What are your top child-friendly recipes which are rich in vitamins? £250 voucher to be won!NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

The people at Arla have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters’ clever child-friendly, vitamin-rich recipes are.

Here’s what Arla say, “Arla Big Milk is the only fresh cows' milk enriched with essential nutrients to support your child's growth and development, as part of a healthy balanced diet. Containing added iron, vitamin D, vitamin A, and naturally rich in calcium; Arla Big Milk has been developed to specifically support the needs of children aged from one to five.”

So, what recipes do you have up your sleeve which are full of vitamins and healthy goodness – and which your children will actually eat? Maybe you have a fussy eater who will ONLY eat pasta or chicken nuggets. What are some clever ways you have packed nutrition into their favourite foods? Perhaps you have a delicious smoothie recipe which guarantees a vitamin boost? Or maybe a homemade dip you have with crisps raw vegetables which has lots of vitamins packed into it? Or a fishcake recipe that's chock full of Vitamin D?

We’d love you to share your recipes - everyone who posts on this thread with their recipes will be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Blending dates, cashews, raisins and cocoa together to make 'chocolate' bars

Anything with pasta in a tomatoey sauce and a good sprinkling of cheese is devoured so as long as it's finely chopped, the dc have courgette, peppers, corn, broccoli, carrots etc. Asparagus has smelly wee appeal

I can hide anything in egg fried rice and mine'll eat it. Fry the cooked rice in vegetable oil for a few minutes, add any chopped veg you like for another few minutes. Then pour two eggs beaten with sesame oil into a corner of the wok and once it starts setting stir it all round a bit. Easy!

Salmon, sweet potato, canellini bean and puy lentil pot. My little boy loves the textures, colours and flavours and its rammed with vitamins

Spinach is full of vitamins and iron, so I make a really easy spinach and ricotta sauce for pasta: fry finely chopped onions. Ad spinach to wilt. Stir in ricotta, loosen up with cream or milk as needed.

Adding vitamin enriched milk would make it a super vitamin rich easy sauce!

I have a bowl of fruit salad out for DD at all times - it's about the only way to get vitamins into her. She's 3 and very fussy!

Saturday morning is smoothie morning in our house. My nearly 3 yr old loves to help get this ready:

In a blender put ice, 1 or 2 bananas, loads of berries (fresh or frozen), Greek yogurt or low fat fromage frais, and squeezed apple and / or pineapple juice and blitz!!

It's the one morning a week the juicer gets used, and everyone loves it

Best of all - DD thinks it's a 'treat'

My eldest son is a very fussy eater. I have tried various things in a bid to get some extra vitamins into him! Sweet potato and swede mixed together with mashed potato on top of bolognese is one way I tried to sneak extra nutrition into a meal. I did once try pureeing lots of vegetables to make a pasta sauce, but that didn't really work as he just scraped all the sauce off and just ate the pasta!

The tweenager is getting terrible at eating anything that's good for her! I've started making her a breakfast smoothie, consisting of frozen fruit, a banana, and juice. Don't tell her but I also put half an avocado and some seeds in it too

Frozen banana bites make a really tasty snack - Just slice a banana roll in oats and dessicated coconut (And seeds if you like too) - then freeze them. Kids absolutely love these and they're healthy and packed with goodness too!

We pack all saucy things with random vegetables. Fools them most of the time but DS1 is increasingly sensitive to textures & no amount of "it's not potato, it's aloo" will convince him. I did manage to get both potato & egg into him recently by disguising it as a fishcake.

Mostly my DC have thus far 3yo & 2yo been fairly healthy eaters. They rarely object to vegetables, except green beans for some reason. I'm storing up these suggestions for the future though - I imagine they'll go through a phase at some point!

Like other mums I use the hide it in mince trick but the best way I find to get my kids to eat veggies is to let them help me. So we make chicken fajitas together and we put all sorts on there, onion, courgettes, aubergines and peppers which I cut up, peas and sweetcorn that they put into microwave bowls, broad beans and Endemame beans (which they pod and often just eat then and there) mushrooms which they can rip into pieces for frying and cherry tomatoes which they squash...

