Kid-friendly meals can work with familiar ingredients

Don’t you love the phrase “kid-friendly meals”?

Maybe you readers are more fortunate than I and do not have a picky eater in the house.

My daughter, now 28, still is picky. She does not like food to touch, so she sections out her plate. She tolerates casseroles if they do not have green peppers or too many onions in them.

When her daughter was born, I started her off right by making baby foods with healthy fruits and veggies. At that time, the only thing she would not eat was green peas. Now it is a different story. She likes limited foods, chicken tenders, plain beef patty, plain rice, no-sauce pasta, ramen and macaroni and cheese. She does like fruit, especially apples and Mandarin oranges.

Last week, she surprised me by telling me she ate a meatball out of her meatball sub at school. That’s it, just one.

Readers, I hope some of you can relate.

But I press on to wage the food battle another day. I hope to win at least on a few meal items. I try at least one or two different recipes each week, hoping to stumble on to just the right one.

Nutritionists and food and parenting magazines offer ideas for kid-friendly casseroles, in which they say the flavor combinations are a hit with kids. These dishes have no fancy foods.

I do not like to fix two meals, one for my daughter and me and one for Lilly. I make sure there is at least some food she will eat.

A one-dish wonder that I found from Parents magazine is Tex-Mex mac and cheese. Lilly will eat a plain ground beef taco, no sauce, so I gave it a try. She loved the mac and cheese and picked around the meat. This casserole is good, and I am not a fan of macaroni and cheese. It has the usual suspects, macaroni, cheese, beef, but with added spice. Lilly enjoys chips, so I let her crush the chips that went on the dish. This one is easy, too, 15 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to bake.

Letting her help in the kitchen is the best way to get her to try foods and perhaps eat them.

Lilly loves bacon and eggs, so a Martha Stewart breakfast casserole is perfect for dinner, too. She likes the main flavors, and I mince the onions, so she doesn’t see them. Cheddar cheese can be substituted for the Gruyere, but Gruyere is so much better. It is pricy, though.

These are two semi-success recipes.

Tex-Mex mac and cheese

1 pound extra-lean ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 teaspoons chipotle chile powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

11/4 teaspoons salt

12ounces whole-wheat rotini pasta

3 cups milk

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

11/2cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

11/2cups shredded reduced-fat pepper-Jack cheese

1 cup crushed baked tortilla chips (about 2 ounces)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a rectangular 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in beef and add the onion. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes or until beef is no longer pink. Stir in tomato paste, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the chile powder, 1 teaspoon of the cumin and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt. Add 1/4 cup water and cook 1 minute. Set aside.

Meanwhile, cook pasta following package directions. Drain and set aside.

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce. In a medium-size saucepan, stir together milk, flour, the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons chile powder, 1 teaspoon cumin and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute until thickened. Off heat, stir in 1 cup of the Cheddar and 1 cup of the pepper-Jack cheese until a smooth sauce is formed.

Stir the cheese sauce into the pasta. Spoon half of the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with the beef mixture and then the remaining pasta. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and crushed chips over the top. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and browned.

Nutritional data (per serving): 424 calories; total fat 15 grams; saturated fat 9 grams; sodium 814 milligrams; carbohydrates 40 grams; fiber 4 grams; protein 34 grams. – From Parents magazine

Breakfast casserole with bacon

1/4 pound store-bought puff pastry, thawed

8 ounces (about 12 slices) bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips

1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced (I used 1/2 onion and minced it)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt and fresh ground pepper

1 1/2 cups grated (4 ounces) Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry to 10-inch square (trim edges with a paring knife). Place pastry into an 8-inch square baking pan, folding corners to fit. Prick bottom of dough with a fork.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon; cook, stirring occasionally, until pieces start to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add onions; cook, stirring occasionally, until bacon is crisp, and onions are lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer mixture to a plate; let cool slightly.

Scatter onion mixture over pastry. In a small bowl, whisk eggs, cream, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Pour egg mixture into pastry shell. Sprinkle Gruyere over top. Bake until filling is set, and top is golden brown, about 40 minutes.

If the rolled-out dough becomes too soft to handle, briefly refrigerate it while you prepare the rest of the recipe. – From www.marthastewart.com/

Andrea Yeager can be reached at ayeager51@cableone.net/ and Cooks Exchange, 205 DeBuys Road, Biloxi, MS 39535-4567.