Kid Food

Serious question: How is it nearly August already? We hate how quickly the days seem to be flying by. But. But! We love when it’s time for a new batch of Aldi Finds. See, our sources always share the upcoming list toward the end of the month and it’s always so much fun to see what will be hitting store shelves. Next month there’s going to be lots of breakfast items, dinner shortcuts, bold snacks, and more.

The last year of lockdowns (and beyond-the-norm grocery shopping that’s come with them) has taught me a few things about my shopping habits and my family’s food preferences. After discovering the supreme value of a second refrigerator and my kids’ deep abiding love of ramen, I’ve also come to terms with my love-hate relationship with Costco.Once an “event” to distract the kids on a rainy day, it’s now become a necessary, grin-and-bear-it activity.

The other day, I got phone calls from two out of three of my children’s schools. I’ve already violated their privacy enough, so I won’t divulge the content of those phone calls, other than to say no one had broken the law, but no one had won a prize, either. I was annoyed. More than annoyed, mad. Those phone calls made it hard for me to get back to work. Why, then, did I text them to ask what they wanted for supper? And why did I make exactly what they wanted?

While it’s my duty as Kitchn’s Unofficial Costco Critic to peruse the wide warehouse aisles in search of the best deals, hottest new products, and just-for-fun bulk buys, it’s also my pleasure. On a recent visit, I spotted the single best product I’ve seen all year for parents — and I can’t keep it to myself any longer. The best thing parents can buy right now at Costco is The Ice Cream Party Box.Find it in stores: The Ice Cream Party Box, $17.

I didn’t grow up shopping at Aldi, the wildly popular grocery store that is known for great deals and fun products. In fact, it’s only in the last five years that the budget grocer has opened locations in Southern California where I live. While I used to shop a lot at Costco, I eventually started making the switch over to Aldi in 2016. It took me a few trips to get my bearings and learn the Aldi ways (yes, you’ll get your quarter back), but I’m a firm believer in it now.

A classic American summer wouldn’t be complete without long nights spent in the backyard chasing fireflies, making s’mores, sipping cooling drinks, and, yes, enjoying hot dogs fresh off the grill. When you’ve had a good grilled hot dog — juicy on the inside with a little char on the outside — you’ve experienced true savory bliss. But when you’ve had a not-so-good one — burnt, burst, shriveled, dried out, or undercooked — the letdown is huge.

If there’s one section of Costco I never, ever skip, it’s the frozen food aisle. I can easily fill up my cart in that aisle alone. (The organic fruits! The vegetables! The breakfast foods! The treats!) In fact, I’m such an avid Costco freezer-aisle shopper, I’ve even purchased a separate chest freezer so that I have lots of extra storage at home.What have I been stocking up on lately? I’m glad you asked!

Last summer we were taken by the phenomenon that was whipped coffee. Millions of people had to give it a try, including myself. This summer, whipped lemonade has popped up all over TikTok, so naturally I was intrigued. After trying out the latest whipped drink, I propose we trade in the coffee beans for lemons for a concoction that makes for the perfect creamy-sweet-tart-chilled libation.

Nutritious, simple for kids to make, and endlessly versatile — who knew such a breakfast was possible?

Name: ConstanceLocation: Winchester, MAAge: 38Number of people in household: 2 adults and two 5-year-oldsOccupation: Project AssistantHousehold income: $30,000 Grocery budget: $200 for two weeksGrocery stores of choice: Costco, Stop and Shop, and the farmers marketStop and Shop is just down the road from our house so it’s the most convenient location for us to buy groceries from.

I’m kicking things off with a week of easy, mostly healthy dinners for my family of two (two and a half?), as we gear up for the arrival of our first baby in a few months. While my eating style — veggie-heavy, wholesome, and comforting food — hasn’t changed much since becoming pregnant (save for my frequent tater tot cravings), I do have less energy at the end of the day now and am much more inclined to seek out low-stress, low-effort quick and easy dinners.

Costco trips make my registered dietitian heart skip a beat (in a good way). While I am sometimes tempted by a two-pound container of chocolate-covered raisins or a monster-sized wheel of cheese, I typically stick to a few go-to staples that feed my family of three for quite some time. Stacked with nutritious and cost-effective options, this tried-and-true grocery list helps me create nourishing meals in a simple way.

