How often do you serve Mac and cheese and/or chicken tenders?

[Anonymous]

My almost 3-year-old loves these, as does everyone else in the family.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/healthy-baked-chicken-nuggets.html

[Anonymous]

DS (3yo) goes to bed before DH gets home so I make Annie's Mac n Cheese (the kind with the cheese in the pouch) once a week with broccoli and eat with him. He does get frozen chicken nuggets one other night and sometimes on the weekend for lunch. It's quick and easy, and sorry, I don't feel like making 2 meals every night (one for DS and one for DH and myself later) - and the three days I work I have super limited time to get food in front of him when we get home. He has fresh fruit every night and either fresh or frozen veggies as well - so 2 frozen chicken nuggets along with the rest of his meal isn't horrible. He LOVES both items and would gladly eat both every day if I let him. BTW, I saw on the news not long ago that the powdered stuff isn't actually all that bad for you, it is mostly whey protein. Who knew? DS won't eat Kraft though, I tried twice.

[Anonymous]

My kids hate mac n' cheese, although they do like plain pasta with parmesan. They eat Ian's Chicken Nuggets a couple times a month - and love any kind of chicken we prepare (grilled, fried, boiled, roasted).

To the PP who freezes home-made nuggets, how do you reheat them? I've made nuggets from scratch, but never occurred to me to freeze my own...Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Annies has 9 ingredients..Kraft has 20.

[Anonymous]

M&C about two-three times a month - almost always boxed. Chicken nuggets not so much, we just grill chicken instead. I don't have a problem with either.

[Anonymous]

We have a couple boxes of Annie's in the house and I serve them in a pinch - typically once a week. I do try to throw in some frozen peas or broccoli so it's at least a little healthier.

I use the recipe below when I do a homemade version. It has 4 cups of spinach and as long as I shred it finely in the food processor, my kids gobble it up.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/05/lighter-baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a close friend who serves Annie's Mac and Cheese at least 4 times a weeks. Her kids are picky and will not eat regular food. She did this to herself. When they are at our place they will eat everything.

You *sound* like a close friend. That's who I turn to when I want a big load of judgment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't keep track- but rather frequently. I try to buy "decent" chicken nuggets at WF and TJ's-- all white meat, baked or minimally processed. As for mac-n-cheese, DS will eat all brands, and it's a great "go to" meal when he can't hold out and eat dinner with us at 7 or whatever. I'll make a box and reheat small portions of leftovers for him along with fruit, veggies, peanut butter and crackers, etc.

My son isn't picky, though-- he eats a good variety of things. I see no harm in letting him this stuff as well. I fear that if I deny him chicken fingers and BBQ and ketchup, he's going to go on some sort of binge later in life. DH's mother was very strict (also very poor)-- they never had anything treat-wise (she didn't even let them have chocolate, they got carob instead). They all went nuts-o when they had their first jobs as teens. SIL worked at a bakery and brought home day-old donuts that they all gorged on. They spent all of their money on fast food, and now every last one of them is overweight- most are obese.

It doesn't matter where you buy nuggets they are all processed, do you think those nuggets grow on a chicken. The only un processed chicken is whole pieces. Fyi I think processed food is great and a steps forward in technology just make sure you know the ingridients and nutrition.

I said MINIMALLY processed- I'm not stupid-- what I mean by that is it's real chicken pieces, all white meat, that have not been ground up with skin and eyes and everything into a goopy pink paste and THEN formed into nuggets.

But thanks, I'm sure glad that you told me that nuggets don't grow right on the chicken. That clears up a lot.

[Anonymous]

Mac and cheese for lunch once a week - usually annies.

Kids don't like chicken - no nugggets.

[Anonymous]

Mac n cheese equivalent a couple of times a week, homemade with broccoli but not sure how much of that gets eaten. And yes PP, DD likes cauliflower Mac n cheese. It's actually really good! Processed chicken, never, though we bread stuff at home.

[Anonymous]

My kid hates boxed M&C. She says it tastes sour, and I agree with her. I want to like it, but... no. (Thank heavens she likes canned ravioli for the occasional lazy nostalgia meal!) And Annie's tastes worse than Kraft.

That said, I make it from scratch a couple times a month. No, it's not "healthy", but it sure does taste good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Annies has 9 ingredients..Kraft has 20.

It doesn't make a difference really. It's the high salt content that's the real bad stuff. It's too much salt for an adult, let alone a child

[Anonymous]

Never. I'm the only one who likes mac and cheese, and I try to do better quality protein than tenders (though I do buy some sausage and a package of hot dogs once a month).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guarantee that there will be exponentially more DCUMs posting to proclaim that their precious spawn vastly prefer cauliflower/kale/quinoa to macncheese or chicken nuggets, than there will be posts from parents who cop to daily servings...and I'm also willing to bet most of the posts swearing that Ava/Jack has only tried macncheese once and hated it come from FTMs with kids under 2yo....

Well in this case it's true for my son! He hates mac and cheese and actually loves cauliflower. I try giving him mac and cheese every now and then, but he's now four and won't touch the stuff. Funnily enough this used to be one of my favorite foods when I was growing up.

[Anonymous]

Never. He can order mac and cheese when we're out but he doesn't like it much. We have roasted chicken once a week.