Update: Congratulations to Rachelle, our winner of this giveaway, whose favorite go-to kid-friendly meal is, “Sweet potatoes! My grandma always used to bake them in the toaster oven and slather them with tons of butter and salt and pepper. If you’re in a sweet mood, just switch to brown sugar and cinnamon.”
To celebrate Meatless Mondays as well as the publication of my upcoming Cook without a Book: Meatless Meals
Except I got Melissa Clark’s new book Cook This Now
What I like about Cook This Now is that it’s divided, not just seasonally, but monthly. When you’re looking for inspiration as we often are, there are about ten recipes—main courses, side dishes, desserts—perfectly suited for each month of the year.
And although these recipes are both familiar and appealing, they’re also a little different. Most of us know how to roast asparagus. But have you ever thought about paring it with Gingered Rhubarb Sauce? You’ve likely made shortbread, but Melissa’s has pistachios in it. Her shrimp scampi is flavored with Pernod.
What I especially love about Cook This Now is Melissa’s “What Else?” From her substantial list of tips after each recipe, there’s enough information for you to create your own recipes, thus at least quadrupling the number of recipes in the book.
Her long notes before each recipe offer more advice and personal stories—just the kind of information I’m looking for in a book, and not necessarily the kind of help you can find on the Internet.
I cook on the fly a lot, but there are times each month when I want to cook something special, something different, perfect for the season. This one stays on the shelf for inspiration.
Melissa Clark is also mother to Dahlia, so many of her recipes are both adult- and kid-friendly (and because we’re running Baked Chicken Nuggets later in the week from Kathleen Flynn’s new book Kitchen Counter Cooking School), I’m wondering what’s your favorite go-to kid-friendly recipe?
Like the last few weeks, we’ll give you a couple of days to respond. Giveaway ends on Wednesday, October 12th at 9 PM ET with winners announced on Thursday morning.
I’ll go first. When Maggy and Sharon were growing up, I knew I could always make them happy with Chicken Parmesan (although turkey meatloaf was a close second).
Individual pizzas so they can pick their own toppings.
Cheese ravioli – either straight up with tomato sauce, or breaded with panko and baked, or with a little butter and parm cheese – quick and easy!
Something with rice! My toddler son always loves rice.
You beat me to it on the chicken parm — a true family favorite. My kids also like nearly any baked ziti type dish, even when I sneak in scary things like spinach.
Fusilli pasta with fresh pesto (made with spinach and basil)…the kids love it! 🙂
With a 2-year-old we go through picky-eating phases every couple of weeks but she’s always happy with mashed potatoes.
roasted veggies and pasta.
Pizza! We make and freeze our own crust. Its super fast to defrost the crust, top it with yummies, pop it on the grill and dinner is done and everyone is happy.
The only thing that’s been consistent with my toddler has been pizza. I try to make it as “healthy” as I can for him, but his allegiance clearly lies with the cheese!
Tacos…mine love to make their own with all the toppings on the table. Gives them freedom to chose.
Pizza seems to work well! The book looks great.
My grandson’s call it “Goomba’s Chicken (the youngest has trouble with saying Grandma) but it’s really Shoyu Chicken – thighs cooked in soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic & ginger.
My six year old loves chicken sandwiches, which we also enjoy!
I have 21 month old twins who, fortunately, seem to enjoy most “adult” foods. They do NOT like chicken nuggets or mac ‘n cheese–are they the only kids on the planet who don’t like mac ‘ cheese? I’ll have to try this recipe, because their all time favorite veg. is carrots. Carrots and bananas are two foods that I can always count on.
That being said, their favorite meal is spinach ravioli with pesto sauce. Yea, real toddler friendly, huh?
Any type of grilled cheese….so many possibilites!
We always called it “chicken spaghetti” but it was basically chicken tetrazzini– shredded chicken, pasta, lots of cheese and a creamy sauce.
Taco salad. Our four children loved it, and they could each customize it to their liking.
My go-to is pumpkin pancakes….with Mickey ears, of course!
my wife’s homemade lasagna has always been a favorite of our two children.
When my son was little, he didn’t like rice, but I had this great Minute Rice cheesy tuna rice that was SO easy, so I called it Tuna Surprise. To this day, he still loves it. I even made a “grown-up” version using risotto, colby jack, and caramelized onion, and he thought it was great.
