One of the Italian cultural heritages I am most proud of is the attention to what I eat and the religious care in cooking food. Because of the ways my husband and I were raised, it was easy to stick to cooking our food from scratch and not slip into ready meals. Not that we don’t indulge in frozen food from time to time, but we cook most of our meals ourselves. As working parents, this habit is not short of challenges and I know many struggle with finding time and suitable recipes. This is why I am sharing 5 of our favorite meals with you. These are healthy meals for kids, very easy to make, real winners in our house. If you want to try something new, I hope you’ll find ideas easily in this post!

#1. Feta and spinach savory pie

Cost: low. Time: 15 minutes + 30 minutes baking.
This is one of my favorite recipes and my trick to get my children to eat spinach. While the baking part takes time, the preparation is super easy. You can bake this pie hours beforehand and it makes a perfect picnic meal in the summer. I buy the crust frozen (this is the brand I use), don’t forget to take it out a couple of hours before baking.
Ingredients (serves 4): 1 round frozen crust, 1 egg, 1 feta cheese, 600 g frozen leaf spinach, 4 tbs of parmesan cheese (or grated cheese of your liking), salt and pepper.
Directions: boil the spinach (I do it in the microwave – fast and easy). Throw them in a mixer with the feta cheese, the egg, a little salt and pepper. Mix until smooth (kids-proof 😉 ). Level the crust in a round baking tray, pour the mix, and top with grated cheese. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes.

#2. Teriyaki salmon, green beans, and baked potatoes

Cost: medium. Time: 15-40 minutes (depends on the side dish).
R doesn’t like fish and finding ways to sell it to her is a challenge. This is why I love this dish as the sweetness of the teriyaki sauce persuades my picky eater. You can experiment with other vegetables on the side, but my suggestion is green beans (I buy them frozen and heat them up on a frying pan with some butter and salt) and baked potatoes.
I peel the salmon fillet and cut it in slices. Then I brown in on all sides on a frying pan with butter. After serving, I top it with a couple tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, which you can find ready made in most shops. Delicious!

#3. Tortillas

Cost: medium. Time: 30 minutes.
I’m sure you can find 10000 fancier recipes for tortillas, but this is our simple, fuss-free version. Here in the picture I have used the “boat-like” tortillas, but I more often use the flat ones.
Ingredients (serves 4): 1 onion, 400 g minced meat, 4 tortillas, few salad leaves, 2 tomatoes, 1 bag of taco spice mix, taco salsa.
Directions: chop the onion and toss it in a frying pan with some oil. Add the meat and cook until brown. Add the spice mix at the end and keep mixing. Chope the tomatoes in cubes. In another frying pan warm up the tortillas one by one. When one it’s warm, toss it on a plate, spread some salsa, a couple of spoons of meat, salad leaves and tomato cubes and wrap it. Et voilà!

#4. Vegetarian noodle stir-fry

Cost: low. Time: 30 minutes.
I looove this dish. It’s not easy to find vegetarian meals that my family appreciate, but this is one. It’s so tasty and the combination of flavours is heavenly. I’m getting hungry just writing about it.
Ingredients (serves 4): your favorite dry noodles, 1 spring onion, 1 carrot, 2 sweet peppers, fresh ginger (about 2 cm), 4 eggs, soy sauce, salt and pepper. You can try different vegetable combinations.
Directions: start by cutting the vegetables while you heat the water for the noodles on the stove. Chop the ginger finely and mix it with the chopped spring onion. Cut the carrot in thin sticks and the pepper in rings – I choose the seedless peppers to speed things up. Heat up a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil in a pan, toss the ginger+onion first and shortly after the other vegetables. Stir-fry mixing often, remember you don’t want them mushy. Cook the noddles according to the instructions on the box and toss them with the vegetables, adding soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste. Fry the eggs in a separate pan and serve them on top, like in the picture. Just delicious, I guarantee. Possibly the best among these meals for kids.

#5. Spinach soup and boiled egg

Cost: low. Time: 20 minutes.
This is a classic Finnish dish that takes no effort, is healthy, and my kids inexplicably love (thank you, daycare?).
Ingredients (serves 4): 50 g of butter, 4 tablespoons of flour, 1l of milk, 250g of frozen spinach (chopped, not leaves), 4 eggs, salt and pepper.
Directions: boil the eggs separately (8 minutes in boiling water). In a pot, melt the butter and then whisk it together with the flour. Add the milk and wait until it’s close to boil. Add the spinach, salt, and pepper. Serve it like in the picture (that’s half the fun!).

Will you try any of these meals for kids? Let me know in the comments!

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Featured image by Anelka from Pixabay.