Easy, Healthy Meal Ideas Needed!

Dear T.,

I have some toddler recipes on my site that you can download for free. (www.littlejourneysbabyworld.com) Hope this helps.

Sending lots of greetings,

C.

1 mom found this helpful

Not Your Mama's Meatloaf:
In a big mixing bowl beat an egg; add some sea salt; garlic powder; ground pepper; about 2 tablespoons of steel cut oats; a couple tablespoons of minced up onion;
add a pound of ground turkey; through in a handful of fresh baby spinach and mix it all up.
Shape it onto a baking dish and top it with fennel seeds. Bake it for about 50 minutes at 400 degrees.

You can vary this to whatever mood you are in. Some ingredients (like the spinach or onions) can be omitted and you can add something like Worchestershire sause and top with bacon slices. Or use curry for seasoning and top with cumin. Experiment and through just about anything into your meatloaf for fun and variety.

Also - this can make lunch interesting too - cut into slices and server cold on toast with catsup and mayho! yum!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi T.,

I love www.savingdinner.com. Leanne has several options there that are all great. You can subscribe to a weekly menu mailer, where she gives you a grocery list and menu for 6 dinners per week. You have the option of low carb, heart healthy, vegetarian, etc... in a variety of portion sizes. You can also get menus to prepare and freeze, so you have them to defrost later. In addition, she has books you can even check out from the library--with recipes for a weekly menu plan using in season veggies and fruits. She also has suggestions for fun side dishes as well. She helps me not to get stuck in a menu rut. Good Luck.

1 mom found this helpful

there is a book you could get at the library called 'too busy to cook'. It has healthy, low fat recipes and a system to make 10 freezer meals in a day. For your family size, you package them smaller and end up with 20 that don't take up too much space and are easy to cook once you do one busy day of cooking a month. The freezer meals work great for us when I am on the ball enough to plan them and do them... we love having them.

Try "The Sneaky Chef" cookbook. I love it

gotohealth.com has great recipes. besides websites, what helps me is going to the store and browsing the isles

How about some fun kid foods? You can make your own chicken fingers. Tacos, home made pizza, Spagetti and sausage. Just to name a few. I had a few others in mind but sometimers is kicking in and I forgot.
Goood Luck
C. B

One quick, easy meal we all love is just throwing some cut up chicken in a wok, tossing in a bag of frozen asian veggies, throwing on some teriyaki and a 10 minute boiled bad of brown rice to put the chicken and veggies on top. If a side dish is desired, some cut up fruit in one bowl to share with toothpicks to eat it to add fun is a great option! I also like to make soup in the crockpot the night before. Any sort of soup is usually easy, fast and the crockpot does all the work to cook it during the night and day. Also, soft tacos with whatever desire meat and wheat or multigrain tortillas are great...for a twist from the normal lettuce, cheese and tomatoes, adding frozen veggies with squash and zucchini mixed into the taco mixture or can of Mexican Rotel is great...add some brown rice and black beans from a can and it's a very healthy burrito!

T., why don't you try fixing some casseroles. Most recipes you can cut down to half portions. Try going on line and see what you can come up with to fix. Also, breakfast food, such as pancakes, french toast, egg & bacon could all be fixed at dinnertime. A.

Here are a few taht are tired and true for my family, we love to have breakfast foods for dinner so the first two recipes are breakfast foods. I was on weight watchers for a while (and I should be on it now!)so these are all WW points recipes. WW has cook books with tons of ymuuy recipes, and you don't have to be on the program to like the food!

