Having a picky eater in your house can make any meal seem like such a hassle. Dinner is no exception; in fact, it’s probably more difficult than trying to whip something up for breakfast or lunch for your finicky kids.
Foods that look fun or familiar will likely go over better, and if you can get them to take that first bite, they are sure to enjoy what you’ve made. So go ahead and get creative!
1. Pizza
Kids love pizza.
The best thing about pizza is the variety of toppings and the ease of molding the dough into whatever your kids want that day.
To get a little healthy food content bonus you can add in pureed veggies to the sauce.
Other possibilities for kid-friendly pizza designs include hearts, Mickey Mouse, or check out Pinterest for different holiday-themed pizza projects.
2. Quesadillas
Easy peasy. You can put peas in your kids’ quesadilla, and they won’t notice the texture (for my kids, the texture is what deters them from enjoying peas).
For something a little extra, or as an alternative to putting the peas in the quesadilla, they can easily be blended in with the avocado used to make a side of guacamole.
Both are green, and if you mix them together, your child won’t even notice that it isn’t just avocado.
This one may be hit or miss with your picky eater if they have an aversion to “green things” you might want to move to the next one.
3. Mac and Cheese
Macaroni and cheese, the busy mom’s go-to for the kid who doesn’t want to eat anything. There are SO many ways you can add vegetables to cheesy foods.
Shred yellow squash, carrots, cauliflower – and your kid won’t even notice they are eating vegetables instead of their usual favorite.
Of course, you can always stick with old faithful and follow your original mac and cheese recipe but play around with the additional options for helping them get their recommended servings of vegetables.
4. Spaghetti and Meatballs
Sometimes we don’t want to mess with “sneaking” veggies into our kid’s foods. We want it to be ready to go and get them to eat what we make how it’s intended to be eaten.
Moms, we can do just that with a simple spaghetti and meatball dinner. If you have time to do this from scratch, absolutely, go for it!
But, if you’re like me and don’t always have the time to puree up some tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce or have the ingredients to create amazing meatballs from scratch you can buy all of these components already made.
Grab your favorite jarred sauce, some Buitoni fresh pasta, and Italian style meatballs and dinner can be ready in about 15 minutes.
5. Baked Potato or Baked Sweet Potato
While searching the internet for the easiest and best options for you (to save you time), I noticed that baked potatoes kept appearing.
My kids would rather not eat anything that looks like a potato (it can be a potato, but it definitely can’t LOOK like one), but I don’t think I would be giving you the best selection without including these easy to do and fun to make baked potato bars.
Try cooking these in your crockpot, oven, or microwave with means depending on the style you choose; you can control the amount of time spent with preparing the meal for your family.
You can also make these traditionally, or you can up the ante a little and make them twice baked!
6. Waffles
Soooo easy and SO fun! Sweet or savory? Easy preparation and easy clean-up. My kids prefer waffles over pancakes, and we have a Mickey Mouse waffle maker (maybe that’s why?).
Some are really into savory foods, so it can be worth a try with making a savory style waffle. With regular waffles, you can buy the premade pancake mix, add water and vegetable oil and the batter is ready in minutes.
Top each waffle with each kid’s (or husband’s) favorite toppings and dinner is going to be a win.
Waffle toppings can be fruits, whipped cream, bacon, sausage, peanut butter, Nutella, or chopped vegetables. Have fun with this one.
7. Chicken Pot Pie Casserole
Do you want to make something that your kids will enjoy and something you can throw ingredients in a dish then right into the oven? A chicken pot pie casserole is just the thing!
There are quite a few recipes available, but I find that the easier the recipe, the 1) quicker it is to make and 2) fewer ingredients your little one will likely dislike.
8. Breakfast for Dinner – Muffin Tin Quiche
Colors! Rainbows! Try making breakfast for dinner with some muffin tin quiche recipes!
I prefer to eat things that sound better than what they are named, so get creative with recipe names.
Muffin Tin Quiche becomes Cupcake Eggs and BOOM! Everyone wants a cupcake.
No matter how you mix the eggs and toppings, they always come out beautiful and colorful. Kids flock to items that are more aesthetically pleasing. Whisk up the eggs and add in peppers (varied colors for that added rainbow look) and use a measuring cup to pour into a greased muffin tin.
Place them in the oven and cook at 375 degrees for 25 minutes and you have a delicious dinner. If you have any leftovers, these little cupcake eggs can easily be microwaved the next morning for breakfast.
9. Cheeseburger Cups
While we have the muffin tin out let’s add another one to the collection. Muffin tins seriously make dinners easy. Each little cup has the perfect size individual serving of whatever I decided to make.
I will admit I can be lazy when it comes to dinner because I don’t like to spend so much time making dinner when half the time it’s just me and my husband enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Trial and Error
Some of these recipes your kids will love and some maybe not so much, but we all know what our kid’s will and won’t eat.
So, perhaps one, two or even more of these ideas will help you maintain your sanity when it comes to making dinner over the next few days.
Cheers!
