to think my children don't like the taste of love

[ChavGuevara]

I love cooking but i can't find the energy to pore over cookery books any more - if you ask DS (13) what his favourite thing I cook is he'll say fajitas - that kit thing was the thin end of the wedge. Last year I made a Jamie Oliver bbq sauce with about thirty ingredients. It was delicious but now I buy Nando's sauce as he prefers them. I just got back from shopping with a M&S chocolate mousse 'starter' thing you have to add cream to. We have pizza once a week and no, I don't make it, I just get one out the freezer. Ditto chicken kievs - you would have had to waterboard me to get those on the table last year.

I used to make all the baby's food too, but I just gave him some little fish shaped things and he ate four.

AIBU to stop putting love in my food - I can't stand the rejection.

kids are like that. The thing is, they a)don't know how much of an effort it is to cook everything from scratch, hence they don't appreciate it and b)processed food is full of crap specially designed to appeal to children. That doesn't mean they ought to have it on demand.

I think you'd be best to sometimes use pre prepared food and sometimes cook from scratch. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

But yanbu to feel narked by it. I think every mother has spent hours pureeing vegetable to have the baby reject it in favour of a jar of baby food.

Yabv to stop making fresh food because your kids prefer processed.

Fact: children love the taste of additives.
Sad but true.

Last week we made a fabulous (I thought) JO 30-minute supper together - then on Friday he was allowed to choose what he wanted and it was packet kievs and oven chips.

Children love packet food, Chav.
They think of it as being like opening presents, or something.

Depends on how much crap you're willing to let them eat I suppose?

YANBU

I thought before I had children, they'll eat what was put in front of them, no arguing. All healthy and home-made.

Well, they just didn't bloody eat it! So I'd wasted money on fresh stuff when they preferred processed.

I now offer a healthy alternative to any meal. I have 2 sons who live off processed crap, and one daughter who used to live on processed crap but who now has a healthy diet - salad, fresh fish, etc and she enjoys helping me make food. Some years ago, the only thing I could get down her was tinned rigatoni and beans and sausage!

She won't eat either now.

YANBU
lovingly made meals - yuck
tinned beans - bravissimo

I'll keep trying though.....

I think Nigella suggested freezing any homecooked food that you lovingly creafted for them before serving it to them.

To distant yourself from the love and effort put into creating it and the rejection when they curl their lips up it it.

no wonder she's always blabbing on about how busy she is if she cooks all her kids meals TWICE! cooking them once and having them rejected is enough for me, but to go to the hassle of cooking, freezing, re-cooking - god I'ld sit on the kitchen floor and cry if I did ALL that then had it sneared at and pushed away without even being tasted

I do LOVE Nigella's tips and that's a cracker!

I know, I could use a cookie cutter to make dauphinoise cakes for the freezer and keep them in an old iceland box

Well I think the balance your striking is right, OP. If you ban processed crap I suspect you drive them to it, but you're balancing it with involving them in cooking. It will stand them in good stead, but you'll be waiting a long time to see it!

CbamC - my version of that is slow cooking.

The love is in the morning (when there is more love to go round anyway). The rejection is in the evening (but at least I can console myself with a hot tasty dinner).

I once read that tastebuds in children are different. They have a different number of sweet/salt detectors so although you eat the same food it tastes different to them.

Also they just dont care what goes into their mouths as long as it tastes good.

Kids don't do Jamie Oliver-esque masterpieces, but will (in my experience) scarf home cooked pizza, burgers, spag bol, breaded chicken, lasagne, curry etc etc, no need to buy it in a box. And getting them to eat veg is a challenge for every generation.

Btw nowt wrong with Nandos, perfectly good South African/Mocambiquan peri-peri spice.

My "just like McDonalads" chicken nuggets made me a legend at ds's birthday party.

I cook some lovely meals but the only thing the little bastards appriciate me for is my talent to exactly mimic McNuggets and KFC, but without the chemicals and crappy meat.

Agree with Whatmeworry, most things in this house are home made, but quickly done. Anything that requires 30 ingredients is a no no as I simply can't be bothered! My kids like SIMPLE food, anything too faffy and they have as little interest in eating it as I do in making it (I love cooking, but I'm suspicious of over complex recipes... Jamie Oliver is a bugger for it).

My kids also love crapdonalds and KFFSC. Because they're 'treats' and come in boxes... even I use the drive through, just for a coffee, I like the novelty.

Think of it like this.
Everything you do now is laying the groundwork for the adult your child will be.
You love cooking and eating good (great) food. That's a nice template you're creating. Even if your son will choose the crap now, he won't always.
Just make sure he tastes it all and have less frozen food on offer.

I make the kids chilli beans that are complemented highly as 'nearly as good as baked beans' . trick is to cook stuff you like too.

Please would somebody ask Honeyd to post her recipe for fauxfastfood nuggest please?

TIA.

Kids are active, busy, hungry little beasts so there's nothing wrong with most meals just being easily consumed nutritious fuel... but I bet all of your kids have a favourite meal that they really really like and long after we're dead and buried they'll have fond memories of their Mum's roasts, chocolate cake, jam pudding, or whatever, and that's where the love comes into it. When I was a kid of about 7 or 8 in the sixties Mum was in hospital having some mysterious unspoken of woman's operation so Dad looked after the food for that week. My teenaged sister proclaimed that Mum always said there should always be at least 4 colours on the plate - so Dad made bread and butter and hundreds and thousands (fairy bread) for lunch that day! Whenever I see fairy bread or hundreds and thousands it reminds me of my late Dad, and once again, that's where the love comes into it.

1-2 ish portions

120g plain flour
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 ish tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
upto 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 egg
120ml Milk
Chicken

Batter chicken thin with a rolling pin posh meat hammer thingyriser (but not when in a huff with oh/offspring or you will have mince)

Cut into nugget shapes

Beat Egg into milk

Dip pieces into flour mix, then eggy milk, then back into flour mix

Leave to rest for a couple of minutes or abandon in fridge till dinner time.

Fry in hot oil (which ever one the Daily Mail is currently saying will prevent/won't give you cancer/ rickets / leperosy or just sunflower) for about 5-6 minutes and then drain on kitchen paper.

Serve (or keep warm in oven till other stuff is ready).

They freeze well once cooked if any are left and can be cooked from frozen or defrosted.

Chav I think the clue is in the age of your DS. My DS (now 14) used to eat virtually anything as a young child and has been brought up on home made food. Now he hardly touches anything that is green, it is a standing joke that what he liked last week he won't necessarily eat this week and when I asked him if he wanted 'spicy pasta and bacon' for tea last night his reply was "Can't we have a take-away?"(something that we do extremely rarely).
I just feed him now according to how much time I've got to prepare tea (depending on if I'm in during the day and what activities he's got on after school). I have given up feeling bad about feeding him supermarket pizza or southern fried chicken occasionally. In a few years time he will be off to Uni - heaven knows what crap he will eat then!

I second Bigbluebus, my near 14 year old is living off a range of about six foods, at present, luckily she will drink fruit juice.