Here’s how “mom life” is supposed to work: You get home from long days of (fill in the blank: work, school, play, travel, life), open the fridge, and find an abundance of fruits and vegetables for a perfect nutritious meal. (You’re doing such a good job of planning ahead these days!) The kids play quietly while things come together in about 30 minutes, and someone else takes over the dishes while you have a few minutes to relax before the bedtime routine begins.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! When it comes to mealtimes, everyone in my family has a different idea of success. For my 3-year-old, Hazel, it’s whatever is the fastest route to dessert. For my 9-year-old, Lily, it’s carbs on carbs and plenty of ketchup.

Lately, it seems like every parent I know, both in real life and online, says that they have a picky eater. And while I totally get the sentiment — my 3-year-old certainly doesn’t always eat everything I put onto her plate — I won’t call her picky. Here’s why. The word “picky” has become a catchall for every type of eater — from the tot who didn’t eat his broccoli that one time to the child with severe sensory issues.

I have been thinking for a long time about all the voices that tell us we’re Doing It Wrong in the kitchen. We wanted to bring you a column about the ways that you’ve actually been doing it right all along. My friend Cheryl Sternman Rule is bringing us this occasional dose of reassurance. — Faith More fruits, more vegetables, less processed food. Homemade, wholesome, whole family around the table.

I still remember the sweet sense of victory I felt when I cooked one dinner that my whole family — including my toddler — adored and gobbled up. I’m still new to this, but have learned that feeding toddlers is tricky business that requires patience, understanding, creativity, and persistence. These days I put my meal-planning efforts into building a roster of easy dinners that my whole family enjoys.

Welcome to summer, where the sunshine keeps everyone outside until the last minute, it’s too hot to turn on the stove at dinner time, and everybody wants a quick meal so they can get back to playing. None of these things makes feeding a family easy in the hottest months, so it’s helpful to have some make-ahead meal ideas stashed away so you can cook dinner before the kids go to bed the night before, or maybe even over the weekend before work gets in the way.

Hitting the road with kids in tow? You are in for an adventure! After 20 years of motherhood, I know that vacationing with children is not without its challenges, but I’m equally convinced that it’s worth the effort. We’ve found that getting outside our comfort zone provides us with huge bonding moments.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Ours is a breakfast-loving family, so by default we eat a lot of eggs. We’ve served them every which way: fried, scrambled, hard- and soft-boiled, poached, in quiches, in omelets, you name it.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! My kids are home from school, your kids are home from school … which means aaaallll of the snacks. And even more snacks when they get together to play!

Having a hard time getting your kids to eat vegetables? Hiding themThe first study compared the vegetable eating habits of elementary school students at five ethnically and economically diverse schools, where carrots were offered three ways: unnamed, named as a “Food of the Day” or named “X-Ray Vision Carrots.” When presented with a fun name, kids ate 66% of the carrots, compared to just 32-35% of the other carrots.

Summer is in full swing at our house, which means between jumping into the lake, riding bikes, and running through the backyard sprinkler, we’re all hungrier than ever. We’ve spent much of the summer already eating easy no-cook dinners or leftovers. While that strategy has its own merits, this week I’m looking at my slow cooker to feed us hearty summer dinners without heating up the kitchen.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Join us over on Instagram for more! As a food writer with shiny object syndrome, I’d always wanted a sous vide machine. But when my husband bought me one for Christmas when I was pregnant with our daughter, I was too nauseated to consider playing with it for months.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Check us out on Instagram for even more!

Easy to cook and beloved by kids, hot dogs are all too often passed over by the adults at cookouts. But hot dogs can make an exciting dinner for the whole family with just a little bit of planning and a few fun upgrades. This family snack board combines two grill-friendly recipes with store-bought basics for the ultimate backyard dinner. Serve it to celebrate the start of summer, the Fourth of July, camping at home, or just a really good Tuesday night.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Juneteenth is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate. Juneteenth, or “Freedom Day,” marks the announcement of the ending of slavery in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. Widely celebrated in the U.S. and worldwide, it’s a perfect opportunity to share an important moment for African Americans with my two little ones.

