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

Quick carrot and lentil soup - chop an onion and four carrots, fry it around in a bit of olive oil and add a pint ish of water, a mug of lentils and a stock cube. Simmer for 20 mins and whizz. We usually have this with a load of warm wholemeal cheese scones and a huge plate of chopped fruit, dried fruit, nuts and seeds for pudding. This is my go to 'guilty about what the kids have been eating' meal.

I also make a good curry sauce with a grated onion, grated butternut squash, coconut milk, passata, curry powder and fresh coriander. None of the kids have noticed the squash and it gets a whole one in there!

Well,well,well, you grate a whole butternut squash . Do you have an appliance for that?

just add whatever veg you can get away with to passata, and add to pasta

I have no staples. What they eat one week they can refuse the next. Two weeks ago they adored Spaghetti bolognaise. Before that- shepherds pie. Before that - fish with chilli spinach, mini (new) potatoes and baby vegetables. This week they've asked for a macdonalds every night after school because they want a toy with their meal. Next week they may hate everything except quorn chicken nuggets or homemade chicken soup with grated vegetables.

Homemade fish fingers and fish cakes usually do the job.
Failing that- porridge is the answer.

I still keep cooking though.

My little ones love my chicken burgers - mince the chicken breasts in the blender. Put a grated carrot and grated courgette in a bowl, add 1 egg, 100g sweetcorn, 30g breadcrumbs and some parsley and mix together. Shape into burgers, fry 5 minutes each side or until cooked through - YUM and packed with goodness!!

As long as you make it look attractive kids will eat most things. Smoothies are a great way of giving them vitamin C - I make one with cherries, raspberries and strawberries. They love it. Another popular recipe is a vegetable soup to which I add little pasta shapes. My children were not keen on broccoli but when cooked in a sauce and topped with grated cheese, then added to a baked potato they enjoyed it. One of the most popular tried and tested recipes I have used to get children to eat fruit is to make my own ice lollies using fresh or tinned fruits. Very healthy and delicious!

Stuffed peppers in our house because you can put anything in we put things like
Rice
onions
salmon, cod or chicken
chopped tomatoes
mushrooms
rasins
lemon juice
yoghurt
Mozzarella

Mix all together and stuff this stuffing can be used in pitta bread large mushrooms and wraps. The peppers are great for the kids because of the bright colours they really look forward to seeing what is inside.

I do a "secret sauce" which the DC (3, 6) have on pasta with meatballs, or a the base for a lasagna or spag bol or pizza base (homemade pizzas or mini pizzas made on muffins). I find that tomato sauces can often be quite sharp and a bit runny. The sweet potato takes the sharp edge off and thickens the sauce.

This recipe makes loads - I freeze portions get out and whip up a quick after school tea.

1 sweet potato
2 x 500ml cartons of pasatta
1 large onion
1 handful of spinach (or frozen spinach)
1 or 2 grated carrots
1 or 2 grated courgettes
1 or 2 garlic cloves
A generous glug of olive oil for frying
A few basil leaves or dried herbs (to taste, optional)
Marmite or vegetable stock cube (to taste and depending on if you are watching the salt intake)
Any old left over veg you have hanging around the fridge - a good way of using broccoli stalks or odds and ends of protein!

Chop up the sweet potato, garlic and onion. Fry up for a few mins, in the base of a saucepan, then pour on paasatta and add Marmite/veg stock cube. Cook passata until sweet potato is nearly soft. Add carrot, courgette, spinach, basil/herbs and any other veg and cook until all veg and sweet potato is soft. Allow to cool, then blend smooth - i sometimes also run it through a sieve to get it really smooth. I have tried leaving out the olive oil, but this adds a "silkiness" to the sauce.

I sometimes also add a handful of dried red lentils at the start. This adds a big dose of low fat protein and they blend in un-noticeably at the end. It does make the sauce really thick, so you'll need to thin it down with some water.

My 7 month-old daughter loves tuna pasta:
wholewheat pasta shapes
tinned tomatoes
tinned tuna in springwater, drained
spinach
onion
garlic
whole milk
cheddar cheese

she eats it whizzed up to a coarse consistency, and can't get enough!

