I was very picky growing up and have grown less picky as I get older. My older son is a very adventurous eater who loves everything from tacos so escargot. The only problem I have is that he has expensive tastes. My younger son though is quite picky although slowly but surely he's getting better. I refuse to cook down to his tastes though and expect him to at least try everything. Some of my standbys for quick and easy meals are taco bars, panini bars (I lay out options and the kids make their own sandwiches that I then grill), spaghetti and meatballs (I make meatballs with minced veggies in them in large batches), stir fry and various soups.

Adding that I am doing a video on how to make s'mores bars, so I'm sure that will be a hit, but the challenge has been the healthy and frugal stuff . . .the worst is the frugal relating to protein. So that leaves out the uniform cuts of meat and cheese, which is great but not particularly frugal when it is the main course rather than a condiment . . . I have a friend with a super picky son, and yet his favorite meal was pasta with a bean and peanut butter sauce with cilantro and chili for flavoring . . . so go figure . . . I'm wondering if I could just do a couple of pastas and then have the kids send me in their favorite recipes or challenge them to make up their own . . . .

Just wondering how many kids in your sample?

I've done food projects with hundreds of kids over the past 25+ years, often 25 kids in a group at a time, and there are all kinds, IME. A lot of times it has to do with having limited exposure to novel foods, and some kids have sensory issues, or have been discouraged or forbidden from participating in preparing food at home.

But yes, in general, many children are timid about approaching new or unusual foods. Kids have more sensitive taste ability, but also less sophisticated palates, and they're basically built to love sweetness - I recall some research that showed it's almost impossible to make something that's too sweet for most children.

Try making cookies, breads, brownies, pizza, and not going too far outside a typical kid comfort zone.

I didn't have an oven or stove so had to come up with a lot of things that didn't require those. I used to do homemade salsa fresca in a blender, homemade peanut butter (served with pretzels and apple slices) in a food processor or blender, rice and noodle dishes in an electric skillet, along with toasted & spiced seeds, girdle scones and pancakes. We made applesauce in a microwave, and smoothies with frozen bananas - also cheddar cheese dip in a blender. I also did homemade lemonade. Old fashioned, from scratch things are often interesting and fun for kids. We made pudding and hot chocolate from scratch too.

Anything the kids can get their hands on is always good. When I did projects, I would try to share out tasks as much as possible, often breaking things down so the most kids could participate - like if a recipe called for 2 cups of something I would break it down into 1/2 cups so 4 kids could measure and pour. Boredom sets in fast if they can only watch.

There are a number of cookbooks for kids that are good for ideas. Parents magazine took over Family Fun, from which I got a lot of good ideas:

https://www.parents.com/recipes/familyrecipes/

I realize that some of this is by the wayside now, with distancing and other safety protocols.

Anyway, HTH

Two strategies:

1. Show them a ton of Masterchef Junior videos (youtube).

2. When you cook with them make very sure they are extremely hungry.

dcarch

I'm totally into the baking comfort zone and have done a lot of those kids of things, but like I'm thinking a great meal to do with kids would be home made biscuits and then top with chicken and gravy . . . but no way would my grands eat that . . . so yeah, biscuits with butter and honey, fine, with a side of chicken fingers and maybe some carrot and celery sticks. But that's hardly ideal for frugal cooking over the long haul . . . they would get grossed out even if I asked them to pick the meat off of a roast chicken . . .

Sigh it's just frustrating. Perusing most of the suggested links, and just thinking, nope, nope, nope, nope. Even things I know they like pre-packaged, would not fly home made just due to looks . . .

Kids have twice as many taste buds as adults, so they are more sensitive to spices and strong flavors. I have grandkids that are all over the place with food preferences, but they love many home made foods. I don't think you can stereotype kids eating habits. Carolb has a lot of good suggestions. They do need to participate and the project needs to be fitted to their interest. Keep it simple. What age group are you targeting?

Elementary. I have to say i had little interest in healthy or frugal cooking at that age . . . show me how to make home-made popsicles and that was another story . . . I have a lot of tried and true kid friendly recipes, just struggling with the main dish frugal protein stuff . . . my grands laughed when I made them eat a piece of cheese for breakfast with their pop tart . . . I am such a weirdo!

Edited to add that one of my friends with the super picky eaters ended up serving their kids chicken and hot dogs, even though they were vegetarians, the kids would not eat any of the vegetarian protein sources as much as they tried. All they eat is pasta and cheese my friend bemoaned. They also had to train the kids to choke down a small portion of green vegetables since they hated all of them except carrots. They liked salsa and chips. Ironically, one of them now works in community gardening and food access issues . . . so one never knows. They liked fruits . . . maybe I'll start with cobbler . . .

