To not feed my dc shit, just because the kid from school won't eat it?!?

[pinkclouds]

ARRRGGGHH!!! I spent the day thinking what will this child eat? So I opted for mince and Potatoes (Not a vegetarian) fairly safe option I thought.
The friend wouldn't even try it, not only that he couldn't even use a knife and fork at 7 years!!
WTF. My DC are told to least try something before dismissing it.Maybe it's me.

not sho well, miss funnyfanny.

My periods smell of attar of roses

If I went to a friend's house for tea and they offered me mince and potatoes I would think that was shit. (I would eat it though - but I am 37 not 7). my mum used to make us this for tea in the 70s and it was gross.

I always ask little friends what they like before I cook it as I want them to enjoy coming to our house and want to come back! I have memories of dreading meals at friends houses as a child as some vegetables used to make me gag, literally.

Right I'm off to get the fishfingers out now!

Frogetty- I cook mince in milk when doing spaghetti bol. I learned it from good food magazine a few years ago and it is indeed the Italian way according to said magazine who clearly, are right!

i thought that was only if you were doing the whole veal mince thing?

"chicken nuggets and wedges or some other child friendly meal"

i never understand why people think fatty, processed foods are "child friendly"

odd.

Just checking in to see if you are all still talking about mince, and I see you are; the longest conversation about mince ever, probably.

at wiggly. Me too

I've never had mince so I don't feel I can comment.

Never had mince? You are weird.

Now where do we stand on processed marrowfat peas? Because I can eat those straight from the tin quite happily. And then probably drink the juice as well.

Marrowfat peas are evil. But in mushy form (I am aware that they are the self-same peas) then they are beyooodiful and can be eaten cold. Otherwise they are just fat peas.

I am weird but not for not eating mince

My mum used to regularly make mince & tatties, I hated it & would have a mince sandwich instead, yuk! What a thought, we need a green sick smiley, maybe a mix of &
When kids visiting its usually home made pizza for us, they usually love it & can put on their own toppings, then whole house smells like pizzeria, yum!

Cottage/shepherd's pie sandwich, now you're talking :)

I feel that I have to address the celery issue.

You should chop up a couple of sticks of celery and put them in the leg of some tights a muslin bag with the mince while it is cooking, and remove at the end.

Fact.

"
i never understand why people think fatty, processed foods are "child friendly"

odd."

children LOVE fatty food, they need it, being active and growing

processed - makes it easy, otherwise they turn up their noses because of how things are cut

and many parents don't have time to spend ages faffing about chopping and grating and peeling

Dh, ds1 and ds3 all eat and enjoy steak tartare when we are in France. I've tried it - it's not really to my taste, but it's OK - you need really good steak mince, though - tesco value mince probably wouldn't be as nice...

Have the people who don't like mince had bad experiences with cheap meat? I can sympathise with that, if that's the case.

One crucial thing about all these mince recipes is that it's got to be really good quality meat, beef or lamb, from a butcher you trust, and has to have the right proportion of fat to lean.

My mum often had a pan of mince on the go to feed us when we got back from school, and she's not even English, so I don't know where she got it from.

"children LOVE fatty food, they need it, being active and growing"

fine - but as a treat surely

"processed - makes it easy, otherwise they turn up their noses because of how things are cut"

mine don't. i don't wish to be smug, but i think this is often a problem with being familiar/unfamiliar with foods. i understand it might be a problem in a few years though, which i haven't experienced yet (other kids influence and them saying why can't we have xyz maybe)

"and many parents don't have time to spend ages faffing about chopping and grating and peeling"

again, as a treat, sure... maybe i am slightly too sensitive on this topic because my sister always serves my kids chips, beans and fishfingers, or chips and scampi type meals.. and when we go out and ask for a kids menu i get frustrated at the amount of times it's just chips + fried stuff... so probably being too sensitive here :)

I only associate the meal 'mince and potatoes' with the nasty, beef mince boiled with onions and carrots variety (with a bit of bisto if you were lucky) that was more often than not served with dry, boiled, floury potatoes (or mash if you were lucky).

You can use minced meat to make a number of delicious meals, but 'mince' refers to the above. Eurgh.

Chopping, grating and peeling are normal cooking activities required for pretty much any meal really. I hope that most parents/people cook at least most of the time, otherwise that's a bit sad really.

Processed food is on the whole more expensive and less nice than food you cook yourself, and I feel that children should be fed nice things (ie that I also enjoy eating) whenever possible (dd went through a terribly plain phase which I found painful).

Glad to see that there is at least one other people who understands the difference between Shepherds Pie and Cottage Pie My mother also made something she called Moon Carrot Pie, which was a beef mince dish and had a pastry top (with a sickle moon cut out). Oh and another mince dish with a sort of herby dumpling type top, which she rolled into little snails. Very yummy

"Yer heid's fu o' mince" - a favourite expression of my Dad's when he thought my Mum was talking nonsense.

My Mum is a brilliant cook, makes a Scotch Broth to die for, but I used to loathe being fed mince and tatties (biting on a bit of gristle in the mince, eurgh). But the worst was "stewed sausages" - big fatty grey -coloured sausages boiled in gravy. They were probably good-quality but I remember gagging when made to swallow them. Funnily enough, when I reminisced about this recently (we are now 37 and 63) she denied ever having made me eat them. I am having her put into A Home next week.

Once I was in hospital aged 4 having my tonsils out. The nurse reported that I had, when offered fish fingers, announced "Oh no, we only eat line-caught haddock in our house". My Mum was so proud.

frgr - you are lucky, I used be the same, until my dd became fussy, I was very proud that she would eat all the same things as us, and that she evidently enjoyed good food. Now we sometimes resort to fishfingers for her, as she has refused to eat anything else all day. The children's menus contain food that most children will actually eat, even mine. I don't believe that fatty food is a problem for active children - their needs really are different to ours.

"I hope that most parents/people cook at least most of the time, otherwise that's a bit sad really."

Why would you hope that? I always do cook from scratch, and I used really enjoy cooking.

Doing it while a toddler is standing on your feet screaming, and with a clingy baby on one hip, is not enjoyable. With parents under pressure for time, it seems perfectly reasonable to me, that cooking from scratch is not a priority. I think there is a bit of snobbery about the food - someone up thread pointed out that chips are just sauteed potatoes. I don't see why they would be worse nutritionally from a bag of oven chips, as opposed to organic potatoes, painstakingly prepared.

I often wonder if I'd be better off, throwing some processed food in the oven, and some frozen veg in a pot, before taking out the paints or something and having a happy, relaxed home.

I would always check with the visiting child's mother what they do and don't eat. Not fair to present them with something they do not like. My two aren't keen on mince but do eat other healthy food.