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

I don't have a fussy eater, he eats most things. He adores sausages, so I try and make them healthy. I cook them with an onion, then add a tin of tomatoes, some chopped btternut squash, a pint of stock and a tin of green lentils. Simmer on hob for half an hour, and wilt some spinach into it at the end. Delicious!

I am mum of 3 so always busy. For me easiest and quickest are pancakes. Milk has a calcium and I add lots of friuts for other vitamins. I have ready mixture in my fridge all year round and make them when they get hungry. Very easy recipe.

My daughter loves this dish and she is a fussy eater

200g baby spinach
85g low-fat soft cheese
2 x 140g/5oz pieces skinless haddock
1 large tomato, sliced
2 tbsp grated parmesan

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Pile the spinach into a large pan over a medium heat, turning it over and over until wilted. Remove from the heat and drain off the excess liquid.
Mix spinach with the soft cheese, then place in the bottom of a small baking dish and sit haddock pieces on top. Lay sliced tomatoes on top of the fish and sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake for 15-20 mins (depending on thickness of the haddock), or until the fish flakes easily.

Salmon pasta always leaves clean plates in this house
Ingredients (serves 4)
300g pasta (such as Farfalle or penne), dried
100g baby carrots (peeled), finely chopped
100g green beans (fresh), halved
2 courgettes, finely chopped
100g peas (frozen)
100g salmon (cooked, flaked)
lemon (for its zest), grated
200ml single cream (or you can use crème fraiche)
sea salt (to taste)
black pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
parmesan cheese (to serve), grated
Method
Take a large pan of water; add a teaspoon of sea salt and bring it to the boil - add the dried pasta, chopped carrots and green beans - cook for five minutes
After five minutes, add the chopped courgettes and frozen peas - cook for a further two minutes
Take out half a cupful of the pasta water and set to one side
Once the pasta has been cooking for seven minutes in total, take off the heat and drain
Put the pasta straight back into the pan
Add the cup of pasta water you've set aside, the cooked salmon flakes, grated lemon zest and single cream or crème fraiche
Season with salt and pepper if you like
Stir well and serve with grated parmesan cheese

I often make a sort of 'vegetable chilli' but it is not spicy and has lots of vegetables like peppers, carrots, sweetcorn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and also beans and white potatoes. The children love it and it is a filling meal served with rice.

Home made pizza!! You can put sooo much good stuff on your own. We load ours with pepper, sweetcorn, tomatoes, pineapple, red onion... the list is pretty endless.

Our kids love a nice homemade cottage pie with a few added extras. I make it with plenty of onions, carrots, peas, diced peppers, sweetcorn, half a can of chopped tomatoes and minced beef or lamb. A little light spice/stock to flavour & I top it off with a nice thick layer of fluffy mashed potatoes over which I sprinkle shred cheddar cheese & chives. It always goes over a treat! Sometimes, just to shake things up a bit, I dice up some courgettes or aubergine and throw them in with the minced meat n veg! It's a great way of getting them to eat their five a day!

My DCs love my tomato sauce - simmer courgette, red onion, peppers and some red lentils in a load of tinned tomato. I do it for about an hour and then blitz it. Made in big batches and then frozen, it's a real time saver! Also, sometimes if I use a big serving of it with some pasta, I'll flake in a bit of steamed salmon.

I do similar with spag Bol - my sauce has a load of grated carrot and courgette as well as red lentils, and I cook it for about an hour.

Pancakes are another favourite - flour (can use wholemeal), mashed banana, 100% peanut butter and some whaddyacallit (baking soda? Powder?) to make them fluffy.

Loving the recipe ideas on here! We love a bean stew - quick, healthy, easy & uses up any spare tins of beans & pulses in the cupboard!
2 sticks celery chopped
3 carrots chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 veg stock cube
2 good dollops of tomato puree
1 400g tin kidney beans
1 400g tin borlotti beans
1 400g tin chickpeas
1 butternut squash peeled & chopped
For extra flavour - fry up some chopped lean bacon with the onions, celery & carrots - when the kids have gone to be - add in some chorizo for you & OH! :)
Serve with plenty of lightly spiced couscous.
I always make a massive pot & use it over a few nights or freeze in batches.