After everything that’s happened over the past 15 months, Alice Choi is choosing to look at the positives — and cooking at home has been one of them. For purely practical reasons, it makes sense! Alice is the blogger behind Hip Foodie Mom, which saw a boom in readers this past year when more people were finding their way around their home kitchens than ever before. (She’s also a member of the Kitchn Collective, a team of food writers and parents.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Helloooooo, summer! ‘Tis the season for non-cooked dinners and sweet, cold desserts. Now that we can safely gather with other folks who’ve been vaccinated, my friends and I kicked off the hot weather with a collaborative dinner. They brought a beautiful salad and we made beef tartare.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. My biggest adjustment in those first days motherhood, the moment I realized that my life was forever changed — was our first meal at home as a family. Our friends had come over, lugging enough Vietnamese takeout to feed us for a week. I was ravenous.

Toddlers are funny. They think they know everything, including what they like and don’t like to eat. But they can be fooled, at least some of the time. Take soup. My little ones liked soup — just not always with a spoon. So I called it “dip,” passed them a bowl of carrot sticks and declared it a meal! Here are seven things my toddlers would (almost) always eat.Carrots: They’re sweet and easy to handle.

If you’ve got little eaters around your table, be it toddlers or bigger kiddos, I can tell you from experience that Michelle Piccolo is someone you want to follow. Soon after her son Jack began eating solids, Michelle focused her cooking efforts on creating wholesome foods for her little eater that were easy, flavorful, and fun. And it wasn’t long after that she started her food blog, Feeding Our Toddlers, to share her dinner ideas with other parents.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. It’s easy to miss the IKEA Marketplace after a long day of labyrinth-navigating and warehouse-picking.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Yay, vacation! It’s been too long for many of us and we are so ready to hit the road and experience life in a new place.

If you’re following a low-carb diet, for whatever reason, it can be a little tricky to follow your own diet while still feeding your family well. You don’t want to be too restrictive with what you serve your kids, but you also don’t want to have to make two separate meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.The goal of this Power Hour is to alleviate some of this stress and strain.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. One of the things we love most about living in a larger city is the accessibility of cuisines from around the world. In addition to having delightful meals to try, we think international food is an opportunity to expand our boys’ palates and help them become better global citizens.

If you’re planning a long car ride, aside from mapping out where you’re going, the second most important thing to organize is your snack situation. A growling stomach is a dangerous thing to have when you’re in such tight quarters. Rather than settling for unhealthy roadside stops, keep a few wholesome snacks on hand to reach for whenever you need them.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. I can’t say I had a strong idea of what kind of parent I was going to be. Even as someone who loves a plan and a schedule, I went into this thing sort of like, “Well, I gotta wait to see what I’m working with!

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When my 4-year-old son asked if he could “ help” make breakfast recently, I immediately had a flashback to that memorable scene in “Big Daddy” where five-year-old Julian goes to pour himself some cereal and promptly drops the barely-open gallon of milk all over the kitchen.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When I was growing up, every week started out with Monday Leftover Night. My parents called it “King’s Table Night,” named after a long-defunct buffet in their native Seattle.

It’s almost Mother’s Day and the world is still in transition. Some are beginning to see things slowly open up around them, while others remain hunkered down in quarantine. Yet the tradition of celebrating our mothers remains. It’s always been a sunny sort of holiday, and we think it’s more important than ever to lean into brightness.There’s no “usual” this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor the mothers in our lives.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. The air hung hazy and filled the kitchen with the smells of caramelized onions and potatoes frying on the stove. We caught the whiff of caraway seed in the sausage links under foil keeping warm. My dad loved making brunch on Sunday.

I enjoy baking with my 4-year-old, but as most parents know it’s not exactly a relaxing endeavor. Kids need a lot of supervision, and things can get unbelievably chaotic. It’s the real definition of stress baking. Then, I discovered food markers, which have become such a great way to work on baking projects with my 4-year-old.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. The little milestones in our kids’ lives — like hitting their first baseball, reciting a poem on stage, providing a random act of kindness, or conquering a fear — are moments that deserve to be celebrated.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. We all know the drill: We should be having dinner with our families. That time together, we’re told, is key to unlocking everything from healthy family relationships to, well, health. As a childfree, busy food-and-spirits writer who made a big family change during the pandemic, I’ve thought a lot about this lately.

