Convenient healthy meals for children?

Do you have a slow cooker? Throw stuff in it before you leave the h ouse, and come home to a fresh, hot meal. Usually just adding a salad and/or a bread is all you need to round it out. Yo've got to plan a bit ahead, but once you get in the routine, you'll LOVE it and won't want to hit a drive thru again.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

4-5 split chicken breasts, skin off

1 (8 oz) block cream cheese

1 cam Cream of Chicken soup

1 packet dry Italian dressing

1 cup white wine (optional; can sub water or stock)

Soften cream cheese in microwave. In crockpot, whisk together cream cheese, soup, Italian dressing, and wine until smooth. Add chicken, cover w/ lid, and cook on LOW for 6-7 hours. If you used chicken on the bone, remove bones. Break chicken into several pieces. Serve chicken and creamy gravy over steamed rice.

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Burgundy Beef Tips, Slow Cooker

Prep: 10 min. Yield: Makes 6 servings

2 pounds beef sirloin tips, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 (8-oz.) package sliced fresh baby portobello mushrooms or your favorite sliced mushrooms

1 (10 3/4-oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup dry red wine

1 (1-oz.) envelope dry onion soup mix

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Stir together beef tips and remaining ingredients in a lightly greased 5-qt. slow cooker.

2. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 hours (or LOW for 7-8 hours) or until beef is tender, stirring once after 2 hours. Serve the beef tips over hot cooked egg noodles or rice tossed with parsley.

Note: Though we love the hands-off advantage of the slow cooker, this recipe works better when you can stay close by to stir it occasionally. Stirring prevents sticking and distributes ingredients evenly.

--Southern Living, DECEMBER 2007

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Pulled Pork BBQ in Slow Cooker

3 pounds fresh pork shoulder, well trimmed

3 Tbsp. BBQ or Grill Seasoning

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. ground mustard

1. Place trimmed pork in 4-quart slow cooker.

2. Mix barbecue seasoning, ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and ground mustard until blended. Pour over pork.

3. Cook 8 hours on LOW or 4 hours on HIGH. Remove pork from slow cooker.

4. Shred pork, using 2 forks. Return pork to slow cooker, mix and heat with sauce before serving.

--McCormick

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U.S. Senate Bean Soup

Serves 6.

1 lb. dried navy beans, picked over, soaked in water to cover overnight, and drained

1 large ham hock

8 cups water

2 medium-size yellow onions, minced

3 medium-size baking potatoes, peeled and cubed

6 ribs of celery, including some leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Salt, to taste

1. Put the drained beans and ham hock in the slow cooker and cover with fresh cold water. Cover and cook on High for 1 hour.

2. Drain, taking care not to splash yourself with the hot water, and add the 8 cups of water. Add the onions, potatoes, celery, and half the parsley. Cover, turn the cooker to Low and cook for 8 to 10 hours.

3. Stir in the remaining parsley and the pepper, season with salt, cover, and continue to cook on Low 15 minutes longer.

4. Remove the ham hock, returning any bits of meat left on the bone to the soup; discard the bone. Ladle into soup bowls and serve hot with garlic bread.

--“Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook”

I work away during the week so every Sunday I make all the meals for my 3 kids and my husband as I do not like giving them frozen proccessed food. This usually takes me about 3-4 hours (depends on the cooking time for each meal)

I cook chilli, spag bol, casseroles (beef, sausage or chicken), curry (kids love it, not too hot though!), cottage pie, goulash (beef or pork)......the list is endless and you need alot of freezable containers and freezer space!

My hubby loves it as he takes the meal out the night before to defrost and when he comes home all he has to cook is veg, potatoes, rice or pasta!!

You just need to be organised and plan a week in advance, but luckily I love cooking at prefer to do this every Sunday to make sure my family have a well balanced diet

If you have a day off, buy those throw away casserole things at the grocery store and make a bunch of casseroles and then freeze them before the actual cooking process in the oven, then pull them out and stuff in oven when you get home...my wife does that. She also makes meatballs and freezes them so she just yanks them out and throws them in the sauce when making spaghetti.

You need to premake your meals. You can premake a meatloaf and freeze it...thaw the meatloaf, put in the oven until hot and you are done. You can freeze stir fry chicken with vegetables, defrost and microwave. There are so many things you can make and freeze ahead of time.

Pasta with sauce

Cous cous with roasted vegetables

Grilled fish

Macaroni cheese

Jacket potatoes

Scrambled egg on toast

us his to go to sits and it will tell you more healthy meals for children