Kid-Friendly Recipes

kid friendly recipes

Food you can serve to your kids and they may even eat!

As adults, we often pride ourselves on our well-developed palates, on our appreciation of the way a sharp sauce can complement a fatty meat, or on our ability to whip up an incredible chicken marsala (that last one is really all about me). But, then kids come along. And we love them.

We try to raise them well, and we absolutely know that our children will be the ones bringing foie gras pate in their lunch boxes or nibbling on sushi while watching the Teletubbies. And then, reality hits. Your kid--your kid--decides she only likes chips. Or that sauce is evil. Or that no foods can touch each other on the plate. They decide that they will only eat cheese crackers, that broccoli should be banned, that your beloved truffle mac and cheese can't hold a candle to the kind in the blue box.

Don't despair, though. I bet that if you ask your mom if you had any food issues when you were a kid, they would probably give you an earful about how you only ate orange food for a month, or about how you fed all your broccoli to the dog!

I guess I could give you a list of sure-fire pre-packaged picks for your picky eaters, but although they might love Lunchables, Crustables, Eggo Waffles and Hot Pockets, that really flies in the face of what this site is all about. As a dad myself, I want to make sure that my kids will eat what I put in front of them, but I also want it to be homemade and as healthy an option as possible. That's not to say that my girls don't enjoy the occasional pre-packaged treat, but my wife and I try not to make that the norm in our house.

I compiled the following list of ideas after talking to many of my kids' parents and teachers about what their kids are eating. This page is more for parents who are just looking for some kid-approved meal ideas, some of which the kids can help make. If your child has serious food allergies and is truly a picky eater, there are plenty of resources out there to help you. Here are a few that I've found that might be of use to you: