Your kids favorite foods/recipes?

[stephogirl]

I'm in a bit of a rut as far as cooking meals that all of us will like. What are your kids'/family's favorite foods/recipes that you (or someone) make?

[pierogigirl]

DS likes spinach bites (1 cup ricotta, 1/2 c. mozz, 1/2c. parm, 1 package frozen spinach thawed and squeezed dry, 2 eggs, pepper and onion powder) cooked in a mini muffin tin - I think it's a wholesome baby food recipe.

He'll almost always eat pasta with parm, whatever veggie I steam (although he mostly doesn't eat the veggies) and chicken/apple sausage.

Lately he's into couscous

eggs - any way

[ijack]

My oldest loves anything Asian. Doesn't matter what it is, she's guaranteed to eat it!

[anna7602]

DD will eat just about anything that comes out of the slow cooker, even vegetables she wouldn't otherwise like. I think it's the combination of them being hidden with everything else and the fact that when something cooks together for a long time, it all takes on a uniform flavor.

I get a lot of good slow cooker ideas from the Real Simple web site (or used to, I haven't looked at it in the last few months).

Another great way to get veggies in is making veggie-based pasta sauces. Here are two of our favorites, one uses spinach and aspargus and the other uses beets:

1) This is from "Super Natural Cooking" by Heidi Swanson. That book is full of amazing recipes- sweet potato spoon bread, chick pea burgers, and lots of other healthy but kid-friendly stuff. She also has a blog: 101cookbooks.com.
Spring Asparagus Puree
1 bunch asparagus spears, trimmed and halved cross-wise
3 handfuls baby spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Toss in asparagus. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes, until spears are bright green. Drain and transfer to food processor.
Add the spinach, garlic, Parmesan cheese and 3/4 cup pine nuts. Puree and with motor running, drizzle in olive oil until a paste forms. It should be the consistency of pesto. If too thick, thin with some pasta water. Add lemon juice and salt, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Serve over pasta with remaining pine nuts and more Parmesan cheese. Yum!

2) Shocking Pasta with Beets and Garlic
From "Passionate Vegetarian" by Crescent Dragonwagon

8 ounces bow-tie pasta
3 to 4 medium beets, cooked or roasted, warm, skins slipped off, quartered
4 to 5 cloves garlic, pressed
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan or soy Parmesan-style flakes (optional)

1.Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the pasta. Cook until done.

2.As the pasta cooks, place the beets in a food processor with the garlic, oil, salt, and pepper. Buzz until smooth, pausing a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the work bowl.

3.Drain the pasta and toss it with the beet purée. Serve immediately, hot, passing the Parmesan cheese, if using, at the table.

[rosebud]

I love Tyler Florence's "Start Fresh"... My monkey has loved everything I've made from there. It does have puréed, but also a fair amount of toddler food & it's less than $9 on amazon