I don't think it's a kid problem. I'm used to much better eaters than you are, but I know the kind of kids you describe are everywhere. I know an adult version of the same. The big thing is whether they're interested in cooking in the first place. If they are, they'll be more interested in the food you want to present.

Beans are funky and lentils are worse. To me, most preparations of lentils taste like sand or moss. I'm a grown up. I'll eat lentils in stuff, and the occasional highly spiced dal. There's a kind of dal that seems like it's about half cream, which is delicious but not something one would want to eat regularly for nutrition reasons, and not frugal. I cannot choke down American style lentil soup. For me, lentils are fine in a mixed veg soup, or even French lentils in a salad, but not as the star. I can't imagine trying to get a kid who didn't grow up on it to eat a whole dish of lentils. I love beans, if they're prepared well, but I do recognize the funk that makes kids stick out their tongues if it's not white beans baked with a ton of sugar. Kids who haven't been eating refried beans all their lives are repulsed by the look as well as the funk and even with cheese melted on top, few will eat them. A mild, beefy and tomato-y chili is an easier sell, especially if it's easy on the cumin.

I think the trick is not to try to make a healthy imitation of junk food. I don't think poptarts are delicious, but the the "healthy" commercial versions are disgusting. I have a feeling that the same is true across the board. Making something yummy that's it's own thing is probably a better route. Maybe add some contextual information telling a story about the dish to help with the eeew what's that factor.

Little kids are amazingly gullible. Most of them fall for the "Dinosaurs eat trees; broccoli is little trees" line.

The biggest issue, as I see it, is that as adults we've learned to eat a lot of foods and appreciate complex flavors, but objectively aren't that great tasting or good looking. Luring children into foods they're not used to requires something they can relate to to make it appealing, and simple, clean flavors that taste good to them.

It's easier to hand a toddler a chicken nugget than to cook a whole chicken and give them pieces of the real thing. It's easier to open a package of poptarts rather than make some cinnamon toast. It's easier to open a package of baby carrots than to cut up real veggies and it's easier to open a bottle of ranch dressing than to make a home made dressing. so kids are not exposed to anything but the easy stuff....and turn a blind dye to real food. Picky eaters are a product of either picky parents or lazy parents.
I am amazed when i see these lists of stuff on facebook saying "which of these will you eat"....things like mushrooms, spinach, salmon, brussel sprouts, bananas...and sooo many say they won't touch them.
I found the clue to mitigating fussiness was to allow the kid to cook and be creative in the kitchen...invent recipes.

If you want to draw them in, you need to meet them where they are, and not try to push too hard. Most kids like to help prepare and will often try a bite, but in my classes, if a kid didn't like it, I would kindly tell them it was OK and they could throw it away or just put it aside, or give it to someone who wanted it - and there was always someone who wanted it. I never made a big deal about wasting food. I often would make sure, though, that a kid who might not like something was served only a little bit, just in case.

How about homemade baked chicken nuggets?

This recipe looks good:

https://www.parents.com/recipe/chicken/crunchy-oven-baked-nuggets/

A kid friendly meal with that could be nuggets, homemade biscuits with butter & honey or jam, and a fruit platter or salad - you could do buttered green beans too, for something green.

Tacos?

Spaghetti and meatballs?

Chili and homemade cornbread?

My girls are 38 and 40. I would almost always cook at home, but I admit, when you're working full time, going to school and raising 2 kids, it's easy to pull out the boxed mac-n-cheese!

One cooks now and the other doesn't. I even bought a GC for my daughter and DIL for some of those kits for cooking a meal for 2 and they still haven't used it!

I think this generation is such a take out bunch with their starbucks, grub hub and other delivery type things! Especially now! Everyone delivers!

We have twin grandbabies due very soon, and I plan on spending time in the kitchen with them! I've even talked my daughter and her wife to include a garden area in their yard for a few veges.

DD was not picky at all. She spent her first year traveling with us around the world, and ate whatever was available on a tight budget in Taiwan, Bali, Italy, New Zealand, France, etc. DS grew up more "normally" and, yes, for a time he refused to believe that chickens have bones. But fresh chicken, brined and seasoned, braised in stock and lightly panko'ed and fried is so much tastier than a frozen McNugget that even he liked it.

I'd say start with home made, healthy, and very tasty versions of the stuff that is closest to what the kids normally get - juicy hamburgers vs pressmeat patties, moist chicken vs frozen-microwaved, creamy mac n cheese vs fluorescent from a box, freshly fried potatoes vs cardboard sticks. Then sneak in the spinach salad and boiled eggplant :-)

Kids also love fun little packaging gimmicks. My kids loved bento boxes, treats wrapped in parchment paper, any kind of dumpling, colorful pasta, food that was a game.

Plan B, cooking videos for college bound kids who are leaving home with no cooking skills and scant budgets.

