Ideas For Kid-Friendly Cooking

If it were up to my kids, every meal would be a combination of lollipops, pretzels and gummy bears with ice cream for dessert.  Luckily they do not plan the meals or make the dinner.  They may help cook now and then, but there is only one General in this kitchen.  So how do you get from what they want to what they'll eat? 

As a parent and a cook, getting your children to happily eat dinner can sometimes feel like trying to break into Fort Knox with a nail file, so here are some sure-fire ways and recipes to get kids cleaning those plates at dinnertime.

My bag of tricks:

  • Having the kids help make dinner
  • Putting anything on skewers or with pasta
  • Using food PR (aka: Not telling them the whole truth about what they are eating, like calling grilled lamb a "wool steak.")
  • And bribery.    

Click here for the Marinated Grilled "Wool Steak" Recipe

In short, the typical coping mechanisms.  Yet, while those help get the first bite in, nothing beats a great dish.  Below are a few tried and true favorites from my kitchen.