I have an autistic grandson who is a way picky eater — even at 11 — he tends to eat only orange and brown food. He loves grilled cheese sandwiches — but they have to be made with cheddar, lots of it. After it cools it carefully peels the bread off and eats the warm melted cheese. Can’t just make melted cheese – has to be in a sandwich presentation. Interesting and strange.
Without a doubt…. spaghetti and meatballs!
The Munchkin loves polenta with marinara, Italian turkey sausage and fresh peas.
I like to serve spaghetti squash. I feel like the familiarity of theshape helps kids with the taste
Sweet potatoes! My grandma always used to bake them in the toaster oven and slather them with tons of butter and salt and pepper. If you’re in a sweet mood, just switch to brown sugar and cinnamon.
Pancakes…..with chocolate chips or blueberries, they are always a favorite!
I could make spaghetti everynight and they wouldn’t complain!
Bumpy meatballs were a favorite of my children. A lot like porcupine meatballs but with a cheese rather than tomato sauce. The kids are now grown – can’t wait to make these for the grandchildren!
Old school mac and cheese, with ham.
2 always reliable go tos with my son are fruit salads with plenty of strawberries and tomatoes and nutella sandwiches on oatmeal or honey wheat bread, toasted and then cooled completely.
My kids love beans. I make this really quick white bean “soup”: Saute onion and garlic, add as many cans of great northern beans as I need/want with a bay leaf, a couple of frozen tablespoons of pesto, salt and pepper and some chicken broth to thin. After it simmers and thickens, I serve it with grated parm cheese. It is comfort food for our whole family. They also like chili (more beans) and black bean tacos (again, more beans!).
My kids love cuban black beans, pasta is a quick and easy one for when they have friends over. Tonight my 6 year old harassed me through the entire hour and a half cooking time of Nancy Silverton’s slow-cooked broccoli and kept stealing broccoli out of the pot before it was done – he also does this with pulled pork – that’s a pretty safe bet too for kids and grownups.
My kids like Pasta Primavera (aka italian stir-fry in our house!). I make a version that has a very light cream sauce, doesn’t overtake the veggies, and their favorite ingredient is the mushrooms!
Sounds like an awesome cook book! When my kids were young and even now that they are in college one of their favorite meals is my home made macaroni and cheese made with sharp cheddar cheese and little cubes of uncured ham.
Their second runner up was to have pancakes for dinner – they just loved that and it was easy on the cook!
Pasta carbonara is definitely a family favorite, tho everyone has to put on their own pepper 🙂 Pizza is another one; sometimes I have the kids shape their own, depending on time and how anxious they are for movie night 🙂
the only thing my son eats at 9 weeks is breastmilk. but when my nephews come over, i can’t go wrong with bagels, cream cheese and lox!
Grandkids always liked spaghetti.
Meat sauce, meatball, or just Mariana didn’t matter.
The 8 year old picky eater in the next room says pork schnitzel.
I hate to say this, but my girls love PB&J more than anything I could possibly make them (and I’m not a bad cook!)!
Pasta with tomato sauce usually gets us by in a pinch.
Simple and quick sandwiches. In the summer BLT’s, don’t forget avocado for the adults, and the winter lays claim to the three cheese/ sourdough grilled cheese.
Chicken broth with pastini.
Oven-baked chicken nuggets!
Mashed potatoes! With lots of butter of course 🙂
because I have one very finicky eater, it would have to be cheeseburgers. Everyone else is easy to please. But he won’t eat anything except cheeseburgers or Annie’s Mac and cheese, unless ther is dessert.
Homemade lasagna is one of my comfort foods.
My kids always love spaghetti with meatballs and sausages. My mother in law, Nancy, taught me how to make her sauce when I first married her son. Now I make it at least once a month – using some for dinner, some for a recipe later in the week, and usually having enough to freeze for another time. I love using the sauce to make: lasagna, american chop suey (another easy kid favorite), eggplant parmesian, meatball subs, stuffed shells. etc. Yummy! And the kids always love anything with sauce on it!
Dutch babies with lemon juice + powdered sugar.
Shepard’s pie! Creamy, comforting and tasty.
My niece and nephew like my spaghetti. I don’t know if they like it just because I make my own sauce, or because at my house they get a microplane grater and a hunk of imported parm rather than the dreaded “green can” – it’s kinda fun to grate cheese on your plate when you’re a preteen!!