup with miso paste and fresh hot water. Add drained rice noodles, add veggies like carrots, mange tout or peppers. Add soy sauce if wanted. Sometimes I stick a couple of king prawns in (keep these in the freezer from the likes of Lidl or Aldi). Also loves cucumber maki rolls (sushi) but that's shop bought not homemade.

Mine are older now but soup and bread still goes down well- tinned, fresh tubs from the supermarket or homemade with some tiger bread etc and butter and they’re quite happy.

Ps quesadillas is the proper name for what I call pizza wraps.

When you say you have very little time to make dinner, do you mean hands on time or total time. Only ask as there are loads of really simple dishes that take very little time to prep but take a while in the oven.

I have a fussy 5 year old who absolutely loves sausage and mash (we use ready made mash and she gags on homemade) and also macaroni cheese. We have ours with roasted veg. She doesn't like it so has raw peppers and cucumber but you can put all sorts with it. They're both quick and easy to make and provided you can get some veggies in there are quite balanced meals.
We also let her make her own pizzas, find she picks more veg to put on that way.
I also make a mild mushy pea curry that she eats (have to blend the sauce smooth). It's just from pinch of nom/slimming world

Same as PP tin of tomato soup with crusty bread. Keep the par baked bread in the freezer to pop in the oven, heat the soup and done. They both love that aged 11 and 17.

Also crackers, cheese and grapes, with sliced apple.

Pancakes - the JO one cup recipe doesn't fail. Served with lemon juice, sugar and fruit.

Porridge with sliced bananas

Also supermarket fresh filled pasta and pesto or jarred sauce.

One of our quickest meals would be griddled pineapple and haloumi in a wrap with salad and coleslaw.

If you butterfly a chicken breast and bash it thin it will grill really quickly too. Easy to add flavour with paprika, lemon juice, garlic etc.

If they will eat tomato sauce you could do a simple version of shakshuka. Healthy and quick just serve with pita/wraps

Is there a trick to making fried rice or Chinese noodles? I've tried it many times using lots of different recipes but neither dh nor the kids like my fried rice or my noodles. 😔

Hands on time. I don't mind if the dish needs time in the oven.

My son is a fussy eater, has been for years.
*Philadelphia carbonara goes down well Recipe you could skip ham and I add peas or broccoli
*chicken pizza casserole is chicken breast tomato sauce (chopped toms, veg stock, basil or dried herbs) pepperoni slices (moved up to chorizo chunks now but he just leaves them) and mozzarella cheese on top.
*could you do quorn nuggets in a wrap with lettuce and mayo? With side of carrot sticks?

Microwave white rice (or boil in the bag stuff) mix in a can of tuna and any salad veg or steamed veg your kids like. Mix a bit of mayo through it- can have warm of cold in the fridge 👌

I scramble my eggs separately for fried rice, make sure not sticky and add to rice in pan.

I think they might love this. By blitz do you mean cut into pieces and then put it in the grinder / mixer / blender? Do you cook the broccoli?

Stovies

My kid's favourite

Honestly, thanks so much everyone. There are so many great ideas here. I'm really looking forward to trying them next week!!

I do the additions first, set aside.

Then I do the egg on it’s own. Once it’s properly cooked, I add the rice and it doesn’t go gloopy or weird.

Do you mean something like this:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/scottish-stovies

Dh, me and dd2 would love that but dd1 doesn't eat any kind of stew.

What the trick to making pancakes? Each pancake takes me forever. At least if I don't want to burn them. Do I just need more fat so that I can turn up the heat?

I have two DC (the youngest is bloody fussy but slowly getting better with what she will eat)
i tend to batch cooke once or twice a month and freeze stuff (I’m lucky to have the freezer space to do that!).

my “go to”/quick and easy meals would be:

-pasta with hidden veggies sauce.
-risotto.
-soups ( I make veggie soup and blend it smooth, or I’ll do a noodle soup with chunky veg)
-picky supper (salads, veggies, cubed cheese, baguette)
-macaroni cheese (and I add cauliflower, leeks and broccoli to it)
-curries (if I’ve pre-made and frozen them!)

we tend to follow a mainly vegetarian diet at home. I do buy/cook meat but it’s not very often at all.

I make the one cup recipe, so any size coffee mug, equal amounts of self raising flour, milk plus one egg and whizz it up. I use a small IKEA frying pan with a stainless steel base. Heat around a half tablespoon of oil and wait until its hot. Then I just spoon a ladel in and let it sizzle for a while. Sorry I never time it as I simply wait for bubbles to appear on the upside of the pancake then flip it over. I'd say I have it on a medium heat. This morning I made one that stuck a little, one perfect one and one slightly charred! They are so cheap to make I don't mind.

This one: www.sweettoothsweetlife.com/healthy-toddler-meals-easy-cheesy-spinach-pasta/

3 DC who all love it. 3 year old calls it 'his favourite green sauce' and wants it with everything.

It only takes minutes to prepare. You don't even need to follow it to the letter, just mix cooked spinach with cream cheese, done!

I sometimes add pine nuts, or cherry tomatoes, or leftover chicken, or even prawns. But its perfectly fine as it is.

Broccoli and cream cheese pasta. Boil broccoli with the pasta, reserve some pasta water and drain, Mash the broccoli in and mix the cheese and water in. My 14 month loves it

If you can leave things in the oven a while look for tray bake recipes. There are so many options and most can be chucked in and left. They are as simple as it gets and you can Taylor them easily to likes and dislikes. Chicken, sausage, cod, salmon, haloumi etc