After eating, drinking, and being merry over the holidays, I’m ready to refocus on providing my family with healthy dinners. However, anyone with young kids knows it’s difficult to provide a healthy meal that they won’t turn their noses up to, so we’ve been seeking out new recipes that appeal to the adults and preschooler in the family.
Our checklist includes four criteria:
1. Kid friendly (not too spicy or eccentric)
2. Healthy (we are personally trying to minimize carbs and sugar, but there are plenty of other healthy eating plans)
3. Easy to prepare (not too many steps or too long of a cooking time)
4. Minimal ingredients (to reduce waste and the size of the grocery bill)
I thought these criteria would be relatively easy to meet, but it turns out they are not. A lot of healthy, low-carb recipes aren’t kid friendly. A lot of kid friendly food–popcorn shrimp, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets–isn’t healthy. And a lot of recipes claim they are easy to prepare but are not. If it’s a crockpot recipe that starts with having to sauté ingredients or stop halfway through for a step, then NO. And if it’s a sheet pan recipe but needs 10 ingredients for a sauce, then NOPE.
After much searching, here are 9 options that work for my family. Now, all recipes have to meet the above criteria for me to print them out, and also be ENJOYABLE, otherwise we’ll just be tempted to order pizza!
Kid-Friendly, Healthy, Easy Recipes
Shrimp Fried Cauliflower Rice Bowl
Sheet Pan Sausage and Peppers with Parmesan Garlic Cauliflower Rice
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas I love this one because everyone can customize theirs. My husband adds jalapenos, I skip the tortilla.
Paleo Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Famous F Factor Pizza I also love this one because everyone can customize their pizza.
Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Bonus side dish idea: Crispy Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
What recipes do you keep on hand to please everyone at home? Link below in the comments!