Spaghetti & meatballs with veg sauce I do all finely grated and its taste yummie and the kids love it x

pork sausages
ean beef mince
small onion,
Carrot,
Parmesan
egg
Olive oil
courgette
garlic cloves
tomato purée
pinch caster sugar
tins chopped tomatoes

Savoury muffins. They look like a cake and they make great snack/ picnic food but you can put broccoli or cauliflower or sweetcorn or all sorts in them. Annabel K recipe but I've found it works with all sorts of veg.

Home made fish goujons with sweet potato 'chips' and plain organic yoghurt dip is a great alternative to traditional fish and chips and goes down well with all ages

When doing a bechamel sauce, I add pureed cauliflower

Veggie burgers made with sweet potato, mushrooms, onions, and a little flour.

For breakfast my kiddies love to make smoothies. We have a nutribullet.
Our favourite is 1/2 a banana, 4 strawberries (stalks on), handful of frozen raspberries, large scoop of frozen natural yogurt. Top up with a little bit of water. Blitz then pour in two glasses.

My kids love spag bol - I make the sauce using passata, with chopped up beetroot, peppers and any other veg, I then season and blitz in the food processor add the mince as well as peas and some onions. Kids love it and they don't know how good it is for them.

Cheese wheels, so easy. Make a tomato purée with hidden vegetables. Spread on a sheet of puff pastry. Cover with grated cheese and roll lengthways (like a Swiss roll). Cut in slices and cook, in the oven, for 15 mins. Delicious!

Homemade beef and tomato soup! You can also add lentils and shredded carrots to it for a bit more flavour. Always goes down a storm with my kids

Fruit Cake Salad

Mash potatoes until smooth then beat in some crème fraiche, season then add finely diced cooked beetroot and grated apple. Shape the mixture into little cakes then refrigerate until firm. Meanwhile prepare the spinach and strawberry salad by tossing together bite size pieces of spinach with sliced strawberries in a large bowl. Make a dressing by whisking together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, paprika and poppy and sesame seeds. Fry the cakes in a pan until crisp and golden, dress the salad and place in the centre of the plate with the cakes placed on the top.

I used to make potato cakes with mash, spinach and grated carrot. You could add any variety of veg, but mine loved it.
Sometimes I'd add tinned sardines and they ate that too!

DD loves Mexican style food (as long as it isn't too spicy!)

So on fajita night we serve fajitas with sweet potato wedges which she loves (She now no longer likes normal potato wedges!)

And for the fajitas we cook chicken with onion , very finely sliced pepper, mushrooms and sweetcorn all in an 'Old El Paso' spice mix
DD already loved mushrooms and sweetcorn but because the pepper and onion are cooked in the fajita flavouring she happily eats it all when I put it in the wrap

I make any traditional mince meal using lentils and lots of chopped up veg. Both my sons love it as do their friends. So spag bol, chilli, cottage pie, all with lentils, tomato, garlic, onion, carrot, sweetcorn, etc and then chilli for chilli and different herbs and spices relevant to the meal. Always goes down well.

We make omlettes, with cheese, peppers, onion, spring onion, ham or chicken leftovers, anything that's in the fridge or freezer, economical and healthy and fun and quick!

We make the ol' favourite Spaghetti bolognese.
So, we cook off the mince until browned,
add chopped onion and chopped carrot too,
and just watch your kids go to town!

My daughter is so very fussy,
unlike her siblings of course!
so we have to try to get very bit of veg,
into the bolognese sauce!

And so we even grate broccoli and cauliflour
Mixing it all into the grub,
the only problem after she has eaten spaghetti,
is her needing to go in the tub! :-)

It's pretty much inevitable that you won't be able to get children to eat all the fruit and veegtables you would like them to, but I've found that through soups I can get my little one to eat vegetables she would never otherwise dream of. Lentil & bacon, tomoato & red pepper, butternut squash and watercress soup are amongst some that she loves to tuck into and which I know are providing her with the vitamins she needs.