Apple Pancake Souffle
Recipe By : WW - Simply the Best Cookbook
4 Points per serving
1 cup + 2 tbls all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups egg substitute -- fat free
2 cups skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted margarine -- stick
6 apples, peeled -- sliced thin
3 tablespoons light brown sugar -- firmly packed

1. Preheat the oven to 425º F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon; make a well in the center. Add the egg substitute, milk and vanilla; whisk until thoroughly combined.
3. Place the margarine in a 13x9" baking dish; place in the oven until the margarine is melted and sizzling, about 3 minutes. Add the apples and mix gently to coat. Bake until the apples are heated through, about 5 minutes. Pour the egg mixture over the apples; sprinkle with the brown sugar. Bake until the souffle is puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Serve at once.
Serving Size : 8
Recipe by: Diane Honer - Ivoryton, Connecticut "As a festive breakfast or luncheon entree, a light supper dish or even as a dessert, this fluffy golden souffle more than satisfies. Diane's family and guests look forward to having it as often as possible."
Nutritional Info Provided with Recipe: Per serving: 222 Calories, 3 g Total Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 1 mg Cholesterol, 271 mg Sodium, 38g Total Carbohydrate, 2g Dietary Fiber, 10g Protein, 109 mg Calcium.
Serving provides: 1 Bread, 1 Fruit/Vegetable, 1 Protein/Milk, 1 Fat, 30 Bonus Calories
POINTS per Serving: 4
by Dina

Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes
1 ½ Cups Flour
1 Tbs. Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Ginger
2 Ripe Bananas, mashed
1 Cup Milk
1 Large Egg, beaten
1 tsp. Vanilla
½ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Mix Dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet along with the chocolate chips. Let the batter stand for 10-15 minutes, then cook on a skillet. Serve with Cool Whip or whipped cream and a few banana slices.

These are great! The recipe is actually from Weight Watchers, I changed it slightly; it originally called for only ¼ cup chocolate chips.

Submitted by H.

Chicken Fingers with Honey Sauce
Shared by: Joel Italiano
5 Points Per Serving

12 ozs. skinless chicken tenders
2 Beaten egg whites
1 tablespoon honey
2 cups cornflakes, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup honey
4 teaspoons prepared mustard or Dijon-style mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Rinse chicken, pat dry with paper towels. In a small mixing bowl combine the egg whites and the 1 tablespoon honey. In a shallow bowl combine the cornflake crumbs and pepper. Dip the chicken strips into the egg white mixture. Roll in the crumb mixture to coat. Place in a single layer on a ungreased baking sheet. Bake chicken in a 450º oven for 11 to 13 minutes, or until no longer pink. 2. Meanwhile, for sauce, in a small bowl stir together the 1/4 cup honey, mustard, and garlic powder. Serve with chicken.
Makes 4 servings
Calories 230 Total Fat 2g Fiber 1g Sodium 275mg
Better Homes and Gardens Lowfat and Luscious

I am a distributor for Homemade Gourmet. We have really great meals that are soooo easy to make. We show you how to prepare meals that you freeze and thaw out and cook when you need them. They are sooo great for working moms who dont have time to "homemake meals" but still want to feed your family good food quick and healthy. I would love to help you with that!!! www.homemadegourmet.com/AllisonHood

Good Luck and Happy Eating

Hi T.,
You might try "Urban Homemaker.com" Marilyn Mohl operates this site with a small store and she always has some recipes that are healthy, different and generally easy. Give it a shot! God Bless!!

Tonay, Lite and Tasty Magazine is great...it is from taste of home. I think a subscription is about $12 for a year and they come every other month. I have 2 of the magazines coming to me right now, Tast of Home and Lite and tasty. I really enjoy them. One thing as well, if you have a subscription you can access all of the recipes online!! I get online print out my recipes and grocery list and if we like the recipe I cut and paste it and put it in our family recipe book (a binder with protective sleeves so I can take the recipe out and cook and just wipe it off if it gets dirty)
I have several recipes we have already tried and love if you want a couple I could email them to you and you can see if you like it.

Hi T.,
I don't know if this helps or not but every week I get emails from kraftfoods.com..You can sign up for free on their website and I also get their magazine with tons of recipes in it through snail mail.

Good Luck,
D.

T.-

I have a great healthy crock pot cookbook- I think it's Better Homes & Gardens. I just go through every week and pick one or two new meals to try. It's easy and then my husband and I rate them 1 to 10 so that we know which ones we want to make again...

good luck...M.

