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[quote=Anonymous]Spices and sauces can elevate basic stuff without getting to expensive or complicated. Curry paste, hoisin, fish sauce, and chili garlic sauce can all be ordered from amazon. I can usually find them in our local Safeway, too.

With a can of chickpeas and a few basic veggies like carrots and red peppers (frozen if you must), a can of coconut milk and a jar of Thai Kitchen red curry paste (fairly common, and not overly spicy), you can make a delicious curry to throw over rice.

You can make a Thai peanut sauce for noodles and veggies, if you have some fish sauce and peanut butter. Whole wheat linguini can easily sub for soba in noodle dishes, and is easier to find on shelves than regular pasta these days.

Look for interesting dips and sauces that will work for veggies. Tzatziki was always a favorite in our house, but Greek yogurt with a packet of dried salad dressing mix might also work in a pinch.

If you can get an order from Trader Joe’s or H Mart, frozen dumplings and edamame are a super-easy meal. Look for a dumpling sauce, or just mix hoisin and soy for dipping. TJ’s sweet chili sauce is a good balance of sweet, tart, and spicy. Thin with a little water if it’s too spicy or thick.

If you have ground beef, look up a recipe for “cheater”’ Korean beef bowls. It’s super-easy to make bulgogi-flavored ground beef to serve over rice with whatever veggies you have handy. 
Same with ground chicken or pork for “Chinese” lettuce wraps. they often don’t require anything fancier than ground meat, or even crumbled tofu, and some pantry spices/sauces.

You can also make basic everyday staples more interesting. Use darker multi-grain bread and strongly flavored cheeses for grilled cheese, or add thinly sliced apples and ham to your usual cheddar. Add a dab of Tabasco to boxed Mac & cheese, and throw in peas or broccoli and diced ham.

Add an herbed goat cheese like Boursin to scrambled eggs for a kind of French omelette (most supermarkets carry it with the deli cheeses). Or even a little shredded pepper jack will give a bit more flavor to scrambled eggs or quesadillas.  look for goat cheese or Gorgonzola crumbles in the deli section to add to salads, eggs, even sandwiches, or tossed into hot pasta.

you don’t need to kill yourself to exactly replicate the dishes they liked in restaurants, just take the flavors and textures your kids have enjoyed and incorporate them into versions of stuff you’d make anyway. find a recipe that sounds good and just steal the sauce to use with chicken fingers or fish sticks, or use the same combination of spices in a similar, but easier, dish (like the ground-beef “bulgogi”).

TL/DR: Use pantry staples like spices, and look for strongly-flavored ingredients to make bland basics more interesting. If they’re not averse to trying new things, they should respond just as well to a wider variety of flavors and textures in their everyday stuff as they did to fancy restaurant dishes.

They may still go through a buttered noodle phase—most kids do—but at least you’ll have made an effort to keep things interesting for all of you. [/quote]

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