Healthy, Kid-Friendly Dinners

Solve the daily dilemma of, "What's for dinner?" by making meals that are a lot healthier than they appear. Fried chicken, pizza, and fries are all quintessential kid favorites. Share them with your family and feel good knowing these recipes are good for them.
Sloppy Joes, anyone? Prepare the filling in one skillet for a quick weeknight dinner your family will love. Making your own sauce is a reduced-sodium alternative to using canned sauce.
Recipe:Sloppy Joes
Oven-Fried Chicken
Get the flavor of fried chicken but not the fat by browning the chicken in a skillet, then baking instead of deep-fat frying. This technique still yields a crispy crust and moist, juicy chicken.
Recipe:Oven-Fried Chicken
Chicago-Style Pizza
Skip the delivery and make a healthy sausage pizza for the entire family. With a few on-hand topping ingredients and refrigerated pizza crust dough, prep time is only about 10 minutes.
Recipe: Chicago-Style Pizza
Garlic Fries
Let your kids help by allowing them to toss the potatoes in a large zip-top plastic bag with oil and salt before cooking. After baking, toss with garlic-infused butter for a rich flavor.
Recipe:Garlic Fries
Biscuit-Topped Chicken Potpie
Combine refrigerated diced potatoes, baking mix, cooked chicken, and frozen mixed vegetables for a shortcut version of traditional chicken potpie. You'll have supper on the table in less than 45 minutes.
Recipe:Biscuit-Topped Chicken Potpie
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Twirl up a forkful of this Italian favorite on any busy weeknight. The sauce is thin, so if you prefer it thicker, increase the amount of tomato paste.
Recipe:Spaghetti and Meatballs
Baked Potato and Broccoli Soup
If you want your kids to eat broccoli, try adding it to a creamy potato soup topped with melted Cheddar cheese and crispy bacon.
Recipe:Baked Potato and Broccoli Soup
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Comments
When I was a kid (and still now) my favorite food was fresh homemade flour tortillas. Mmmmm, there's absolutely nothing like it. Plain, or with a little butter or peanut butter, as a wrap, whatever it's my favorite favorite food.
These days I make them with a mix of white and wheat flour. Unfortunately all-wheat homemade tortillas are crap for tacos and burritos, but it is what it is. Half-wheat is still delicious :)
These can all be improved for overall health by cutting fat, sodium, adding fiber, nutrients, and adding flavor options with these suggestions:
Make sloppy joes with chicken & crushed pineapple, smoke flavor, tomatoe sauce & cornstartcht othicken in a crock pot. Over buns about 220 cal each or serve open face on whole wheat bread for more fiber. (see my EZ Island Sloppy Joes recipe at SparkRecipes.com for the complete directons) or follow Real Simple recipe and use ground turkey to cut fat.
Using the same RS recipe you can skip browning the chicken and go directly into the over with a spray of oil. Saves grease in your food and clean up afterwards.
Bake fries and other veggies, and use sweet potatoes! Loads more vitamins for your family.
Use milk instead of half & half in the pot pie and again, use whole wheat flour & fresh vegetables. You can cut them up in advance and keep in a ziplock.
For spaghetti, use whole grain pasta and add more chopped vegetables to the sauce - mushrooms, zuchini, yellow squash etc to thincken. Try making it meatless and serving ricotta cheese on top of the pasta (can also be blended into sauce first) then covering with sauce for a high protein low fat change.
Regarding the potato soup, try skipping the bacon or using fake bacon bits as a topping, or substitute turkey ham cubed. Blending half sweet potatoes or adding a couple carrots would greatly enhance the nutritional value in this.
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One of my kids favorite sandwiches I make for them goes like this-
two Nutrigrain or low fat waffles (toast them in the toaster and use instead of bread.
one fat free Kraft single
6 slices of deli honey ham
Apples sliced thinly
Put the cheese on one of the waffles as soon as it comes out of the toaster so it melts- add the ham and apples- top off with the other waffle, so now it is a sandwich. I then cut it in fours!
I love it too!!