What does your 3 year old eat for their evening meal?

[GlummyMummy]

Stuck in a rut with dinner ideas for my fussy three year old!!! Lunch isnt so bad as she loves bread so usually just give her a sandwich, but for tea we have gradually eliminated most of our "staples" which she is now refusing! We are left with pizza, chicken, prawns, fish fingers and scrambled egg. And she will eat vegetables eg carrots, peas, broccoli.

She won't touch rice or couscous, mince, anything with mash eg shepherds pie, and isn't even keen on chicken nuggets.

Just keen to know what other kids of this age are eating and anyone any ideas of other things we could try? Thanks

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

Will she eat pasta?
If she will eat fish fingers try making your own fish cakes.
I know it sounds a bit out there but have you tried her with gnocchi? Also falafel in pita bread?
If she will eat pizza try a roasted veg puff pastry tart. Also quiche has scrambled egg like qualities. Maybe worth trying fritata too.

[Ifailed]

Have you tried stir fry? If she'll eat veg, you can then add the protein into it (egg, chicken, prawns etc). Also a good way to try slipping in a few new veg to her.
Obviously wouldn't let them use a knife etc, but out two boys would like to help pick out which veg to include and "instructions" on how to cut them. Drew the line at comic-book hero shapes.

[LiveLifeWithPassion]

My dcs went through fussy stages but eat ok now.
I noticed that they didn't like sloppy or wet food so I tried things like
Plain pasta
Chicken meatballs (Annabelle karnal has a good recipe)
Home made burgers (with buns or veg and potatoes)
Cubes of roasted potatoes
Pitta bread

[GraceGrape]

I would stop eliminating things. I have a 4year old like this (she was fine until about 2, then became increasingly fussy. I have got fed up of trying to think of meals that she will eat so she just has whatever the rest of us are having and goes without if she won't eat it. I try to have at least one thing on the plate she will eat (rice/pasta/bread) but she seems to eat well enough at breakfast and lunch that it doesn't matter if she only has a couple of mouthfuls. I have found that she is tasting a greater variety of foods this way even though she usually just says "yuck"!

[GraceGrape]

If she eats scrambled egg, have you tried quiche?

[BayLeaves]

I let mine go without if he refuses to eat dinner. The rule is if he tries at least a couple of bites of the food, I will give him some bread or something he likes. If he refuses entirely I won't give him anything else.

[GlummyMummy]

Thanks for the comments everyone, some good suggestions here.

She used to love pasta but not so keen now, only really likes the baby pasta shells (not very inspiring) with no sauce!

Quiche used to be another staple of ours, but she will only eat the shop bought ones which are pretty high in salt and fat.

Will give stirfry a go, as that's something we quite like anyway. Gnocchi maybe also.

It's good advice that I should probably stop stressing out about what she's eating and just serve whatever we are having. Too many mealtimes have become battles where we end up bribing her to eat something so she'll get pudding, or letting her watch something on YouTube while we force her to try stuff. I know that's terrible, so things have to change