These Recipe Ideas Will Help You Feed Your Picky Eaters

“I don’t like it! I want chicken nuggets!” How many times have we heard that before? Sure, sometimes we give in just to keep the family’s evening rolling along, but at some point your kid is going to have to learn to eat a few new foods. And convenience aside, isn’t it our role as parents to prepare kids for the wide range of experiences waiting for them out in the world? Using RAGÚ® Old World Style® Traditional Sauce as a key ingredient, here are some great recipes to bring some new flavors and ingredients to your family in kid-friendly formats that everyone will love.

Baked Shrimp Parmesan Empanadas

These delicious empanadas definitely fall into the fun category. Technically you don’t even need utensils for these so if your kid is picky and messy–and we know so many of our are–this is the perfect dish for dinner. Also, shrimp is a great alternative protein for chicken and chances are your kid won’t even know the difference. These come out of the oven super hot, so make sure you let them cool before picking them up! And if you really want to kick the good parenting into overdrive, they’re a fun and easy dish for a junior assistant. See how your young ones do folding and sealing the empanadas before they go in the oven. We all know you could use a sous-chef.

Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs

It doesn’t get much simpler than spaghetti and meatballs, and this dish will definitely satisfy your picky little one. The magic is in the details, though: this recipe uses turkey instead of beef for the meatballs, which doesn’t just introduce a new protein source into your kid’s diet, but also one that’s lean and delicious. And you have all the other charms that have made spaghetti and meatballs a classic recipe: if they’re making a fuss, make eating spaghetti into a game by showing the magic of the twirly fork and let them throw in their own cheese topping. How can they resist that? Just make sure that if you’re letting them play at the dinner table, they take a few bites too!

Creamy Cauliflower and Tomato Ravioli

Fact: Kids love ravioli. Also fact: Kids don’t exactly love cauliflower. This creamy pasta dish involves a little bit of Mommy Magic. By mixing up the cauliflower in a blender to make your cream-less-cream-sauce, they won’t even know it’s there, and you can’t complain about what you can’t see! The cauliflower subs in for heavy cream here, giving it a nice, dairy-like texture and flavor. If you’re worried they won’t take the bait, wait for them to take a few bites, or better yet, let them finish their first serving, and then break the news to them that they just ate a vegetable. Not only can you introduce new flavor profiles to your kid’s palette, you might even spark in your kid the desire to explore cooking on their own. Then you can hand off the family meal prep to them and glide right into Mom Retirement. : )

Your kid can’t live off fries and ketchup forever. Try out some new dishes that run the gamut from fun to adventurous and watch your kid’s palette evolve before your very eyes.

RAGÚ^® sauce helps busy families enjoy more time together thanks to the delicious taste of RAGÚ^® Old World Style^® Traditional Sauce. For more quick and delicious recipes, visit Ragu.com.

Check out “RAGÚ® Sauce Dinner Conversations” on your Alexa device for important debates such as this one for the whole family to have at your next dinner together. Enable the skill by clicking here. To use, just open the skill on your Alexa device and ask “What should we talk about?”