Kid approved meals?

allie357

I am at my wits end trying to feed my kids lately. I try to incorporate veggies and/or fruit at every meal but I am also having trouble getting them to eat anything lately. Especially anything for dinner. They are picky, but so are DH and I. They aren't even eating much of the favorites: homemade panko chicken, cheeseburgers, mac and cheese or pizza. I feel stuck in a rut.

What do your kids eat consistently?

Luckystar2

Are they normal weight? If so I wouldn't worry. Dd's weight is good so I never stress out about what she won't eat. 

Dd's favorite is Mac n cheese and chicken nuggets. She'll eat turkey burgers, sweet potato fries, chicken (baked or grilled), pork chops.

she really loves grilled cheese and tomato soup. One way to make it fun...I use cookie cutters on the grilled cheese to make it a fun shape. Dd loves this. Something to maybe try with sandwiches to encourage eating. I also will color things to make it fun and encourage eating. We make homemade pizza and I add purple food coloring to the dough and dd thinks that is so much fun!

i always offer fruit and/or yogurt with meals so some nights that's all she eats if she doesn't like what I've made.

one thing that has helped too is giving everyone their food night a week. Dd would complain that she didn't like what I made so I started this and it's minimized complaints. So every week she gets to choose what we have for dinner 1 night. Dh and I get a night. The rest are really my choice ha! But if dd complains about dinner one night I will say, but you had your night last night and tonight is daddy's night (or your night is tomorrow night, etc) 

egpitt22

My kids never turn their nose up to: chili, hot dogs, tacos, chicken noodle soup, pasta, or pretty much any type of fruits or veggies.  Sometimes they can be finicky about meats, so that's hit or miss, but I pretty much always know that, if nothing else, they will eat the vegetable and fruit on their plate, so some nights, that's what they eat!

lala5507

penne or spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce, tilapia, some times meatloaf.   I made breaded zucchini "fries"  the other week and they liked those. 

Honestly, I don't really worry about it too much.  I don't make "kid" meals or do special orders at dinner.  I make what I want to make and I try to have at least one "for sure thing" on their plates and if they eat, that's great.  If not, it's not a big deal.   

My kids were superstar eaters when they were about a year old but have gotten more picky.  It's a phase.   Just keep offering good, healthy things and (hopefully) they will eventually catch on. 

We don't always have dessert but when we do, it's great motivation for them to eat their dinner.

egpitt22

Also, I find that they want to eat less in the summer, which kind of makes sense to me, sometimes I don't feel like sitting down & eating a big heavy meal in the heat!

waltsgirl102503

My kids favorite meal is tacos.  And like everyone else, I try not to worry too much about what they're eating.  Some days they eat a lot, and some days it's hardly anything at all.  They're consistent on the growth chart, so I say they're fine. 

ak111

Tacos are the only thing that Keefer will eat consistently so I can only sympathize with you rather than help.  I will be stalking this post however and using some of the other people's ideas.   

ETA:  He will eat cereal, bagels, and yogurt everyday.  I have started loading his cereal up with fruit (blueberries, strawberries, and bananas) just so he gets something healthy.  I also make smoothies in the blender with vanilla yogurt and as many different frozen fruits as I can find.  Sometime I'll even sneak some veggies in when he's not looking.  We even have smoothies for dinner occasionally. 

MandyMilller

I'm kind of jealous that everyone else's kids eat so much stuff! Mine pretty consistently eat pizza and tacos. They will usually eat a little bit of meat if it's soft and shredded. Wes likes rice and noodles, Lanna likes mashed potatoes. They both eat fruit but not a lot of veggies. It's tough. I try to include something at each meal they can pick at, but a lot of nights Wes ends up having shredded cheese for dinner and Lanna eats carrots and dressing. For lunches Wes eats Kraft mac and cheese daily, but I don't like him to have it twice in one day.

Meghan&Rich

I can commiserate!  Garrett eats anything, but Mason pretty much eats nothing.  His staples are cheerios, PB&J, & chicken nuggets.  I can sometimes get him to eat soup (if loaded with gold fish crackers), grilled cheese, or spaghetti.  He will sometimes pick at fruit or yogurt, so I really take advantage of the times that he does.  If we can even get him to try a vegetable, it's gag fest central.  His weight is fine, and everyone says not to worry, but when your kid refuses to eat anything remotely healthy, it's hard not to!

rona118

Besides the above suggestions, my kiddo loves cheese quesdillas. I found the trick of them not making amess on my griddle pan is use sliced cheese vs shredded.

Madi is picky. In an attempt to get her to at least TRY some new things we made a chart and she got a point for each new food. Then when she got to a certain # she got to order a flash light friend that she wanted on tv. Worked well. Now the FLF arrived yesterday and I am less than impressed with the quality. The Stuffie that grammie got her a few months ago was way better quality. WAY.

rona118

Meghan&Rich:

I can commiserate!  Garrett eats anything, but Mason pretty much eats nothing.  His staples are cheerios, PB&J, & chicken nuggets.  I can sometimes get him to eat soup (if loaded with gold fish crackers), grilled cheese, or spaghetti.  He will sometimes pick at fruit or yogurt, so I really take advantage of the times that he does.  If we can even get him to try a vegetable, it's gag fest central.  His weight is fine, and everyone says not to worry, but when your kid refuses to eat anything remotely healthy, it's hard not to!

