Help please how do you give rice to your children?

[MiraiH]

I am a new mum - with no cooking skills - but want to improve the diet of my children beyond pasta. How do you serve rice to your children - do you make curries or any recipes that you use would be really helpful?

Sometime they have it with bolognese mince, or with ratatouille - which is super healthy. If so I just make theirs quite saucy so they have spoonfuls of white saucy rice.

Mine ate curry, chillis, risotto, paella, stir fries etc. just watch the salt level (especially soy sauce, fish sauce) and not too much chilli.

Always make sure it's got a bit of some sauce on it so it sticks together a bit

I used to love warm rice with cubed cheddar cheese and cubes of cucumber in it. I still like it now.

Mine love rice, mainly curries but fried rice they also like

Risotto is always good. Super easy and you can pack it with lots of healthy things like peas and mushrooms. I always put nutritional yeast in mine, adds to the flavour and has a lot of health benefits

We have rice quite a lot.

You could do a chicken ala king (chicken in creamy sauce with mushrooms) over rice.

As a side dish instead of potatoes, gravy is delicious over rice

Mild curry, briyani rice, bolognaise mince on rice, rice pudding, again as a side by adding fried onions, peppers etc and add in some tumeric to make it a nice funky yellow colour.

I also have it with stews sometimes.

In my world, it replaces potatoes in many meals.

Mine love it in saucy meals like katsu curry and with goulash as well as drier variations like mixed fried rice.

Mine will happily eat a bowl of plain boiled rice! But usually I give it her with veg curry.

Also fried rice made with egg, add in prawns.

I used to have the most amazing recipe from the Annabel Karmel kids recipe book (does anyone remember that book). Which I gave away. Sigh.

I cannot remember what made that recipe so different, it was just so much nicer than the way I wing it now trying to remember it.

(if anyone still has that book..... I would love it if you could post a photo of that recipe).

@isthismylifenow

Any of these

Just put into google

www.madeformums.com/school-and-family/annabel-karmels-egg-fried-rice-with-chicken/

www.goodto.com/recipes/annabel-karmel-s-rice-balls

www.juniormagazine.co.uk/lifestyle/annabel-karmels-chicken-fried-rice-recipe-cook-with-your-child/

Last one has prawns

She used to have a wonderful mango apricot chicken dish

My friend always made the sauce. It was amazing !!!

www.meandmychild.com.au/recipes/toddlers-1-3-year-old/mango-and-apricot-chicken-recipe/

Thank you all. A silly question - did you choose plain basmati rice or is there a particular type of rice your children preferred?

My go to 10 minute key in the door to dinner on the table meal was microwaveable rice (the only time I used it!) with a ton of stuff-tinned sweetcorn, frozen peas, leftover cooked chicken and vegetables-anything in the fridge-all mixed in. Maybe a bit of grated cheese. Always went down well.

Bolognese with rice is underrated. Or burritos

Depends what your having it with.

Paella - paella rice
Curry / basmati
Jambalaya / rice and peas / chilli / burritos -
Long grain
Fried rice - I use long grain, holds together better

My kids love sticky rice, makes less mess too.

Thank you so much!

I am pretty sure it is that first one. As the adding the soy sauce to the egg mixture seems to be bringing back the memories (my ds is 24 now, so we are going back quite a ways here). I think that is the tip that I have been missing, as I do add egg, and it is a just bit bleh compared to how I remember it.

Guess what is going onto our menu later this week 😀

The mango chicken I has not seen of hers. But we do a take on that one, it is quite a traditional dish here. Just mix equal quantities (like half a cup) of mayonnaise and apricot jam with some fruit juice mixed in to thin it out, and cook your chicken pieces in that. You can add in some onion soup mix for nicer flavour as well. Also over rice.

We always have jasmine rice. Veggie and paneer curry, beef bourguignon and chicken with red peppers/cream & white wine sauce are our favs. Plenty of green veg with every meal too

Risotto is fun and easy to make.

Mine ate lots of kinds of rice, basmati with curry or chilli but use risotto rice for risotto and they loved sushi so use need sushi rice for that. We often had whole grain rice too

This recipe is delicious! Perfect for lunchboxes too. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/rainbow-rice

If you get a rice cooker it makes perfect rice every time, just a cheap £20 one from Amazon will do.

It makes the rice fluffy and clumped which they can eat easily and then you can add any kind of saucy dish to it. If you don't want to make your own, there are various jar sauces you could buy to go along with some meat, vegetables, etc.

I used to give mine curried rice with onions and raisins, egg fried rice, and rice mixed with minced broccoli and cheddar or parmesan. They also loved risotto, and still do, though they all baulked at mushroom risotto. Rice pudding is another rice dish they might like, and also mango kheer.

The bags of microwavable plain basmati rice are great for making quick meals for kids. I often do something like:

• chop up a chicken breast, cook in a bit of butter in a pan
• add some chopped onion, a few spoons of sweetcorn and a sprinkle of curry powder
• Once that's cooked, micro the rice then add it to the pan and stir together.
• Add a handful of raisins.

DD likes tuna mayo with plain basmati rice, she also like egg fried rice as a side to pretty much anything. The think she asks for most (doesn't get it often) is basmati rice with spaghetti hoops.