Healthy Children's Meals please?

[tyrella]

I've been searching this forum and Googling to find some healthy easy children's meals!  No success so far.  I thought there must be a cookbook or a forum somwhere?  Babies and Childrens section seems to be primarily sweet stuff and baby stuff.  I'm looking for meals that are full of veggies, no red meat, lots of vegetarian options, lots of dairy-free options, lots of raw salad type recipes.  Where can I find them!!!?  Thank you to anyone who can give me some ideas 

[Tasty]

Just wanted to know if you wanted no red meat and dairy-free, etc due to choice or allergy?

Annabel Karmel has good nutritious meals however I think you will find it extremely hard to find such recipes, except maybe for salads.

[tyrella]

I wanted healthy i.e. no red-meat and not dairy based because I want it healthy.  We don't do sausages or mince or any processed foods. This shouldn't be 'extremely hard to find' as I think this is basic healthy eating.

There seems to be a belief that 'children's food' is about burgers, sausages, pizza and fish fingers and I've always avoided this 'pitfall' and my daughter is now nearly 8.  I'm sure there must be easy and quick recipes that would appeal to children. 

At the moment I am cooking some potatoes in my TMX with some plain white fish steaming on the top and in a minute I will add some veggies to go with it.  I'll mash the potatoes when they are cooked.  This is one dish my daughter loves.  But I'd love a section on this website where I could get lots more HEALTHY children's meals (which of course would appeal to grown ups too!).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[fundj&e]

Plenty of healthy soups and pasta dishes around  tyrella , is DD a fussy eater

you could mince your own chicken for a healthy chicken bugers or rissoles

 veg bruschetta for snacks or a meal are also healthy

how do you feel about frying ?

http://www.freshforkids.com.au/index.html

[AliRo]

check out the vegetarian section, there's plenty of things there that would meet your requirements.  I have this vegetarian lasagne on fairly high rotation in our household, my daugther who is 2 happily eats it.

http://www.sanitarium.com.au/recipes/curried-vegetable-and-lentil-lasagne

There's lots of yummy vegetarian recipes on that website too.

[judydawn]

If you google 'healthy vegetarian options for children' tyrella, you will be given quite a few options to check out. You said you have tried that but hadn't come up with much but there seems to be plenty with my search.  Perhaps you could convert any you find to the TMX and post them on the forum in the childrens section with the word Healthy preceeding the name of the dish.

[hopefulcook]

I also avoid processed foods as much as possible for my 3 kids (aged 7, 5 and 2). But I don't consider meat or dairy unhealthy. I am really scratching my head to think of recipes that avoid both. Typical 'healthy' meals for my kids include: lasagne (full of veggies grated in TM), tuna pasta from EDC (with extra veggies), meatballs (again extra veggies) with rice and salad, baked potatoes, cornflake chicken, fish pie, shepherds pie, pizza (homemade dough and sauce), lentils (bolognese style) with rice, chicken and leek pie, tuna mornay, enchiladas, lots of soups (pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, potato & leek etc.), boiled eggs and salad, macaroni cheese with veggies. I hope this helps.
I also bake a lot for recess for school to avoid the packaged lunch box stuff.

[nazar]

 my kids like Thai fish little balls and salmon little balls( l put lots of vegies in them )  with salad and  homemade potato and sweet potato  chips made in the oven

[Merlin]

Look in the special diets section- there are plenty of  great dishes eg vegetarian/vegan, dairy free, gluten free options. I make tons of recipes from there eg quirky Jo's lentil bolognese is always a winner with my kids and they don't realise there's no meat in it. There's also healthy chicken nuggets and lots of  lentil based dishes eg soups, patties/ rissoles, pasta dishes, casseroles etc. I think you'd be hard pressed to find any other TM site with more healthy options for kids on it!!!!!
Also, go onto brazen's culinary adventures or Quirky Jo's blog for heaps more healthy kid food suggestions.

[judydawn]

If you are looking for raw recipes, we have a section here.

Then there's Tebasile's Kitchen blog.

[Tasty]

Hi Tyrella

I hope I didn't offend you with  my comment but I was just trying to find out where you are coming from.

I also have a very young daughter and I agree with you in that I want to avoid processed foods however like hopeful cook, I don't think that red meat and dairy products are unhealthy.

Also, when I said that it would be extremely hard to find such recipes it is because most recipes contain one or both of those. I am sure you already have quite a few recipes anyway since you have a 8 year old daughter you raised with such recipes (I believe).

I support your idea for a healthy meals thread in the forum as I too found that a lot of the recipes in the baby and kids section are sweet and not helpful with main meals.

I currently have borrowed a number of books from the library for baby and toddler food, etc but it seems the majority of recipes (which are healthy) have either red meat and /or dairy.

Good luck with your search.

[snappy]

Ooh tricky one.  Im another one who likes to cook healthy for the kids but i do include red meat and dairy in that.  I know quirky jo has lots of dairy free / gluten free options but she does include meat - maybe you could substitute fish or chicken in some of them?

[Coops]

Why are you looking for specific children's meals? I am a big believer on just feeding children the same healthy norml meals that we eat, there is plenty of healthy recipes on this forum. Try quirky jos blog and if you google worlds like. Vegetarian , dairy free etc with thermomix you will find stacks of stuff . If you keep limiting your search looking for specific 'kids' food uou won't get very far.

[Halex]

Right behind you there Coops. Why make life difficult & cook 2 meals

Lots of very healthy people on this forum, we have members who do triathlons, who post recipes, members who regularly exercise etc.

H

[Amy :-)]

Tyrella, unless children have intolerances or allergies, its not healthy to ban foods or food groups. It can cause them to miss out on nutrients that are very important to all aspects of their development.
A healthy diet is a varied and balanced diet.

As mentioned by Coops, there are lots of healthy recipes on the forum, and many of them can be adapted if you don't like particular ingredients or want to make the meal more "child-friendly".

I hope you find what you are looking for