Children's healthy recipe ideas

I was impressed to see some of Jamie Olivers school dinner recipes on his website, rather than having to buy a book http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/cats/school_dinners_recipes.php

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I've got 3 boys, ages 12, 12 and 4, and I'm always trying to get them to eat more fruit and veg. I think the key is to educate them - they oftem ask 'is this or that good for you?' and I always try to tell them that they must eat a bit of everything to be healthy. I must admit that since programs like You Are What You Eat and Jamie's School Dinners and the like I'm becoming slightly obsessed with what I feed my family! I'm not a great cook, but I do enjoy cooking and I'm not afraid to give new things a go. If they work out well, great! If not, them my boys and husband are always quick to point out that you don't know until you try!

I recently tried stuffed peppers and they always go down a treat with everyone! I drop the peppers into boiling water for a couple of minutes then stuff them with a minced beef bolognese-type mixture. I make a standard bolognese but add some brown rice and some hidden veg like courgettes and mushrooms to the mix. Put them in a shallow oven dish and sprinkle with grated cheese then cook in the oven for about 20 mins. Serve with warm crusty bread. Yum! Looks really impressive but is so easy!

Any more ideas would be very much appreciated!

I do shepherd's pie like that too, but for the mash I use about 2 thirds potatoes and 1 third parsnips. Tastes yum (and parsnips are the same colour as tatties, therefore invisible!), kids love it.

My daughter (4) varies from being a really fussy eater to eating anything and everything - therefore completely unpredictable. She always loves a plate of veg though (I know I'm lucky). She has very expensive tastes such as balsamic vinegar and quail's eggs! I make soup a lot and either puree for a pasta sauce with cheese on top, or serve chunky and she generally eats it. I do home made chips with sweet potato, parsnips and potatoes which are yummy. Her latest like is lemon chicken which is basically lemon zest, juice, olive oil, fresh herbs and garlic made into a marinade for chicken breast chunks and then cook the chicken (really nice put on skewers with slices of lemon in between and other veg like mushrooms and peppers) either in the oven or on the barbecue. She is a bit anti herbs which I find annoying.

Annabel Karmel (I hardly dare mention her) has some great recipes for children, and I really like Rose Elliott's recipes for vegetarians, which can easily be adapted for meat eaters. I refuse to go along the chicken nuggets and oven chips route and so far have managed - we have fish fingers and spaghetti hoops in our house as a compromise for kid's food.

I use Quorn mince quite a lot which makes a great spag bol or chilli - either use all quorn in the recipe or half quorn half mince (my hubby hasn't realised I use it for the last 3 years!) - which is healthier than red meat and lower in fat. Home made pizza is easy too - buy or make a base, a quick tomato sauce, plenty of veg, some cheese on top I make mine low fat as I put no oil in the tom sauce and use low fat cheese.

I just made some mini quiches for lunch - first time my 2 had tried quiche as i'm not a big fan i've never bothered buying one.

I did a basic egg, milk , cheese, onion and ham mix and they turned out great, made 12 -- only 5 left!!!!!

They've asked for them in their lunch boxes when they go back to school too - will try adding different veg to make them more interesting.

They also love making mini pizza's - i normally make a tomato based sauce up when they're not around and puree up any veg into it that comes to hand, as long as it's the right colour they don't ask questions!!