I'll be taking care of the nieces (ages 8 and 9) for a week while their mother is out of town. Mom, a single mother, has very little fresh food in her fridge. Lots of processed stuff like chicken tenders and Stouffer's mac and cheese. So I use this time to introduce the nieces to new things. (Mom wasn't too happy about the ice cream before dinner concept, but I'm learning. ) They also help me with meal prep. One time it was quiche; another it was coleslaw; and they have come to love visiting the salad bar at the local grocery store, selecting their own fixings. (I nearly fell over when the 8 y.o. wanted radishes on her salad!)

In an effort to engage them, I'm allowing each one to design a menu for one night that week. One night will be a joint cooking evening. Taking cues from the Packing Lunch thread I'm looking for suggestions for the three/four nights that I need to prepare dinner. One idea: tortellini soup with spinach (kale?) and white beans. I figure they would like the tortellini and not notice that there are vegetables swimming around. (Spaghetti doesn't go over well; they don't like the texture of carrots or tomatoes. But if I can hide them...)

Other things I'm tossing around: sesame noodles with peanut sauce; empanadas (they loved the quesadillas we made on my last visit), and a make your own pizza night.

I also prepared a heat-n-eat dinner for when Mom returned. Last time it was beef ribs with rice. It was grown-up enough for Mom yet appealed to the kids.

Other suggestions? What works in your house?

How about a kebab meal? You could do an assortment of meat and veggie skewers with various dipping sauces. You could provide a combination of safe choices with some more interesting ones. For dessert you could do fruit skewers or cake skewers.

Waffles.

How about going to the produce section and letting them pickout what they want for a stir-fry? My boys like the process of deciding what to cook and in what order. Anything using the food processor is also a big hit, although that could be a "guys playing with toys" thing

Or go the creative route and have some fun with sandwiches.

Spaghetti is a staple. Or, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, pizza: you can buy pre-made dough (if you must) and letting them select toppings, make pizza in odd shapes etc works well. Plus, everyone thinks it's cool when the dough rises.

And who doesn't love to make chocolate chip cookies, especially if there's beater-licking involved.

As you can see, we never worried too much about "educating" the kids. Let them have fun and the example you set will be the best pedagogicial tool at your disposal.

I love letting kids make their own pizza. One thing that made a huge difference, and I think someone else posted this as well, was to take them to the farmers market and letting them pick out what they want to eat. I find that the more I get them involved in the cooking process, the more they like to cook.

Also a few months ago I wrote a piece for the Washington Post on cooking with kids, if you would like to see it just let me know and I will email it to you.

Good luck!!

Anything that involves a "build your own" approach is great. Tacos, quesadillas, burgers, sandwiches, etc.

Spaghetti carbonara, big salads with some kind of protein, soups with homemade stews (cornbread or biscuits (cutting out the biscuits into different shapes), and cold sesame noodles are all big hits here.

Every now and again my friend's 10-year old daughter is under my watch. Unfortunately, her dad is not an adventurous cook or eater, but she she loves to try new things! We've made a variety of homemade pizzas and many things with pesto (noodles, on pizza with cheese and roasted red peppers). She LOVES hummus, white bean dip, pita chips, and spanokopita. It's fun to cook for her.

Anything they can dip usually goes over well. Homemade baked chicken strips with honey mustard dip, ravioli dipped in marinara, cut up fruit with vanilla yogurt, cut up veggies or pita with hummus...lots of options.

Remember the old Shake 'n Bake commercials? "It's fried chicken, Daddy, and I helped!"

Man, I used to love Shake 'n Bake! Memories...

Have you considered breakfast for dinner (the waffle suggestion made me think of this)? Pancakes with blueberries or bananas and walnuts added in. It's a fun, easy thing to make that the kids can participate in and I think everybody enjoys a breaksfast for dinner meal once in a while (or maybe only I do!).

Build your own ice cream sandwich night....bake up some different cookies and then a couple pints of ice cream and lots of different toppings to smash into the ice cream (cold stone creamery style)

We do this too. I think omelets would be excellent for kids to have fun with in the kitchen.