Healthy EASY Quick Dinners

HI
I really like to go onto www.kraftfoods.com/kf, they have great recipes. And they have a healthy living section on there that may have some things you are looking for.

Best of luck

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This is one of my kids' FAVORITE dinners...in fact they request it for their birthday dinner! It's originally from a Weight Watchers cookbook, so it's definitely healthy, and has good "stuff" in it that they otherwise wouldn't eat. Not many ingredients, not much prep, very easy to make.

My kids call it "Spinach, Noodles & Sausage" although I'm sure Weight Watchers had a more "fancy" name for it.

1 box corkscrew pasta (fusilli, gemelli, rotini, etc), cooked
16 oz italian style turkey sausage, casings (skin)removed
12oz jar roasted red peppers, drained & diced/chopped
1 box frozen chopped spinach, thawed & squeezed dry
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Brown the sausage, using a wooden spoon to break it up into small pieces as it cooks. Drain well. Add remaining ingredients, except the noodles, and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes so all of the flavors blend together.
Pour over noodles and mix everything together well. Serve with a salad. It's delicious, and colorful!

FYI - the spinach and peppers are something my kids would never touch - and still won't, unless it is in this dish.

1 mom found this helpful

Make the crock pot your best friend! Try this recipe for chili:
Brown 1 lb ground turkey breast (99% fat free)
2 cans diced tomatoes approx 8 oz each
1 can kidney beans approx 8 oz
1 chopped green pepper
Combine in crock pot with 1 package of McCormick chili seasoning and cook on low for 8 hours!

1 mom found this helpful

M.,
I am really sorry to hear about your situation. I have three children. The baby is only 8 months, but my other two kids are 7 and 5. they are pretty healthy eaters!! I have found that feeding them simple foods is a lot easier. A few favorites are chicken or pork chope baked with BBQ sauce. no need to grill it, it is the taste not the crispyness that the kids like. They will eat most veggies, including asparagus, spinach, broccoli, corn, carrots and lettuce. I think the real trick to getting them to eat most of their veggies is letting them dip them in something. My kids right now are on a Ranch dressing kick. I get the low or fat free and let them dip anything they want. they went through a tartar sauce phase and a french dressing phase, both of which can be made at home using low or fat free ingredients. Also cheese sauce is a big hit on the veggies. Out typical dinner is a meat, vaggie and starch. I think the key to eating healthyis trying to cut back on salt an sugar intake and increase water intake. The one down fall to eating healthy is that it is a lilttle more expensive. It rare to find store brand produces low in sugar or sodium, but your health and the health of your daughter is worth the little bit of extra money. I could go on for paragraphs with all kids of tips and suggestions. Both of my older kids have unusual food allergies, so you would really be surprised at what cutting out or limiting little things in a childs diet do fot their overall well being. If you would like more advice, please feel free to email me ____@____.com Rachael Ray has a lot of great recipes and a great cookbook for kids of all ages. Maybe if you let you daughter help you cook healthy she will be more willing to eat it.

Hope this helps!! - C.

1 mom found this helpful

ok, first of all, you're daughter does not sound overweight, but being healthy is always a good thing. Boneless skinless chicken breasts are amazing. I have just discovered that I can bake them in the oven from straight out of the freezer. I wrap each breast individually before freezing and take out as many as necessary. Place foil on a baking sheet and fold up the edgees slightly, drizzle a little olive oil and place the frozen(unwrapped) breasts on the sheet, sprinkle with your desired spices. I tend to use just some sea salt, black pepper, paprika and garlic. Bake in the oven at 350 for about a half hour. This gives you time to steam your vegetables. Always buy frozen or fresh. The canned vegetables have way too much sodium in them. I don't usually have time to do anything fancy, so a little bit of butter over the steamed vegetables is all the flavoring they get, and since I have boys, I throw in carbs as I can. Take any potatoes and stab them a few times with a fork, place them in a paper bag and microwave for several minutes depending on the size of potatoes. When they are soft, they're done. My kids love 'baked' sweet potatoes this way. I have 4 stepsons, an almost 2 year old daughter and another on the way. Dinner doesn't take more than 30-40 minutes to make each evening. We eat a lot of chicken and fish, all baked or grilled to minimize the fat. Use healthy oils like Olive Oil, or, if you can afford it, coconut oil is great for cooking with and great for you metabolism, not to mention it can double as a skin care product. Only buy whole grains.

Another thing I have started doing is serving 'dessert' which always incorporates a fruit. In fact, most times, we just each grab from apples slices or grapes or bananas. The sweetness finishes the meal off nicely, and I've had no complaints from the kids yet. . . .

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I saw a book called The One-Armed Cook: Quick and Easy Recipes, Smart Meal Plans, and Savvy Advice for New (and Not-So-New) Moms by Cynthia Stevens Graubart. I have been wanting one myself but haven't gotten it yet. The review on it are great. How about including your daughter in on the cooking. Find a quick and healthy recipe and prepare it together. Then you both will benefit... from the time spent together and the healthy meal you prepare!

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Hi M.,
I get weekly blogs from a site called "raising little souls." This week they had a site www.myonlinemeals.com listed. For about $5/month they send you recipes weekly and the store lists for purchasing. You can select healthy recipes to be sent as well as kid friendly. It may be worth it to check it out.

My other response would be to invest in a slow cooker if you don't already have one. It is very easy to throw chicken breasts in a slow cooker with a can of healthy recipe cream soup and some milk mixed together and let the slow cooker do the work. Serve it with some steamed veggies(which can be bought in the freezer aisle and fresh produce sections now) and a baked potato. The potatoes go in the microwave.

Good luck!
A. L

1 mom found this helpful