The wonderful thing about tacos is that they require more inspiration than actual recipe. Because when it comes down to what to stuff inside tortillas, the sky’s the limit, and you can put as much or little effort in as you like. If you’ve got time, pulled pork, roasted cauliflower, sweet potatoes, or spiced chicken thighs are all good choices for a taco filling.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. When I asked my daughters if they would be interested in testing some products from Trader Joe’s, the answer was a resounding yes. After a year of ordering groceries online, the idea of perusing shelves in-person — and picking up something other than the same-old — appealed to us quite a bit.

Feeding a family is no joke. From newborn feedings at midnight, to toddler tantrums over crackers, to the voracious appetites of growing teens, it often seems to come down to the perpetual parent-to-kid question: “What do you want?” So when I find those dishes that everyone loves, I know they’re the real winners. The miracle meals. The unicorn dishes.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Even before having kids, I knew I wanted them to grow up knowing how to speak Japanese. What I underestimated was the sheer difficulty of teaching Japanese at home. As you can imagine, it’s a huge commitment to teach a second language. My husband is Filipino, so we mainly speak English together.

When I was growing up, eating out usually meant going to an Asian restaurant or an American fast food joint. Our very rare visits to sit-down, non-Asian restaurant were big deals, and we mostly went to chain restaurants. One favorite was the Macaroni Grill, and I always ordered the exact same dish: salmon with a side of sun-dried tomato orzo pasta. I ordered it not because I loved the salmon, but because that orzo was just so delicious.

Busy weeknights seem like the norm these days, which means fast and easy dinners are more important than ever. Pasta is always a good option since it boils up quickly, but not all pasta recipes fit the bill (we’re looking at you, seven-layer lasagna). These 10 recipes are as speedy as it gets. Keep them handy and you’ll have something delicious to turn to no matter how busy your night is.

One of the smartest strategies for serving homemade meals all week long is already in your kitchen: It’s using your freezer. The trick is to stock your freezer with make-ahead meals that taste just as good upon reheating as they did the day they were made. The meals all freeze wonderfully, so take your pick between eating them all this week or popping one (or all of them) into the freezer for future dinners.

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. Whenever I ask my kids if they have any dinner requests before I make our weekly menu, at least one of them will shout for “pesto pasta!” It’s one of those family recipes that has become a household staple, the kind of dish that I imagine they’ll always remember from their childhood.

There have been many points when I felt totally tired of cooking this year. But now, with the weather warming up and plenty of outdoor memories to make, I’m feeling the cooking fatigue more than ever. And since I can’t totally quit cooking for the week, I’m opting for the next best thing: stacking my meal plan with the easiest and most comforting recipes I know.This week’s dinners require minimal effort (and minimal cleanup!

Have you ever had a pizza roll? It’s everything you love about a piping-hot slice, rolled up into a pinwheel and devoured in one or two bites. They’re often made for kids or as a snack, but we love them so much we wanted a dinner-worthy version — which is where these warm and gooey caprese rolls come into play.

Leftovers are the best part of any holiday celebration. For Easter, that means lots and lots of hard-boiled eggs (and ham or lamb). Coming up with easy, delicious ways to eat leftover hard-boiled eggs feels as much a part of the tradition as dyeing the eggs beforehand — or, at least, that’s how it goes most years. This year, for some, eggs are in short supply.

Holidays are defined by their foods. When someone says they’re roasting a turkey, you’ll think instantly of Thanksgiving. Similarly, candy follows Halloween, and chocolate goes with Valentine’s Day. For those of us who were born into the traditions of Jewish holidays, knowing when we eat fried potato latkes and when we eat apples with honey and when we eat matzo comes just as naturally.

Chili mac is everything I want in a dinner bowl: creamy, cheesy, and infinitely cozy. Unfortunately, making it from scratch typically involves dirtying multiple pots and a decent amount of time — which is what makes this Instant Pot version so brilliant. With just eight ingredients and a 20-minute cook time, you can pull off this easy and delicious dinner anytime you’re craving comfort.

St Patrick’s Day is a holiday that I tend to avoid celebrating with my family. I’m half Irish, but this minor holiday feels frivolous for my young kids who already have visits from the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa — do they really need to set leprechaun traps and search for gold coins?

At the beginning of the pandemic, my children’s spring break turned into a two-week hiatus and then an experiment in distance learning with a timeline that kept getting extended. I found comfort in the extra time with my children and doing things together like puzzles and making pasta from scratch. Enjoying these moments anchored me in a sea of uncertainty. I also found relief in not having to do certain things anymore, like the morning stress shuffle.