This is a link to a similar question asked a few months ago. KW has a good list of websites that I have used on her suggestion.

http://www.mamasource.com/request/17216877960485666817

The websites have an option to have recipes sent to you daily, weekly, or monthly and I have really enjoyed this. The recipes come right to me. I have actually created a separate email address for all the recipes to be sent to and when I want to try something new I log on and look through until something sounds good. Gook luck mixing things up!

Hi T.,
If you have a google home page (which I love both it and gmail) you can have a bunch of diffrent kinds of recipe of the day, put up on your home page every day :)
My family also likes to have cottage cheeze and apple sauce (some of us eat it mixed some seperate) but its an easy healthy side to have sometimes. Also don't forget the yummy option of broccli or califlower with melted cheeze as a side.
There is a thing my friend makes that is really good ~
cook up some hamburger crumbled in a skillet and cook up some potatos then mash them as if for mash potatos maybe add a little milk so they have plenty of moisture, then get a backing dish and put a layer of meet, layer of potato, layer of cheeze, then repeat till your out of stuff to layer. Pop it in the oven around 375 and bake till all is melted and warm. It is really good! (can you tell we like cheeze?) My mom does a similer dish with rice. Cooked hamburger, cooked rice, maybe a veggie and some cheeze bake...
If you grill a fun thing to do is what my family calls "foil dinners" get some foil (shiny side down of corse :) ) and put a hamburger patty then some veggies (corn, green beans what ever you like), maybe some cheeze ;), spice if you like, then wrap it up and grill it, the sauses mix together and makes a really yummy result.
I also like the vola premade dinners in the freezer section, they are easy, they are yummy, and healthy.
Good Luck,
S. :)

I enjoy this site and you can get emails on recipes and they also have a magazine you can sign up for with some very simple recipes

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/

T., are you kidding, look at how you are feeding your youngster! you're doing a great job! Hey, here's a couple ideas, not recipes, just ways to mix up dinner hour so it stays interesting;
Throw a blanket on the living room floor, use paper plates and have an indoor picnic-minus the ants.
Theme dinners, for example, use ground chicken or turkey with flour tortillas to make soft tacos and practice beginning Spanish: por favor, gracias, bueno.
My son and I have had candlelight dinners once a week for over ten years.
have fun! Ann

Here are 2 that I like:

Chicken Surprise

dip chicken breasts first in either Italian Salad dressing or light olive oil and then roll them in grated parmesan cheese. Broil in middle of oven (medium or low broil if possible) until chicken is cooked through. Slice into strips.

Cook brown rice as usual.

Layer on a plate: baby spinach leaves, rice, and then chicken strips.

Sprinkle with fresh grated cheese and, if desired, a creamy salad dressing. Serve while rice and chicken are warm.

Garlic, Black Bean, and Sausage soup

Brown Italian Sausage (or buffalo or ground beef) in a pan with 1 chopped onion, 10 minced cloves of garlic, and 1/2 tsp fennel seed or ground fennel.

When meat is browned, pour in 2 cups beef broth; 2 (15 oz) cans of black beans (drained and rinsed); 1 (15 oz) can of whole corn (drained). Let simmer about 5 minutes to thicken slightly.

When ready to serve, add in chopped tomato and dollop of sour cream.

Hey T.,

I felt a connection to you immediately-- we have a jack russell terrier and a 3 year old too! :-) I feel your pain. Ha.

I make alot our meals from recipes I've found on foodnetwork.com. I cook about 5 days out of the week and tend to run out of recipes too so I always go there. Ellie Krieger has the healthy recipes. They are not lacking on flavor either. There is also another website called epicurious.com.

Good luck to you!

-S.

Hi T.,
I just have one more idea to add. Introduce a new food or flavor a few times each week. This doesn't mean a whole new meal. Just add a new veggie or fruit, put a slice of sweet red pepper on the plate, or a slice of cucumber. A piece of mango or kiwi, a slice of pickle or some olives. Add a small amount of terriyaki sauce or a mild mustard to the plate to dip foods in. Use a variety of pasta shapes and rice colors. This will help your son to be open to new textures and flavors and then as he gets older he will be more willing to eat foods that will be more interesting to you.
Take care,
B.