If your young children are like mine, they would eat waffles, pizza, maybe some fruit, and lots of desserts everyday until they turned eighteen. Also if your family is like mine, you will know how difficult it is to plan and prepare a variety of healthy, tasty and enjoyable meals on a regular basis. So this year my goal is to involve my children in planning their daily school lunch and afternoon snacks.

Spending some time browsing the net, I was surprised to discover the number of websites with a significant variety of kid friendly recipes to choose from. The sites I selected are kid-friendly, with lots of images, and best of all offer free content. I'm quite sure there are many sites I'm overlooking, so by all means share your favorite related sites in the comments section.

Kaboose

No doubt the best way to get kids involved in eating different foods is to make meals and snacks fun. Kaboose.com does exactly that with their selection of 30 recipes, including "Dirt Cups" of crushed chocolate cookies and gummy worms; Vanilla Bean Applesauce, Pasta Bowl with Butternut Squash, and Baked Chicken Fingers with honey mustard dipping sauce.

kid friendly recipes

This set of recipes is great for lunches and healthy light snacks. The photos included for each recipe will be useful in helping your child choose what they like.

Allrecipes.com

Allrecipes.com devotes an entire section to kid-friendly recipes. Their popular recipes include Lunch Box Hot Hot Dogs, Spinach Quiche with Kid Appeal, Bakes Sweet Potato Sticks, and Chunky Monkey Pancakes.

kid friendly favorite recipes

When you become a member of the site, you can save recipes to your recipe box, rate and review recipes, create shopping lists, and submit your own recipes. Most of these kid recipes are for healthy lunches and dinners.

The ratings of the recipes and the members' comments can be helpful in discovering what your kids might enjoy and other ingredients that could be used for food preparation.

MomsWhoThink

MomsWhoThink.com features a nice clean list of dishes and snacks titled, Kids Recipes A to Z. This list doesn't include images of the dishes and snacks, but the page is easy to scan - featuring a variety of offerings, from Apple Pancakes, Green Spaghetti, to Worm Burgers.

kid friendly favorite recipes

Most of the items on this list are geared to breakfast and lunch meals, and they require very little time to prepare.

Disney FamilyFun

Disney FamilyFun's section of kid recipes features 10 website pages of dishes, including Orange Biscuits, a grilled ham and cheese Monte Cristo Sandwich, and Best Fudge Brownies.

kid friendly favorite recipes

Recipes are also rated and include well done photo shots of each dish, snack or dessert. Their collection of 28 Easy Dips and Appetizers are great for children and adult gatherings or just healthy snacking.

KidsHealth

For a more healthier collection of recipes, check out KidsHealth, which includes vegetarian recipes, recipes for kids with diabetes, lactose intolerance, cystic fibrosis, and celiac disease.

kid friendly recipes

Though the collection of dishes and snacks are not accompanied with photos, the site includes a wide selections of recipes, including Black Beans and Rice, Peanut Butter Bars, Taco Popcorn, Vegetable Skillet Frittata, Cheesecake Squares, and Shepherd's Pie.

The offerings on these sites don't replace good old traditional cookbooks or your mom's secret recipes, but they offer lots of ideas to get started. Including your children in the selection of recipes and the preparation and cooking of meals will provide useful reading and math skills, as well as some great family fun time in the kitchen.

Let us know in the comments of other kid-friendly recipe sites that you find useful.