Kids’ Favourite Recipes + Tips to get them Eating!

In association with Dura Forge from Prestige

Kids’ Favourite Recipes + Tips to get them Eating

Recently Prestige asked if I’d like to share some parenting tips with my readers to celebrate the launch of their new Dura Forge range of pans. So of course my thoughts immediately turned to food! Do you have a fussy eater or two in you house? Sometimes mealtimes can feel like an uphill struggle so here are some tips that I have picked up or devised over the years:

• Try to introduce as many different foods as you can to your children from a young age. I was once told that a child needs to eat something 20 times before they like it and I have to say that persistence does pay off. My daughter used to dislike any dishes containing chilli but I found that with a combination of reducing the amount I used and letting the meal cool down (which also decreases the spicy heat) she eventually came to like my ‘go to’ store cupboard dinner, Chilli, Bacon & Chickpea Pasta and you’ll even find her plying a chicken wrap with sriracha sauce these days.
• Sometimes it’s not the flavour that prevents kids from eating something but the look. My daughter won’t eat anything with a vein on display like a pork chop but if I make something like Frikerdella (Danish Meatballs) then there’s no problem at all. So using minced meat in things like burgers, spaghetti bolognese etc is a way to get round the visual thing.
• Organic Food. For years my daughter would leave her Christmas dinner, or at least the poultry part and I was getting a bit frustrated by this. In the last few years we’ve been having an organic chicken for our Christmas dinner but last year I made a big point in telling my daughter all about this special chicken that had been fed a really good pesticide free diet and what a good life it had had, playing football and running around outside. I explained how the flavour was also far superior to battery chickens. Well that seemed to be the key that unlocked the door to my daughter eating all roast chicken and now she eats it all the time (providing I don’t put any veins on her plate)!
  

  The new Dura Forge range from Prestige (image courtesy of Prestige)

• Flattery. I’ll often create new dishes and one day I was making a chicken pie with bits from the fridge when my daughter announced that she certainly wouldn’t be eating it. So in a flash of inspiration I decided to put my daughter’s name across the top of the pie in pastry letters with an accompanying heart shape. Well as you can imagine she was so surprised and flattered at my thoughtful creativity that she ate all her pie up!
• Snacks. Don’t let you children fill up on too many snacks when they come home from school and try to get some fruit into them at this time. A hungry child is less likely to be so fussy and more likely to finish their meal.
• Get you kids involved with cooking, it will give them a real sense of achievement and ownership of the finished product. It’s a great way to get them to try new things as well as getting creative. These Monster Pancakes are perfect for encouraging little ones to try out new fruits as they’ll be engrossed in making a scary face with them!
• Eat as a family and make mealtime, quality time (no phones at the table), the more relaxed kids are the more likely they are to eat.
• Sow seeds with your kids, knowing where their food comes from is very important. I remember my daughter asking to plant a pip from her apple when she was little and 8 years on we have a small Braeburn tree in the garden! (No apples yet but we live in hope)! Herbs and cress are a lot quicker to grow however; I can still remember my first cress sandwich at school after growing the seeds on some blotting paper. I loved cress from that day on!
• There are some foods kids will never like perhaps it’s in the genes? You could sit me in front of a block of blue cheese forever and a day and nothing would make me like it. I did however recently discover that by melting it in a pan and serving with steak it looses it’s sour taste and becomes quite bearable, well almost delicious!

So these are just a few tips to get your kids eating a varied diet, I’m sure you have many of your own and I’d love to hear them in the comments! I have only referenced my daughter in this feature as my son turns 18 next week so hasn’t been a fussy eater in a very long time!

I have been looking for a new Wok but now I feel I don’t need one! Dura Forge 20cm Frypan

Last week I was sent the new Dura Forge 30 cm frypan by Prestige and I have to say I’m really impressed. When I was asked if I’d like to review a saucepan or a frypan I’ll admit I wasn’t very excited as I had sufficient of both. However when the Dura Forge frypan arrived I was over the moon as it is deeper than your average frypan so can double up as a stir fry/casserole pan. I also love the look of the Dura Forge frypan with its pretty shiny stainless steel base and stripe effect interior. So far I’ve made 3 dishes in my new frypan and the food just seems to glide effortlessly across the interior, more so than any other non-stick pan I’ve used. Cleaning is also a breeze as there’s no need to soak before washing. The main features of the pan are:

• 3D stainless steel base which resists warping, making it suitable for all hobs including induction.
• Forged body which provides strength and thickness where needed for optimal cooking performance.
• Reinforced, ridged anti-scratch interior for superior food release and easy cleaning.

I thought it would be really great to hear what meals my fellow food bloggers rustle up in their pots and pans for their kids or more specifically, their kids’ favourite meals. So I posed the question this week and as you’d expect there’s a lot of pasta but there are also some spicy and exotic dishes which is great to see. Here is the collection of kids’ favourite meals:

• Pork Saltimboca – Gillian’s Kitchen
• Cheesy Tuna Pasta – Fab Food 4 All
• Homemade Chicken Fajitas – Easy Peasy Foodie
• Warmly Spiced Peanut, Sweet Potato & Black Eye Pea Stew – Food to Glow
• Asian Kale Noodle & Coconut Broth – Foodie Quine

• Rigatoni Beef Bolognese – Julie’s Family Kitchen
• Aubergine Shakshuka – Family Friends Food
• Nanny’s Pan Haggerty – Lavender & Lovage
• Courgette Spaghetti Alfredo – Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary

• Welsh Lamb Moussaka Burgers – Fab Food 4 All
• Turkey Bolognese – Fab Food 4 All
• Pasta e Fagioli aka Pasta & Beans – Christina’s Cucina
• 5 Minute Prawn Curry – Croque Maman
• Tarka Dal with Curly Kale – Bangers & Mash

• Salmon Lime Fish Fingers – Everyday Healthy Recipes
• Veggie Curry with Mango & Coconut – Feeding Boys
• Fruity Chicken Curry – Munchies & Munchkins
• Simple Butternut Squash Soup – Greedy Gourmet (a long time favourite in our house)
• Pea & Potato Frittata – Thinly Spread

I really want to make each and every one of these Kids’ Favourite Recipes as I’m sure my family will love them and I think yours will too! Do let me know if you try any of them and tell me what your kids’ thought!

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NB: Post commissioned by Prestige and all opinions are my own.