Fast fun food for kids

[OnlyByTheNight.]

When I babysit I usually just end up making spaghetti hoops or sandwichs for the kids and frankly they are getting quite sick of it! Lol.
So I'm looking for nice, fast and easy foods to feed them for lunch.... Any ideas any body?

[INFERNO]

Why not make some homemade soup with a bunch of vegetables and perhaps some ground meat to beef it up? If need be, you can use a can of tomato paste and/or can of diced tomatoes to save some mess. Toss in 1-2 bell peppers (whatever colour), 1 onion, few stalks of celery, mushrooms, basil, parsley (cut of plus a bit on top for decoration) and perhaps some shredded carrots or diced potatoes. Alternatively, you could skip chopping up the celery and simply serve the soup with a stalk of celery in it. Also add some spice, garlic, red-wine vinegar, etc... . If they like spicier food, toss in a jalepeno pepper (the real spice is in the seeds).

Along with the soup, you can cook some sausages in the soup. It'll give the soup some flavour from the sausages and you can then toss the sausages in a bun if you want and eat it separately.

Another option, you can have basic tortilla wraps. To make them fancy, grill the tortillas (be very fast about it as they take 1 minute or less per side). Grilling them basically transforms them into one larger cracker and if you do it properly, it'll curl up a bit around the edges. You can use this as some quick and rough pizza crust, toss on some peppers, pre-chopped pepperoni, tomato sauce, etc... . Just need to heat the peppers, sauce and whatever else and you have somewhat fresh pizza in under 10 minutes.

You can serve for dessert fresh berry pudding. Get some berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc...), some orange juice (or other juice if you want) and some cornstarch. Cook it up nicely and you can mush up the berries. After heating, put in the cornstarch but do it slowly bit by bit so you don't get clumpy pudding.

You could always give a try at fresh sushi if you want.

You can try making some chicken caesar, just cook the chicken in whatever way you want. Then make fresh dressing (not the bottled garbage). If you want bottled, then screw the creamy this-and-that, go for Rene's dressing. But ideally make it fresh with fresh lemon juice, anchovy paste, etc... . You can slice the chicken up and layer it on top if you want.

You can try schnitzel, take some pork, pound it flat, toss it in some eggs and then bread crumbs plus spices and cook it. Cook it in a pan with a good amount of oil for a few minutes on each side or until it's nicely browned. Then put it in the oven but ideally put it on parchment paper (not wax paper). Set the over to 350, 400, 450, etc... . Give it several minutes then serve fresh schnitzel.

[drpepper21]

CRAP ASS GHETTO PIZZA!

just get some flat bread, more on the sauce, cheese and meats.
pop in the oven, AND PULL OUT WHEN READY!

[danielg]

take tortilla and cover them in shreded mexican cheese and your choice of meat fold them up and cook them in a pan till the cheese is melted and the tortillas light brown

[Aneklusmos]

nachos! tortilla chips with shredded cheddar and meat if you want, put it in the oven for like a minute and give them some salsa or sour cream to dip in. optional: olives

[Modus Operandi]

Roll-ups are good for kids. Take a large tortilla, some shredded cheese, meat if you like, and maybe sneak some veggies on there. Put it in the 'wave for about 45 seconds.

When you take it out, take 2 opposite sides and fold them about a quarter of the way in. then roll from one of the other sides and you're done.

[itsandrew_]

Make some chicken nuggets and mac n cheese. Its easy and what kid wouldn't want that?

[Sugaree]

Liver and Onions. That will cheer them up :P

Ask them what they would like to have. That's the way to go for this. Maybe you could order a small pizza or maybe make one yourself with Engish Muffins.

[Aves]

Spagettio's, Pizza rolls, two best foods ever.

[RaisingSand]

Why not make some homemade soup with a bunch of vegetables and perhaps some ground meat to beef it up? If need be, you can use a can of tomato paste and/or can of diced tomatoes to save some mess. Toss in 1-2 bell peppers (whatever colour), 1 onion, few stalks of celery, mushrooms, basil, parsley (cut of plus a bit on top for decoration) and perhaps some shredded carrots or diced potatoes. Alternatively, you could skip chopping up the celery and simply serve the soup with a stalk of celery in it. Also add some spice, garlic, red-wine vinegar, etc... . If they like spicier food, toss in a jalepeno pepper (the real spice is in the seeds).

Mate, if you can get a young kid to eat that, I will PAY YOU. Ditto the sushi. No child under the age of 8 is gunna go anywhere near sushi with a twelve-foot pole. They're kids, mate. No need to fancy it all up, they're happy with broiled chicken and steamed broccoli.
You could try making mini-pizza's. Interactive and tasty.

[Never_Forget]

For lunch? Toasties. Just make some sandwhiches with things like cheese, ham and tomato, pop it in the grill until the bread is toasty, and there you have it =D
Boiled egg and soldiers are fun (but kinda messy) for kids too [: or you could let the eggs cool overnight (make them the day before) and peel them for a quick snack, you can even take the yolk out if they don't like it (cut the egg in half and the yolk will be all congealed and crumbly and easy to remove). Meatballs/burgers are easy to mae too, just squash some minced beef together and cook it in a pan.

Alternitively you could go Asda and buy some ready meals! n.n

[AutumnDae]

Ask them what they want! And let them help making it. It will get them involved, and they will be eager to have fun with you!

But, in my past experiences, kids like fun foods. Pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, anything frozen and that actually tastes like garbage, they'll probably eat.

Or, you could try grilled cheese and tomato soup. Give them Goldfish crackers to put in the soup and they'll love making them "swim" around!

Chicken noodle soup?

Mini pizzas are great, if you have lots of stuff to put on top, each child can customize it and make it their own. Cheese and pepperoni are definitely a kid's favorite.

And, if they're being extra "good" that day, get a boxed brownie mix and make that, put it in the oven while they are eating lunch, and by the time they are done eating, and you've cleaned up, the brownies will be ready!

[Triceratops]

Most food young children tend to enjoy are pretty easy to make anyway. Spaghetti and meatballs, mini pizza's, fish fingers, hamburger's, chips etc. If you want a more healthier option maybe put a few vegetables such as broccolli and carrots on the side with a few slices of pizza. I don't think it matters if they don't exactly go well together, the kids aren't going to mind. :P

Children love food that resembles their favourite cartoon character of the sort like Disney chicken nuggets or Tweenies pasta. Kids also adore turkey dinosaurs and those crispy potatoes with the smiley faces, I'm not entirely sure what they're called but they look like this:
http://i32.tinypic.com/2vhwvm1.jpg

Children really couldn't care for all the fancy food, so it shouldn't be too much hassle.