This post is sponsored by Dairy Australia
Three out of my four kids don’t drink milk.
In fact, they would rather eat their cereal dry than add milk to it!
Personally I think that is all kinds of wrong (dry cereal? You have to be kidding!), but over the years I’ve learned that it’s much better to work with a child’s likes and dislikes, than try and force them to eat a particular food in a particular way.
I know my kids should be having more dairy, and milk is such an easy way to add more calcium and other good stuff – like protein and vitamins – to my kids’ diet, plus it’s cheap to buy, and sitting right there in my fridge, so lately I’ve been on a bit of a mission to get us all consuming at least 2-3 servings of milk per day.
With three kids who don’t like milk I needed to be a bit more creative than simply pouring them an extra glass of milk, so I hit up the Legendairy site and clicked through the recipes in their Dairy Kitchen.
I was looking for three things:
- Ideas that would encourage my ‘non-milk drinkers’ to give milk a try – so they needed to include other ingredients they loved, be fun, and a little different.
- Recipes that my kids could cook themselves – there is no better way to get my kids to try something new than to involve them in making it.
- Ideas that were quick and easy and didn’t require fancy ingredients – if we are going to eat it all the time it can’t be difficult.
Thankfully it wasn’t hard to find loads of recipes and ideas, and I got my kids to pick a couple each to try out.
Our absolute favourite recipe was the delicious, fruity bread and butter puddings
The kids can make these puddings almost entirely on their own, and because they are made in individual serves everyone can choose the fruit they like best– my girls are mad for berries, my big boy loves apricots and my small boy chose apple.
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon castor sugar
- 1 cup Milk
- 10gm Butter
- 4 slices raisin bread
- Frozen berries or fruit of choice.
- mixed spice, for sprinkling
- Preheat the often to 150 Celsius and butter/grease four 1/2 cup ramekins or ovenproof dishes.
- Whisk eggs and sugar together until combined and gradually add milk.
- Butter the bread, trim the crusts and cut each piece into 4 triangles.
- Layer the bread triangles into dishes, add the berries or fruit, pour over milk mixture and sprinkle with mixed spice.
- Let them stand for 5 minutes.
- Bake the puddings at 150°C for 40 minutes or until set.
- Let them stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Here are six more ‘milky’ recipes my kids put on the list to try:
This sweet treat was a huge hit. It’s quick and easy to make and lots of fun to shake up, and even kids who avoid milk like it because it tastes like an ice cream sandwich!
My girls love making something special for dessert while I make dinner. They made this with left over banana muffins cut in half on the bottom and it was delicious.
Berry Breakfast Smoothie Bowls
I’m always looking for new breakfast ideas and since this one involves berries I know my girls will give it a try.
Perfect Cheddar Scrambled Eggs
My nine year old wants to learn to make these scrambled eggs for an easy weekend dinner. He plans to switch the spinach for green beans because they are his favourite.
Only half my kids will eat regular mashed potato, but adding sweet potato ups it to three out of four and I’m calling that a win!
Banana and Strawberry Smoothie
I’ve won over one of my kids who doesn’t like milk with smoothies, now I’m working on the rest of them because they are so quick and easy to make!
Even my kids who were sure they didn’t like milk have found one or two milk-based recipes or ideas that they really love, which makes getting my kids to eat enough dairy so much easier.
Now we’ve got seven days’ worth of recipes and ideas, and a whole lot more at The Dairy Kitchen web site, so there’s no excuse for us not be consuming more milk.
Do you have kids who don’t like milk?
Do you worry about your kids not getting enough dairy?
How to do you encourage your kids to have more milk?
If you’ve got any great recipes or ideas I’d love to try them! Leave a comment below and feel free to link to or share your best milky recipes and ideas. Let’s see if we can all get our kids consuming a more milk!
Neither of my kids will drink milk on its own. The big one is willing to eat porridge or cheese on toast for breakfast and I try to put at least one lot of cheese in her lunch box (a cheese stick or some cheese and crackers for morning tea, some cubes of cheese in a salad, slice of cheese in a roll/sandwich). A cheese, cracker, pickle and apple plate for afternoon tea is also popular. They won’t drink Milo straight up but will have it frozen into icypoles. The little one fortunately eats heaps of yoghurt.
I agree with puddings being a winner – this is another really good recipe for bread and butter pudding – http://theveggiemama.com/odds-and-ends-bread-and-butter-pudding/
Both of them also love baked rice pudding – if you keep the sugar content minimal and add some fruit it’s good cold for breakfast too!
Making it into an icy pole is the most genius idea ever!
Thanks so much for sharing all your great ideas, so glad I am not the only one with kids who don’t like milk.
Oh yum! I was never a milk-loving kid, so my mum had to get creative. I reckon your fruity bread & butter puddings would have done the trick! We do a lot of frozen smoothie ice blocks at our place too – great for summer…
I don’t know why I never thought about the frozen ideas, I reckon my kids would totally go for that, but perhaps not right now as it’s about 8 degrees outside today! LOL
I usually tend to think, that if kids do not like to consume milk they might have good reason for it… maybe an intolerance? In that case cheese and yoghurt will work much better for them, and also include the calcium. So out of three kids, one will drink milk with chocolate powder, two out of three die for milkshakes, two out of three eat yoghurt, and two out of three will eat cheese, but it’s really never the same two except for the one who drinks milk with chocolate powder — but then he’s the one who doesn’t like cheese much.
I do not worry about it too much, but I like some of your ideas! Especially the milk shakes are a very easy and super way to get the kids eat healthy! When they were younger, I used to “sell” it to them as a sweet snack, and they fell for it, LOL!
So long,
Corinna
It can be such a juggling act when you have kids who all like different things – such a wise Mama to not let it worry you!
Oh gosh, yes! Milk ideas are always needed here! Love all these ideas. The puddings look amazing and I’ll be making them in the school holidays with Miss 5.
They are super easy to make, perfect for getting the kids to help with. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have!
Your bread and butter pudding looks so good. I tend to just use jam, but with the extra berries is looks delicious!
Oh they’d be even better with a bit of jam added! Yum!
Love these ideas.. the bread and butter pudding looks divine, and could even be a cosy warm breakfast??!! yum yum
Yes! My kids are keen to make them for breakfast. We plan to let them sit over night in the fridge and just bake them in the morning.
Ohhh these sounds so delicious and irresistible. I can’t imagine not having milk, I’m a huge milk drinker and will certainly try some of these great ideas. Thank you Kate!
I used to hate milk as a kid, but I came around as a teenager and now I love it, so maybe there is hope for my kids yet! LOL
Won’t drink milk (too yuck). Will only eat cheese on toasted cheese sandwiches. Unless you can see bits of the cheese. Then pull that sucker off! Yogurt? WIN. I tried chia seed pudding with whole milk (though almond milk is great too!) for dessert and it was SUCH a hit! Plus a big dose of protein for the kid who also won’t touch meat. I might have to try those bread puddings as well!
It can be so tricky figuring out what is and what isn’t acceptable for our little foodies! The Chia pudding sounds great, have you got a recipe you could link to or share?
(I’m about 3 weeks behind reading my emails!) I ran through this list and ended up making a chocolate one. I think we’ll be working our way through most of the list this year though, they all look SOOOOO good (and nutritious!)! I think most of the recipes call for almond or some other type of vegetarian milk, but whole milk works perfectly fine.
http://greatist.com/eat/chia-seed-pudding-recipes
Thanks so much for the link!
And don’t worry I about 3 months behind in my emails!!! LOL
Your puddings look awesome! Can’t wait to try the recipe.