Oh yes we have gag fest at our house too... kid acts like we are making her eat some gross mixture off fear factor or something... when really it is a carrot. Or she will chew and chew and chew until there is nothing but mush in her mouth.

waltsgirl102503

rona118:

Meghan&Rich:

I can commiserate!  Garrett eats anything, but Mason pretty much eats nothing.  His staples are cheerios, PB&J, & chicken nuggets.  I can sometimes get him to eat soup (if loaded with gold fish crackers), grilled cheese, or spaghetti.  He will sometimes pick at fruit or yogurt, so I really take advantage of the times that he does.  If we can even get him to try a vegetable, it's gag fest central.  His weight is fine, and everyone says not to worry, but when your kid refuses to eat anything remotely healthy, it's hard not to!

Oh yes we have gag fest at our house too... kid acts like we are making her eat some gross mixture off fear factor or something... when really it is a carrot. Or she will chew and chew and chew until there is nothing but mush in her mouth.

Noah will try just about anything - which I think is great for a kid.  Brody on the other hand won't even try it!  He picks it up, studies it and hands it back and says "yuck!"   He won't even lick icing off of the beater because it looks gross to him!  And I'm like "BUT IT'S ICING!  TRY IT!"  And nope.   But I do feel for those of you that their kids won't eat because for the longest time, Noah didn't eat.  It wasn't that he was picky...he just didn't eat at all.   He grew out of it, so I think there's hope for all of you.  Now I worry how we are going to afford to feed him when he's a teen because of what he can eat at age 8!   

AmandaJLewis

dinner is EJ's smallest meal of the day.  She is most likely to eat butter noodles with cheese or macncheese. But even some days she rejects that. she only eats fruits like apples, grapes, banannas and things that come in cans (peaches, applesauce).  She will also eat corn and broccoli, raw cucumbers and carrots. Meat isn't an issue as long as it is boring and cut tiny so it isn't chewy. she likes grilled cheese too. the only soup she eats is noodles in plain broth.

However, I just cook what I want. put some on her plate and she tastes it and then says no thank you, and asks to be excused. she is not shrinking, and is active and eats well other times of the day. if she is hungry before bed, she gets to have her dinner again.  ) 

sundaygirl

A few foods that are always winners with my kid that I haven't seen mentioned here yet - fish sticks, meatballs, pierogies. 

lala5507

I just wanted to add that my kids do their best veggie eating while I'm making dinner.  I give them lettuce, cucumbers, carrots while I'm making the salad and they actually end up eating more than they would eat if a put a salad on their plate. 

MrsAmers

I just want to throw in that my kids have gradually started eating more and more. They definitely eat more and will try more foods than they did when they were at the height of their pickiness. For a while it seemed like they survived on air.

 

Like others, there are nights that they only eat fruit and noodles for dinner. Other nights they eat a little of everything.

 

1 ? I serve fruit every night. They both like fruit and other than pineapple, I think they like them all.

2 ? I keep trying new things and take advantage of things they?ve tried elsewhere. When the kids were at the science center, they went to a demonstration about cooking and they helped make kale chips. The kids liked them and kale chips are now in our regular rotation. I also tried a soup made with veggies and fruit. It is sweet enough that they loved it and don?t know they are eating sweet potatoes.

3 ? Good things happen when they help in the kitchen ? that has led to Todd liking frozen peas and Heather liking baby spinach.

4 ? I serve healthy things that aren?t necessarily typical dinner fare ? smoothies (with spinach in it), zucchini bread, scrambled eggs ? and in the summer we take a picnic to the playground about once a week (our daycare is peanut free, so it lets me get some peanut butter in them).

5 ? I offer things I can deconstruct or make in different ways for the adults. Ex ? I make a cheese quesadilla and I make a quesadilla loaded with veggies. Or I only mix the veggies and sauce in with half the noodles and give the kids plain noodles and plain veggies.

6 ? Homemade versions of favorites to make them a teeny bit healthier or to make them more interesting to me ? pizza, mac?n?cheese, pancakes

 

Foods that usually get eaten by kids (one or both):

Fruit, noodles, quesadillas, taquitos, corn, peas, kale chips, sweet potato fries, fries, hot dog, broccoli bites, fish sticks, meatballs, chicken tenders, scrambled eggs, whole wheat blueberry pancakes, French toast, grilled cheese, soup with crackers, ravioli, tortellini, mac?n?cheese, baked spaghetti, zucchini bread.

 

Baked beans, tacos and sloppy joes used to be acceptable and lately are not. Sauce on noodles used to be fine and lately it isn?t.

 

smynings_bride

We have the same challenges.

She loves fruit, cucumbers and broccoli, hates chicken nuggets, won't eat mac and cheese or anything with any sauce EXCEPT pizza.

She will eat pasta dry. 

I recently gave her corn on the cobb and she loves it because it's fun to eat.  

She helps me make pita pizzas and they she'll eat them because she's so proud of herself.  I give her a silicone brush to "paint" on the sauce and I let her "smash" on the cheese.  

She sometimes eats "baby hamburgers", which are mini turkey burgers on slider rolls.  I make a whole batch and freeze them and freeze the slide rolls and they only take 1 minute to heat up in the microwave.

She eats string cheese with whole wheat crackers for dinner sometimes with sliced apples and pears.

 If nothing else works she'll eat a bowl of cheerios and a banana. 

billiburrows

we are in the same boat and it sucks.  he won't eat hardly any fruits or veggies but he will eat a ton of what he likes- ie mac and cheese. 

 some things i don't think were mentioned that he likes are:

turkey, cheese, mayo sandwiches either cold or via panini maker.

peanut butter and nutella sandwiches (he will not try the jelly....it looks like fruit).

also pb and nutella on bananas for snacks.

oddly enough he really loves guacamole and chips but it has to be that kind of guac you buy that is already made. and he really loves pesto sauce... so we have noodles with pesto, cut up rotis chicken and dip it in it and fish sticks in pesto....