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Recipes for Picky Eaters

Recipes for Picky Eaters

By Food & Wine

Updated May 17, 2017

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If you're not an adventurous eater or you're raising a finicky eater, these simple breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert recipes are sure to be great solution. Here, recipes that will satisfy the pickiest of eaters, from grilled chicken sandwiches with mozzarella, tomato, and basil to large and luscious two-chip oatmeal cookies.

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Macaroni and Cheese

Even if you're not feeling nostalgic, you'll find this slightly updated version of an old favorite irresistible. And it's incredibly fast and easy because you don't have to make a sauce or even bake the macaroni.

Macaroni and Cheese Recipes

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Oven Fries with Roasted Garlic

Skin-on potatoes, like the ones used for these crispy, low-fat fries, are high in vitamin C and potassium; they're also a good source of dietary fiber and vitamin B.

Delicious Fried Foods

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Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil

Credit: Quentin Bacon

These warm sandwiches are best made with thin bread, so you can get your mouth around them. Some tasters suggested adding pesto, tapenade or a garlicky aioli to make them even more delicious.

Amazing Sandwiches

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Pasta Cacio e Pepe

This simple pasta dish is fast, vegetarian, and only calls for 5 ingredients.

One-Dish Pastas

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Penne with Triple Tomato Sauce

F&W's Melissa Rubel uses tomatoes in three forms—fresh, sun-dried and paste—for her thick and creamy, deeply tomatoey sauce.

Fast Pasta Dishes

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Mashed Potatoes with Crispy Shallots

For ultrafluffy potatoes, Grace Parisi presses them through a ricer. To achieve a similar texture, pass the potatoes through a food mill or a fine-mesh sieve. If you choose to mash them by hand, be gentle; otherwise, the potatoes will turn gluey.

Potato Recipes

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Grilled Corn on the Cob with Roasted Garlic and Herbs

Credit: KANA OKADA

"Butter is not the villain it once was," says Michel Nischan, who adds a little bit to roasted garlic to create a rich, creamy spread for corn on the cob.

Summer Grilling Tips

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Chicken Breasts with Rosemary and Thyme

Chicken breasts are lean but flavorful, especially with the killer pan sauce here. Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz discovered the dish that inspired this recipe at L'Enoteca, a wine shop and restaurant in Pietrasanta, Italy.

Amazing Chicken Recipes

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Yockelson's Large and Luscious Two-Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Lisa Yockelson's Chocolate Chocolate is a massive compendium of 200 recipes for almost every chocolate dessert imaginable. There's one recipe that's not in the book, however: her irresistible chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies, filled with shredded coconut to make them extra chewy.

Amazing Cookie Recipes

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Nutty Caramel Corn

The perfect mix of sweet and salty.

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Almond-Butter-and-Jelly French Toast

This fluffy, nutty breakfast is a playful, delicious mash-up of French toast and PB&J. Instead of peanut butter, it’s made with almond butter.

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Wagon Wheels with Broccoli and Parmesan Cheese

Wagon wheels, or rotelle, are pastry chef Gale Gand's son Gio's first choice for this dish because he thinks they're fun. Any other pasta shape, such as penne or fusilli, can be used instead.

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Chocolate Chip and Banana Muffins

Like banana bread, these especially moist muffins by F&W’s Grace Parisi are a great way to use up overripe bananas. Chopped toasted pecans would be delicious in them, too.

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Multigrain Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Seamus Mullen's gooey Spanish version of a grilled cheese contains Mahón, Manchego and Idiazábal, as well as tomatoes that are roasted slowly overnight. For an easier version, use more accessible cheeses and quick-cook the tomatoes in high heat.

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Macaroni and Many Cheeses

At the end of their wine-and-cheese parties, Helen Jane Hearn and Natalie Wassum gather any leftovers to make an incredible mac and cheese later in the week. The adaptation, based on a recipe from Marion Cunningham’s The Supper Book, works beautifully with any semihard cheese but is particularly good with an international blend of French Mimolette, aged Dutch Gouda and American Vella dry Jack. A fine layer of Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano forms a crisp topping.

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Chicken Breasts with Potatoes and Mashed Peas

Marcia Kiesel browns chicken breasts in butter on the stove before roasting them in the oven; the butter enriches both the chicken and browned pan juices, which become a base for the flavorful sauce. As a delicious accompaniment, she mashes minty green peasand mixes them in with whole ones.

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Strawberry, Banana and Almond Butter Smoothie

Chef Nate Appleman lost lots of weight by running. After a morning workout, he often makes this smoothie, which gets a dose of protein from almond butter.

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