They love building their own wraps with the chicken mixture, veggies, rice, cheese and salsa, dinosaur sauce (Guacamole) and natural yoghurt

The mess is awful but my husband cleans it up as I have done the cooking so all fine!

crispy kale!
boiled in water it's yuk and the DCs won't eat it.

Tell them they're having 'healthy' crisps though and they love it. Spread on baking tray and bake for around 15 mins until black but not burned.

You can also sprinkle with olive oil, smoked paprika, tiny bit of sugar (in any combination).

Red pepper and tomato pasta sauce

My daughter (aged 4) helped to make this yesterday and was amazed how easy it was. Chop two peppers and add to a pan with a 400g of tinned tomatoes, quarter of the tin of water and a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes until the peppers are soft. Blend together and then add a tablespoon of olive oil. For older children chilli flakes or Tabasco sauce could also be added. It is remarkably tasty for sthg so easy and the peppers provide good added vit C as well as extra flavour.

coconut water, coconut and mango pieces, greek yoghurt and malt syrup lollies with chopped mint leaves thrown in.

blend a half a litre of coconut water, with coconut and frozen mango chunks with 2 tablespoons of malt syrup and 2 or 3 big tablespoons of natural unsweetened greek yoghurt. Pour into lollies moulds and away you go.

DD eats anything and everything but DS is very fussy

Chicken nuggets made using ground up cauliflower mixed with breadcrumbs
Put chopped frozen spinach in everything - DS favourite meal is macaroni cheese with spinach in
I hide grated courgette and mushrooms in rice.
DS also sweet potato chips which her has at least 2-3 times a week.
And fresh fruit smoothies (or milkshakes as he calls them)

a delicious fruit smoothie with a touch of spinach for iron

1/2 banana
teaspoon chia seeds
spinach (small handful)
1/2 apple
frozen berries
random nuts or seeds to whizz in for extra protein
other fruit / veg you have lying about

whizz together and serve! kids won't notice the spinach mixed in with everything else.

packed with vitamins, protein etc.

For a vitamin kick I love to make smoothies for the kids. You can add anything, almost.

A good one is to blend milk with a bit of yogurt, frozen berries (raspberries and blueberries), a handful of spinach, an orange and either a banana or an avocado for creaminess. Kids love smoothies!

My DDs are very fussy and it is difficult to get them to try new things. However, they do like pasta and I always make a homemade sauce with Quorn mince (protein) mixed with fresh cherry tomatoes and lots of olive oil, italian herbs, and sweetcorn for extra colour and a sweeter taste. Served with brocolli (iron) cheese (calcium). Neither of my girls drink very much milk either, but both LOVE a banana milkshake, which is both easy to make and very nutritional!

Soup is our saviour. DS wont eat fruit or veg so he gets a pureed soup every evening before dinner. I love it for lunch too.

1 cup lentils
Any vegetables - we use carrots, leeks, sweet potatoes, squash etc
2 veg stock cubes or homemade chicken stock

boil and simmer for 50 minutes then blend.

OR

roast 3 red peppers and boil with 2 chopped sweet potatoes, 1/2 cup lentils and tin of chopped tomatoes. Serve topped with spoonful of natural yoghurt.

Liquidise vegetables and use them in sauces or gravy.

I add lemon juice, Olive oil, raw garlic and extra Tahini to the supermarket hummus. This gives extra vit. C, omega 6 and calcium.
And its easy.

Clown Face Sandwich!
I do a sandwich - hummus, cheese, ham or sometimes I make a toastie for a change. I arrange this on the plate with a variety of crudités. Very easy to tailor to your child's preferences, fun so it will make them laugh & hopefully engage them more & get them to eat some veg.

Tonight was carrot hair, tomato nose, cucumber eyes, red pepper smile & hummus sandwiches (bow tie).

When I make spaghetti bolognese, apart from the kids eating the staple onions, garlic and tomato which are included in the recipe, I manage to finely chop carrots, peppers and add mushrooms to my sauce.

A portion of defrosted frozen berries (Sainsburys do good value raspberries or blueberry/strawberry mix).

Add a sprinkle of crunchy granola and a couple of dollops of fruity yoghurt.