I was going to suggest pizza. What about baked fries as opposed to deep fried ones? You can do potatoes and sweet potatoes, parmesan coated courgette sticks, parsnips.....a variety of veggies. Worth a try try?

When I ran the high school canteen, I used to make beef tacos with canned brown lentils mixed in, and sloppy joes the same. About two thirds ground beef and one third lentils. I got away with that one 😁

I wouldn't have any trouble doing the videos, but i figured for kid stuff, they would want to see a KID doing it. I thought it would be a way to connect to my grandkids who are 600 miles away. I do think it might appeal to college age kids, but again, having worked with them most of my career, better if a peer does the video. I do suppose it depends because I know a lot of young people loved the cooking videos Chris Cannucciari did with his grandmother Clara . . .

It's been frustrating for me that the grands are so picky. Chili would be out, they don't like any of the vegetables or beans, or anything spicy, so without all that, chili is just a sloppy joe . . . which is fine for a kid meal, I make those, but they aren't frugal or particularly healthy . . . especially when even whole wheat buns are out, "don't look right." A lot of what my grands insist upon is the appearance and textures of the FEW processed foods they eat. My brother was picky too as a kid, he only ate a few raw vegetables, hot dogs, applesauce and cottage cheese. He still eats extremely plain meals due to having food sensitivities to vinegar and soy. He eats steamed vegetables and salads with salt and pepper!

My grands love to do crafts with me, but there are tons of craft videos out there. That's on my list too, but I wanted to pass on a few family recipes and traditions, but sadly no one in my family is interested . . . it's been that way for years. Cousins and their kids not interested either.

I'll ask the grands for some suggestions. I really wonder sometimes about the future when folks are so disconnected to meeting their basic needs through creating things and sourcing raw materials . . . years ago I worked at a sugarbush/maple syrup program and the local tv anchor brought some kids, (including his) out for a "taste test" between maple syrup and the commercial stuff. We all knew the kids would prefer the commercial stuff, real maple syrup is assertive and an acquired taste, but he was shocked at how they all chose the commercial, including his kid. We told him that's why we kept doing the program, so that more kids would grow up like he did, experiencing and knowing real food.

However, having been immersed in the educational literature for years, affinity for all kinds of information and subjects usually comes from positive interaction with someone enthusiastic . . . but a kid has to like people to get the ball rolling. I think that is also part of the modern world, kids hearing snark about people constantly so having few close friendships anymore. At least that's what I'm seeing with my grands.

Last night, I set up for onigiri and had DS make it. He enjoyed it, the results were cute and tasty, and seems like something fun for kids.

We also deep fried tofu and panko'd braised pork but I imagine kids and deep frying should be kept far apart.

I would have had so much fun doing that as a kid. So hard to say if you have kids who are shy about anything out of the ordinary for them. My Mom lived in Japan for a year so we spent a lot of time with Japanese culture so were always keen on anything Japanese. My friends who never left the small midwestern town i grew up in, not so much . . . and my grands aren't shy about dissing something they think is too "out there." I grew up in a multi-cultural family, so I learned tolerance for all kinds of "out of the box" experiences . . .in fact I love doing things like that.

Edited to add that I am also working on a series of Japanese culture activities, using my Mom's souvenirs as starting off points. I have fish kites and hand made dolls and beautiful rice and tea bowls, real lacquer ware, including a bento box and chopsticks . . . all from the 1950's. Have been mulling a kid friendly "tea" menu . . .

Depends. One set of grandkids, three, eat and cook almost anything. Other set, two, eat almost nothing except fast food and even then it has to be the same thing. Same burger, not homemade, same chicken nuggets, bought, not homemade, same pizza, bought. Heaven forbid you make fresh green beans at Thanksgiving, and not dump out of a can! Same for corn and mac and cheese.

Both of my boys were raised the same and on the same foods. Go figure????

ETA: Have two bonus grandkids that go with the set of three, that also eat anything. They only came onboard a couple years ago, so it it not something that they grew up with my son and his kids.

It sounds like you have a clear vision of what you want to do. It might be worthwhile to just go for it. Don't be afraid of redo-ing "good enough" to try for a great outocme. If you can project how you feel about what you're presenting, and the warmth and love you're trying to send to your grandkids--without saying it outright or being smarmy--I think they'll like the videos, even if they don't actually want to make the food. They can also keep them (or someone responsible can keep them) so that in another decade or two, when they really want all that passed down knowledge, they'll have it. Go for it!

Gonna try and start with maybe tostadas with hamburger and mix in some red beans to teach the principle of stretching meat with beans (hubs family is deathly afraid of lentils!) and then sweet potato fries, and rainbow coleslaw. I'm sure they will turn up their noses at the coleslaw, but I could also show them how to do a crudite tray and make their own dip . . .