Bikerunski, I do that 'secret sauce' (great name for it). However, no need to grate anything if you are going to blend it. I use copied rooms as they are cheaper and roughly chop all the veg. I hand blend oh the saucepan. Is a base for so many dishes. My staples are:
Red Pepper
Garlic
Onion
Celery
Tinned Tom
Courgette
Usually also
Mushroom
Aubergine
Any bits in fridge like cabbage,leek etc
My ds1 can't tolerate lumps in sauce and is also v v v fussy about new foods so this is a great way to vary his veg intake without him knowing.

Copied rooms would be tinned tomatoes

I just grate the veg so it cooks quicker!

If we do a lasagne, or bolognaise, will we add extra things into it. We use a tomato sauce that's one of the 5 a day, we will then add tomatoes to it, and chop up bits of veg like broccoli and add it to the meat. We will then give them veg with the meal as well

My children love chicken - so will always make it with some veg of other, like potatoes, peas, spinach or butter beans. In terms of red meat or mince of any description even part of a pack of mixed frozen veg can be added. I make vegetable pilau - which I call rainbow rice - there will be some veg that offends one of the kids but there is always something they will like.
My DD loves salmon and has it with mash; whereas my DS will have other roasted veg with it happily.

Shep pie!

But no ordinary Shep Pie... I add every vegetable in he house!

Beans
Celery
Peas
Carrots
Courgette
Aubergine
Spinach

Chuck it all in and get it down their necks :)

Pasta with lots of hidden vegetables

Various soups, all referred to by colour in this house - "can we have green soup today", my DS has no idea what's in them but would probably refuse them if he knew.

Pasta sauce, loads of bits from the fridge and freezer chucked in and blended with enough tinned tomatoes to make my DS think that's all that's in it.

Health veggie cakes with butternut squash

DD loves my homemade soup - potatoes, carrots, swede, parsnip, peas, onions - basically any veg (and add chicken or beef if desired) - chop and cover with water in a large panm bring to boil then simmer - delicious and soo simple. One pan goes a long way, and you can pop a batch in the freezer for a 'rainy day' too

My fussy eater loves my dahl. Lentils are a really good source of protein and fibre, and mild-tasting for kids.

400g red split lentils
large knob of butter
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp curry powder
fresh ginger root (optional)

Put lentils in saucepan and cover with water, so the water level is at least an inch above the lentils. Bring to the boil and skim off any scum with a wooden spoon. Simmer.
Add butter and finely chopped garlic, curry powder and chopped ginger. Continue to simmer until it's a nice porridgey texture, adding more water as necessary, about 20-30 mins.
For super-fussy eaters you could make the dahl with just lentils, water and butter, and add the garlic, curry powder and ginger to another portion for adults.
Serve with basmati rice and vegetable curry (fry half an onion in a little veg oil, add mild curry paste, add any veg of your choice and some water, simmer). Yum!

Dairy milk is really bad for us. It is designed for baby cows, not humans.

For getting extra nutrients into 4yo DS, he has a homemade (by him) smoothie every day, with lots of fruit, some superfoods like spirulina and wheatgrass, some nuts and seeds, and a dairy-free milk like almond, hazelnut or coconut.

He also wolfs down sweet potato stew - sweet potatoes, carrots, veg stock, red onions. Boil and leave to simmer - job done.

My DD's love raw veggies so they can choose frozen peas, raw carrots, raw beans etc instead of cooked if they prefer. Also grate carrots/peppers/broccoli stalk etc into spag bol/cottage pie/chilli which always goes down well.

My girls love anything with cous cous so really enjoy vegetable stew made from onions, celery, garlic, carrots then cooked for 10 mins alongside ground coriander and ras Hal nout with a stock cube, then add in a tin of tomatoes, aubergine, potato and courgette and cook for an hour till the veg is very soft and has made an amazing sauce which tops off a little cous cous perfectly.

Rice pudding for us! Super easy to make as only rice and milk. I only add the tiniest bit if sugar and use vanilla to add the sweetness. We then add whatever we fancy: while variety of fruits hard or soft or dried, nuts, seeds, puréed fruit ... Combinations are endless and change according to moods!