Super easy lunch/dinner ideas for kids

[hettyforthright]

Please give me your go-to prepare it in 10-20 minutes with a baby in your arms lunch/dinner fall backs.

I have a baby, a 2 year old and a 4 year old and I need some inspiration for the lunchtimes and teatimes when you don't have time or free hands to get much done in the kitchen.

Our current super quick meals are:
Beans on toast
Egg on toast
Tuna pasta
Fish fingers and waffles
Chicken nuggets and chips
Cheese on toast

Usually with a side order of carrots, peas or sweetcorn.

All really boring. Please help me mix things up a bit!

Would they eat quesadillas? Cheese & ham (sometimes onion & sweetcorn as well) were a firm favourite with DS when he was little.

At that age mine loved felafels. I know that sound very Waitrose. They wouldn't touch them now but at that age they wolfed them down!

Lunches

Stuffed pitas, wraps, etc just changing up the bread can help.
Homemade lunchables
Crackers, soft cheese, sliced meats

Could you do things in the slow cooker or batch cook when you get some time so then you just need to reheat?

If they eat eggs would they eat tortilla/Spanish omelette? Morrison’s do a nice premade one. Also wraps, chicken and veg or noodles chicken and veg or naan, rice, chicken and veg work for my lot (they won’t eat sauces).

Yes, I do a bit of batch cooking when I can. I was quite good at always having lots of little pots of homemade curry, bolognaise and daal in the freezer, but I just don't get the time to do enough at the moment so I'm falling back more and more on the beans on toast options. And I feel a bit crap about it. Just need some more interesting alternatives.

Quesadillas, falafels and Spanish omelettes are good ideas. Thank you.

No idea if they'd eat it, but stir fry is really quick and easy! Maybe with a satay sauce if they like peanut butter?

I'm also a fan of bunging a load of veg in a roasting tray with a piece of fish or chicken on top. Root veg or summery veg (courgette, peppers, baby potatoes, tomatoes). Takes a bit longer to cook but very easy.

These might be a bit fancy for children though... My daughter lives mostly on pasta/noodles/bread/fishfingers so I might not be good at giving advice!

Lunch - sandwiches (on bread / mini rolls / wraps / pitta bread), toasties (you can buy toastie pockets that you stuff then put in the toaster), pasta, noodles, humous & pitta bread, soup and crusty bread cut in gingerbread shapes etc, omelettes, ready made quiche, hot dogs (with decent sausages), baked eggs, savoury muffins (prep night before).

Dinner - have you tried those mini stand & stuff boats (made out of tortillas)? My children love those and will eat things they'd normally frown on as they can put it in a boat. Lots of stir fries, Fajitas, chicken fried rice, oven baked risotto (mix it, whack in oven), baked potatoes & filling - obviously takes longer to cook but prep time is 5 mins or so, pasta (again!)!

My go to meal is cooking a pot of pasta, throwing in some frozen peas & broccoli near the end, then draining it and stirring in a tub of Philadelphia (currently the ham flavoured one), and some cut up meat/leftover shredded roast chicken etc. Huge hit with my 2&3 yr old!

Picnic plates of no more than 3 things, with some toast, for example:

Salmon (the hot smoked ready cooked, or a bit of smoked), avocado cubes, soft cheese.

Cut up peppers, cherry toms, cheese.

Ham, sugar snap peas, soft cheese.

The other thing we do when tired and miserable is stir fry some frozen mixed veg (peas, carrots, beans, corn) with a packet of the Tilda microwave rice. In particular the tomato or roasted veg flavours. Then grate cheese all over the top!

Omg Brillo that exact dinner got my 2 year old DS1 through a months-long food strike. He was literally living on air and carpet fluff and it was that pasta that got his appetite going again. I remember posting on here years ago, crying, convinced my PFB was going to starve. He's now 6 and loves a toddler finger food picnic plate dinner with piles of toast

Croissant with cheese

Hummus and pitta/carrot sticks

Sausage bap

Plain pasta/grated cheese and garlic bread

Meatballs/pasta/

Tortilla wrap with cucumber ham, cheese

Penne with broccoli and pesto.

In one pan.

Add Parmesan.

Dice tomatoes and mozzarella.
Add oil and basil.

Mix with hot cooked spaghetti.

Pepper and Parmesan.

Pesto pasta with green olives, mozarella & balsamic glaze (our 22mth old loves this)

Huevos con chorizo (£1 meals recipe)

Lamb & rosemary hash (the-pool recipe)

Toad in the hole with veg

Prawn stir fry - for the sauce we fry mustard seeds, garlic & ginger & add in soy sauce, honey & lime juice

Baked salmon, sweet potato chips (Lidl & Aldi sell these now if you can’t prep your own) & veg

Oven cooked sausage & brioche roll hotdogs

I'm definitely going to try the Philadelphia and Tulsa rice recipes.

Thank you!

Tilda!

Eggy bread = thick slices of slightly stale white bread, cut in half, dunk in beaten egg for a minute or two, fry gently in butter. Serve with cherry tomatoes, bacon, beans or any combination.

Aunt Bessie's do veg oven chips (carrot, sweet potato and parsnip), we do those with the fish fingers or chicken nugget dinners.

boil pasta and peas.stir together in a bowl some grated cheese milk and a few eggs.stir through pata at the end.
saute some onion and bacon.stir through pasta
dolmio sauce and frankfert sauages through pasta.
salmon parcels.lay out some foil .nest of noodles on the bottom.spring onions lemon slices lay ontop afillet of salmon.wrap up. cook for 10 and check.
tortilini filled pasta with dollops of pesto
buy one of those sheets of ready rolled pastry and do mixture of topping on.
also use this for a pie crust.

Cheat's kedgeree - bung on quick-cook rice in one pan, eggs to boil in another. Skin and flake smoked mackerel fillets (or any hot-smoked fish). Once eggs are boiled, take them out and chuck some frozen peas to boil in the egg water. Peel eggs, chop roughly. Mix everything together - done! Goes down a treat in this house, even with 8mo.

Sweet corn pancakes
Rice sachet in microwave, cook prawns in garlic oil add peas and sweet corn add cream cheese to it and mix serve on top of rice, my kids inhale this

The Philadelphia, chicken, broccoli and peas combo went down very well and was ridiculously quick and easy. Thank you.

The kids love tuna pasta paired with orange juice.

My 2 year old loves cous cous which makes me very happy because it’s so easy and so many options!

Our current favourite is a Moroccan one with courgette, aubergine, peppers, chickpeas, apricots and raisins which I make a massive batch of in less than 10 mins. We then have with leftover shredded chicken/lamb koftas/hummus and pitta breads/halloumi