Ironically, my elderly mother has gotten really picky over the last few years. Mostly because she has a lot of preconceived notions of a lot of foods that she has never even tried, but the name puts her off For instance, she now won’t eat Creamy goat cheese, lambSourdough bread, feta (well I get that), Eggplant any leafy greens and so on. And it’s not because of digestive issues, she eats like a horse. I mean, more than my 300 lb husband. I’ll say to her, have you ever even tried it? She’ll just avoid answering and I know she hasn’t.

Kenji has a new book aimed at kids, Every Night is Pizza Night as well as Food Lab Jr. Maybe some ideas there.

Every kid is different. My 3 year old grandson loves cooking with me and eating what he has cooked. I try to make a game out of cooking so he will want to eat what he and I have prepared. Sometimes he loves our creations, sometimes not. He loves spicy foods, chilli is a favotire and beans of any kind fresh or dried. We make mac & cheese from scratch but he will eat Annie's boxed as well.

The hardest part is getting him to "buy in" to whatever dish we are cooking. I find if we use ingredients he likes and is familiar with then it is easier to get him to eat it even if the dish itself has additional unfamiliar ingredients. Every recipe we cook has a story attached with it that I share with him as we work. I try to share family recipes and yes they are usually frugal ones.

Yes - advice I've seen from experts is not to overwhelm with too much at once, but try introducing 1 new thing amongst more familiar stuff.

I've been doing a lot of 'taco meat' these days and always add a can of beans now, to stretch it a bit further. I also add corn kernels, finely grated carrot, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers and fresh garlic, BTW. The carrots add a bit of sweetness, along with extra nutrition.

This conversation has reminded me of when my son was a toddler, and was pretty accepting of lots of different foods - until he suddenly wasn't. It was weird to me that he began rejecting foods he'd formerly liked, but I understand that's actually not uncommon with toddlers. He outgrew it later on.

Louise, my Mother is the same way, but she weighs 94 pounds. She'll eat something today and then swear tomorrow she doesn't like it. There are about dozen foods that she'll actually eat and they have to be a certain way. KFC, but only original and only the thigh. Yogurt but only Oikos, only full fat, only Greek style and only raspberry. Fish but only cod and only batter dipped and deep fried. French fries, but only thick cut and only deep fried. No vegetables other than butternut squash. Cheerios, but no other cereal and only with Country Dairy full fat milk. No beans, no rice except in rice pudding, no ground beef except in spaghetti sauce, no vegetables, no mashed potatoes, no bread except squishy white, no salad of any kind, no raw fruit. She always loved pie crust, now she won't eat it. She does like ribs, ham and bacon, but no other pork. She does eat cinnamon rolls but the last batch she said was "too tough".

Picky kids? Sometimes it's because they've spent their lives believing that chicken only comes in nuggets and supper comes from the pizza shop, and in their lives it's true.

I don't think today's kids are any pickier than I was and still am, even though chicken only came with bones when I was a child.

Coincidentally, I got this in my email today from Serious Eats:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2018/02/in-defense-of-picky-eating.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_20200901_Monday_FoodLabJrGyoza_SuggestedRecipesTemplate&utm_content=Daily_20200901_Monday_FoodLabJrGyoza_SuggestedRecipesTemplate+CID_32620677444238f0f66d21b09f2fdc75&utm_source=Email%20campaign&utm_term=The%

Annie

I have no problem with picky eaters if there is a reason behind the pickiness. But when kids reject something without trying it with an open mind, or stop eating things they liked before, but suddenly want to go along with some crowd and reject it, that bothers me. My dad was picky for a reason, things bothered his stomach, but now it's part of his anxiety disorder and the aging process, he's getting more and more rigid in all aspects of his life . . . My brother and a few others had food sensitivities. Years ago one of my "picky eater" friends found out she was allergic to all fermented foods, which includes vinegar which is in all kinds of condiments, and also soy and glutens, which are also in lots of stuff. She said she learned early on that certain foods made her feel unwell, but nothing visible so for years she was just labeled "picky." Same with my brother. He's also sensitive to acid foods, which is why he called tomatoes "poison apples." And certainly why he rejected ketchup!! Another friend discovered why her youngest was always so cranky--he was suffering from a gluten intolerance problem . . . his tummy was upset a lot of the time.

I love the part of the article where the role of personality is explored, and control issues. The kid only liking macaroni and cheese if he could eat it on bread, his own creative idea. His mother ended up having the same experience when she learned to like food concoctions of her own. I learned to like raw tomatoes one day when I was starving for lunch with little food in the fridge, and improvised a cottage cheese and tomato sandwich, which I ended up really liking. For a while I only ate tomatoes that way, but gradually expanded my liking of them . . . So anyway, I totally get about giving kids control over their environment and developing problem solving skills so they can come up with their own foods. Just wondering where the intersection between that and "frugal" come in to play . . . .