Feeding kids can be tricky. It’s tough to find the time, and can be even tougher to figure out what your kids will actually eat. Not to mention, every kid is different — some will happily eat bowls of broccoli, while others won’t go near a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs if there’s a single “chunk” in the sauce. We asked readers on Facebook to share their favorite kid-friendly Instant Pot meals with us.

One of the biggest challenges of packing my kids’ school lunches was seeing — and cleaning up — the food that came back home. Not only was it a major bummer to see food go to waste, but it also left me wondering if my kids spent the afternoon hungry. Sliced apples — beloved by my kids at home — used to always come back in their lunch boxes uneaten.

As a mom of two, a book- and food-lover, finding dynamic and delicious books to read with my kids is one of my favorite tasks. It doesn’t hurt if those books also include new foods, deal with picky eating, or teach my kids about making room at the table for new friends. Along with classics like Eating the Alphabet and Pancake, Pancake, this year I’m looking for a broader palette of characters, stories, and cuisines to celebrate Read Across America Week, which kicks off March 1.

When it comes to cooking with kids, there’s the vision (little hands rolling perfect little balls of cookie dough!) and the reality (flour on the counter, on the floor, in their hair — everywhere). “There are so many reasons to get kids into the kitchen, but I do think they can develop a real pride in their self-sufficiency,” says cookbook author Jenna Helwig.

Nothing screams outdoor magic the way making s’mores does. For me, s’mores evoke memories of camping and beach bonfires, where we’d stick marshmallows onto unwound wire hangers and thrust them into the flames. I’m known to burn mine until it looks like a little lump of coal, then quickly add the chocolate and graham crackers to hold the ooey gooey mess together. The hardest part is waiting patiently for it to cool, so as not to blister your mouth with the molten mallow.

I used to think Valentine’s was a cheesy Hallmark holiday for saps. And then I had kids. Falling in love with my family gave me so much excitement to celebrate love in its many, nuanced, and complex forms. Where I once scoffed at Valentine’s Days cards, I’m now buying one for my husband from our new dog (truly) and planning out family Valentine’s Day activities.

Lunar New Year falls this year on Friday, February 12, and to celebrate it we are reprinting this piece from our sister site Kitchn. I (Faith) love this intimate (and pre-pandemic) story by Christine Gallary about her family’s past and present traditions and the ways in which she is making sure her daughter learns them too. My paternal grandmother was the lioness in our family.

A few years ago I ordered a heart-shaped pizza from a big pizza chain, and boy was I disappointed; I paid something like $14 for a pizza that was barely big enough to feed me and my two preschoolers at the time and was more oblong than heart-shaped. I vowed to never order a holiday pizza again and set out to find the best method for making heart-shaped pizza at home.

Feeding a preschooler can be a wild ride. Starting at around age two, lots of kids start to get a bit um… discerning, about what they will and won’t put into their mouths. Testing boundaries and reticence to trying new things is “normal” at this age and can continue for a few years, but it’s hard to feel reassured when one day your your little one wants to eat grilled cheese at every single meal forever and ever and the next day they won’t touch the stuff.

When your tidy bunch of bright-yellow bananas morphs into aggressively speckled and aromatic fruit, there’s only one course of action: Bake them into breakfast. You could bake a loaf of banana bread, of course, but we’re partial to these muffins, which come together quickly and are perfect for grabbing on the go. Plus, you (probably) already have everything you need to make them, and they’re sure to be a hit with the entire family.

In some ways, my 3-year-old is actually a pretty open-minded eater. To my surprise, she’s always loved vegetables. She’ll chow down on roasted broccoli or squash, and will pop cherry tomatoes and peas like they’re candy.One thing she doesn’t always love, though? Meat. We have a few reliable options (chicken is always the common denominator), but with almost anything else — like beef, pulled pork, or any sort of fish — she’s not interested.

Let’s be honest: If you’re craving super-crispy, crunchy apple chips, baking them in the oven just isn’t going to cut it. The air fryer, on the other hand, will never fail to deliver. This recipe couldn’t be easier. You’ll start by thinly slicing an apple (any variety will work, though a red apple produces extra-pretty chips), and if you have a mandoline, use it: the thinner the slice, the crispier the chip.