Summer Enjoyment Guide to Eating with Kids

This is a guest post by Kristin from Peace Love and Muesli, a great blog with plenty of healthy ideas for families. She probably wins the prize for the blogger I've known the longest. We were both heading out to BlogHer '11 last week and she agreed to write a fun guest post for my blog with some fast and fun food ideas for families. Enjoy!

Maybe your partner is jetting off to a fancy conference for the weekend or maybe your camping trip was cancelled because of tornado warnings. Whatever it is, you are home with the kids and looking to make it a special weekend.  Sure you can head out to a restaurant, it always seems like a great solution but in my experience it costs more money than I wanted to spend and never tastes as great as I’d like.

What’s a health and budget conscious parent looking for some special family time to do?

mmmm.....s'mores

Eat at home and make it fun, that’s what!

The first step to an extra special family dinner is to shake up the routine.

1. Ask your kids what they’d like to eat. This is a loaded question, you might end up eating chocolate milk and cookies. If you are ok with that, go with it. If not, set some parameters like there must be a vegetable.


2. Instead of a sit down family dinner, have a cocktail style dinner. Or a buffet. Costumes allowed.


3. Light a campfire in the backyard (or a picnic area) and cook outdoors. Everybody likes s’mores, even the healthiest eaters.

To get started you’ll need some recipes. Good news, I have recipes.

Kids love to help in the kitchen, especially when making a mess is involved. So recruit your team of helpers, get into the kitchen and get cooking together.

The most requested meal at my house is noodles and cheese. I like to make homemade food when I can and mac ‘n cheese tastes so much better when it isn’t out of a box.  Excellent with cheddar and gruyere, but there is no end to the flavour combinations.

Coconut curry lentil burgers

The second most requested meal at my house is nachos, we really like cheese at our house. We also bake nachos in a casserole with tortillas. It’s a tasty dish that is easy to have ready ahead of time. Serve both with lots of guacamole and salsa. Or better yet, serve them with a guacamole bean salad. Nachos are a great make at home meal. They have the decadent feel of a restaurant meal but with healthy toppings.

If you and your family would prefer a vegan dinner I’ve got some ideas. How about coconut curry lentil burger with mango salsa? Or sweet potato and black bean enchiladas? Both delicious, make extras because you will be wanting leftovers. Hmm, I bet the mango salsa would be good on the enchiladas too.

Kids helping with the pizza dough

Make your own pizza night is a great way to get the whole family cooking, it’s also a great way to make sure everyone gets what they want on their pizza. My kids love rolling out their own pizza dough, oblivious to the huge mess of flour. Isn’t there a don’t try to make a happy kid happier rule? Try barbequing your pizzas, gives them a crunchy texture and a smoky flavour.

On more melted cheese recipe, please, I promise it’s a good one.

Cheese fondue. Pair it with a chocolate fondue dessert and it will turn dinner into a great time. Bread is the traditional dipper for cheese fondue but sliced apple, cooked sausage and boiled potatoes are great too.

After all that you and your eaters will need some dessert. Bake up some chocolate chips cookies. For an extra fancy dessert use the cookies to make ice cream sandwiches. That’s a sure fire way to turn any family dinner into a special memory.

What are your family favourite special meals?

Kristin writes all about healthy at Peace, Love and Muesli. Well, mostly healthy. Life isn't about perfection and s'mores are too yummy to pass up. She believes in a one step at a time approach to all things. Kristin vlogs about her potato chip addiction and encourages readers to Feel Good every Friday. Find Kristin on Twitter or Facebook.