32 Easy Kid-Friendly Meals Your Family Will Love (Even Your Picky Eater!)

Congee is a bowl of comfort — easy to make, easy to eat, and customizable. This basic recipe is excellent as-is, or swap in chicken broth or add some dried seafood for extra flavor. Top it with as much or as little as you desire. You can even do congee in the Instant Pot.

I think of this as an upgraded buttered noodles. Chicken breast can be tricky with kids sometimes, but this one-ingredient crispy coating makes it irresistible. You can easily add a green vegetable as well. Just toss it in with the boiling pasta for the last minute or two of cooking.

Despite the stereotype that kids don’t eat green things, I’ve actually found pesto and broccoli to be some of the more popular dinner ingredients. Add a couple packages of tortellini and dinner is done.

Using ground pork makes this recipe fast and easy. You could use tofu, shrimp, or even some frozen edamame instead. The vegetables are also really easy to swap in what you have on hand. I like to add a spoonful of oyster sauce to my fried rice so it’s extra savory.

Buttery salmon and avocados are crowd-pleasers for the soft-food crew. Plus peanut butter and noodles? We’re hitting major food favorites here. Swap in another nut or seed butter if allergies are a concern.

Yogurt rice was editor Sheela Prakash’s gateway to loving the Indian food of her heritage when she was a kid. There are a few ingredients here that might require a trip to a specialty store (or an internet order), and you might want to go light on the chili. But perhaps this spiced mash-up of two favorites, yogurt and rice, could also be the ticket to expanding your kid’s palate!

Three ingredients and 30 minutes will yield this grown-up approved version of mac and cheese. One thing to note: It’s best served warm, so this isn’t a prep-ahead kind of meal (though you can toast and crush the peppercorns hours in advance).

Packed with colorful veggies, this one-pot meal is perfect for simplifying dinner plans while boosting your kid’s greens (and yellows, and reds). Skip the pepper flakes if anyone in your family is sensitive to them.

The perennial kid favorite is on repeat in so many households for a reason: It satisfies almost everyone. You can swap in other cheeses, like Gruyère or Fontina, in this take on the comfort food, or keep it simple with the original recipe’s secret ingredient for ensuring creaminess: mild cheddar.

The excitement I am met with when I announce it is nacho night! I spread the chips and cheese across the sheet pan, and then divide it into four quadrants so everyone gets their own toppings. Sort of like doing pizza toppings half-and-half. We use a big spatula to lift our portion off of the sheet pan and onto our own plates.

If your kid likes chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce, give these a shot. They're crispy and sticky-sweet — who wouldn’t like these?

Similar to sheet pan nachos, you can easily modify fillings here. Or just stick with cheese and beans, and go wild with the toppings.

Frozen meatballs have a specific texture lots of kids really like. Using them for these meatball subs is smart and super fast.

Ah, the time-honored pizza bagel that so many millennials fondly remember from childhood. Sure, you can buy them in the frozen section, but assembling your own at home turns dinner into a fun activity.

These veggie burgers come together easily with simple ingredients like beans, mushrooms, and mild seasonings, all blended (younger kids will love pressing the food processor button and watching the ingredients mash together!) and then ready to cook in a cast-iron skillet.

We eat this all of the time, it’s perfect. This feels like classic Americana to me, and one of the easiest things in our dinner rotation. It has become my husband’s signature dish.

Adobo is salty, tart, garlicky, and peppery. But let it mellow in the fridge overnight, and it’s a whole new thing the next day. It's perfect for make-ahead meal prep when you know the week is going to be busy. And the texture of the chicken after cooking in the Instant Pot is very palatable for kids who don’t like tougher meats. Serve with lots of rice — either brown or white.

“Set it and forget it” applies when it comes to this hearty, New Orleans-inspired one-pot meal, which comes together in two hours with minimal intervention. Using a pressure cooker, you needn't pre-soak the beans (plus, it shortens cooking time). Forgo the suggested hot sauce depending on your family’s tolerance.

Another super-tender chicken thigh dish that's cooked long and low in a bath of soy sauce and brown sugar with lots of aromatics. It’s so good, and requires brown or white rice for that delightful sauce.

I wrote this recipe six years ago, almost to the day. And I had been making it years before that. My kids still regularly ask me to make this for them. The Parmesan-spiked biscuits are perfect perched atop the chicken and marinara and melty mozzarella. Tip: If you don’t have rotisserie chicken, you can simmer three chicken breasts in the jar of sauce until cooked, shred, and proceed.

If you think about it, these are basically a nugget. Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside, ready to dip in ketchup (or tartar sauce). I like to make them smaller than suggested so there’s a higher ratio of crisp exterior. Plus they’re more fun when they’re dunkable.

Oyakodon means “parent and child rice bowl” because it’s made for parents and children! Just kidding, it’s because it’s chicken and egg, get it? But it’s still an appropriate name because it’s appealing for all ages. Tender chicken, soft eggs, sweet and savory broth, lots of rice. It’s meant to be served in a single bowl, but you can let everyone serve themselves the parts they really want.

Ground meat and mashed potatoes! Even my texture-loving kid loves this. Some people do lamb, some do ground beef. You could even do a fully vegan one topped with sweet potato for maximum nutrients. I do a pound of ground beef and a package of vacuum-packed steamed lentils. Lots more fiber, plus it's cheaper, to boot, and you still have that really traditional flavor.

Sous vide salmon is like butter — you could eat it with a spoon. This technique shows you how to do it without any fancy equipment, but you can certainly use a sous vide if you have one. Keep the sorrel butter on the side if you think there'll be any objections.

Simple, crispy, and delicious, this lemon Parmesan version of the kid classic amps up the flavor profile for the grown-ups, but keeps things simple enough for pickier palettes. Plus, there's no frying, just baking or air-frying, which makes cooking a bit safer, too.

This version of the classic comfort meal is filled with veggies and topped off with the traditional dish’s favorite condiment: ketchup. You can also use the same recipe to make mini meatloaves or meatballs.

The secret to this creamy broccoli soup is a block of silken tofu blended right in. And topped with a super-simple cheesy macaroni? You’ve got the best of everything here. Although you might want to keep the two components separate if you’ve got a “don’t let my food touch” kind of kid.

Just corn, milk, and butter. Sweet and comforting, and so easy to make.

I actually love baked beans as a main dish. It’s one of my favorite meals in September. We eat them with apple slices, grapes, late-season tomatoes, slices of cheddar, and soft dinner rolls. Lots of favorites kids can pick and choose from, plus who can resist bacon and brown sugar bolstered beans?

Hold on, hold on, hear me out. A sabich bowl setup is similar to a burrito bowl bar. You make it what you want it to be! I can’t say that eggplant is the easiest sell, but hummus, jammy boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pita chips sure are. Just means more eggplant for yourself, and you can drown your personal bowl in as much hot sauce as you want.

I love this because it’s customizable, plus you can use up lots of bits and bobs in your freezer and fridge. You can definitely use sweet potatoes as well. My daughter is a particular fan of sweet potato, butter, and Greek yogurt.