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)

Another stupid question: I always see cream cheese in recipes and in some posts here. I can never find it in the super market. Is this just soft cheese like Philadelphia?

Yes Philadelphia is cream cheese.
These are some examples of the tray bakes I mentioned.

My dc loves teriyaki anything. Meat, fish, vegs. Teriyaki sauce is just mix of soy sauce and sugar. ( if you want to make it properly, it's rice wine/mirin/soy sauce, but if you are not fussy cook, soy sauce + sugar is good enough.)

Yup that's the one. Most supermarkets do an own brand too.

For fajitas, stirfries etc my kids have always preferred quorn chicken pieces to actual chicken.

Find a brand of stirfry sauces and curry sauces you like. Veg korma takes no time with a jar of pataks curry paste and a can of coconut milk and it's fairly kid friendly, they sometimes like it more with Nan bread than rice. Stir fries are dead easy with a blob of black bean or hoisin dolloped in. If you don't mind fish for the kids give them some prawns in a stir fry. You can keep the jars in the fridge so they are on hand for another tea. Buy fajita spice by the jar too if poss. Buy frozen cubes of ginger and garlic. Then meals are just assembling your protein, veg, seasoning and carbs.

You’re doing a great job OP. I hope some of my ideas are useful:

Tortelloni with tomato sauce just to vary it a bit!

Make your own pizzas. Buy wraps or pizza based and passata. Top with pre cooked things eg ham, ready cooked chicken, olives, sweet corn, cheese. In oven roughly 10 mins or until cheese is bubbly.

avocado / cheese / eggs / baked beans on toast. Serve with any veg

pesto pasta for sauce variation! Less healthy though so add more veg to side

Do they eat fish fingers? Can be pretty healthy with any potatoes + veg they like

Falafel, humous, pitta

Halloumi burgers. Just fry slices of halloumi and add to buns with lettuce and tomato.

Omlettes

Jacket potatoes (long time in oven but then easy prep) with easy toppings that they pick themselves - tuna / cheese / salad / ham / beans etc

Veggie sausages and mash / chips (make yourself in oven)

my overall rule for dinners is a protein a carb and 2 veg. I find it easy to figure out meals from random things this way! Fruit is snacks and breakfast for us usually.

eg I’ll serve maybe some pre cooked chicken, pitta breads, cucumber and carrot sticks one day then sausages, chips, peas and broccoli the next.

Sausages, veggie or otherwise, cook those. Microwave frozen mash (you absolutely have to have frozen mash in your freezer at all times!) and ping or boil peas or mixed veg.

Minced turkey or quorn fried off with onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers, some fajita spices. Bag of the cheapest tortilla crisps. Put mince on the crisps, top with a can of chopped tomatoes and grated cheese and bake. Add a garlic baguette from the freezer if you fancy. (Tips: use a jar of Lazy Garlic, get bags of frozen ready prepared chopped onion, mushrooms, peppers from the supermarket and a bag of ready grated cheese. Also Holland and Barrett sp? sell bags of quorn type protein as mince or chunks and it's so cheap, tastes of nothing but is filling and a good base for stuff.)

The frozen jacket potatoes are great too! Microwave those, get a tub of ready made filler from the shop or dust off your bag of ready grated cheese. Or bung baked beans in the microwave afterwards. Share out a bowl of shop bought ready prepared salad and tub of coleslaw with some cherry tomatoes.

Yes that's stovies - well kinda

Stovies the way we make it Scotland it isn't quite like that but it's similar. My husband and kid's favourite meal.

With jacket potatoes, i put them in the oven on a sunday roast the roast, then once cooled put them in the fridge. Then they just need reheating for lunches in the microwave.

All my kids are obsessed with the Jamie Oliver super green spaghetti from his 5 ingredients cook book. And yes I know Mumsnet hates Jamie Oliver. It’s truly bizarre how much they like it considering what it’s made from! I do add some nutritional yeast to the sauce and lemon zest sometimes too.