to cook one meal and if they don't like it, tough.

[TubGirl]

For the last 17 years DH has done the cooking. His hours at work have changed do now I have to.

I cannot be arsed with all this chopping and changing.

Dd2 only eats chicken, roast potatoes and chips.

Dd1 is veggie and won't eat potatoes in any form.

Dh likes meat.

I'm veggie. I like one pot lentilly stuff. Nobody else does.

This evening we have cauliflower cheese with roast potatoes and green beans. There is cold chicken for Dd2 and Dh.

Except Dd1 doesn't do potatoes and isn't mad keen on cauliflower.

Bollocks to them all. Picky bastards.

I plan on putting it on the table. If they won't eat it they can bloody well go hungry. Or eat toast. Or something.

[Dancergirl]

freak out of interest, if your dc didn't like fish either, would you also let them eat chicken?

[LovesBeingWokenEveryNight]

Depends how bothered you are. If it was that bad id do bulk cooking and freeze portions to dish out as and when.

[Lancelottie]

Loves -- one of the many, many problems with feeding Aspie DS1 was that there was nothing he would eat that could be stuck in the freezer and served up later in dollops. Drove me mad!

He is slowly, slowly getting better at trying things. But if he can't stomach something, starving him just doesn't work to 'help' him try it. He just gets (even) thinner.

OP, I feel your frustration! We are now in a more reasonable position where DS will at least eat the meat out of a stew rather than only meat-that-hasn't-touched-anything-else.
Meanwhile, would-be veggie DD eats the stew without the meaty bits ; and NT DS2 scoffs the lot except for picking out every bloody onion.

[MrsOakenshield]

PMSL at the shock of never eating meat, ever! Oh my God, the sky will fall in. Jesus.

DH is veggie so pre-DD we always ate a lot of veggie stuff anyway. When DD came along I made the decision to bring her up veggie as our family meals will always be veggie (I'm in the one-meal-for-all camp). When she's old enough to understand the issues she can then choose to have, for example, meat or fish sarnies, or meat/fish when eating out or at someone else's house which is what I do. But main family meals will be veggie. Why not? Cheaper, healthier, less impact on the environment, and when I do buy meat for me I can afford to buy ethically, which is important to me, I would hate to be in the position of having to buy cheap, horribly farmed meat because that's all my family would eat and we couldn't afford to do otherwise.

For spag bol / shepherd's pie we used canned puy lentils for the 'meat' which works brillaintly (DH hates meat substitute stuff). It really really isn't that difficult, or mind-boggling.

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

Dancer yes. DD went through a stage of not wanting to eat fish so we both had chicken or whatever and ds was given the choice of which he wanted to eat. Mostly though if they have fish I just have the veg and a couple of bites of fish to show willing, it's very rare that I am either organised enough or bothered enough to cook some chicken as well.

[Dancergirl]

There's no need for sarcasm mrsoak. That may work for your family but lots of people eat and enjoy meat and wouldn't want to give it up. I cook a fair bit of meat, we probably don't have red meat more than once or twice a week but we eat chicken quite a bit, I make meatballs with lean turkey mince etc. We eat a lot of fish too.

Are you 'proper' veggies ie no fish? Does your dd not eat fish?

[MrsOakenshield]

no meat, fish, non-veggie cheese, non-veggie jams etc, honey, sweets. Going to be tricky once she properly starts going to parties and things but certainly at home that's what we do, DH is a pretty strict veggie. Doesn't care what I eat, though he hates the smell of bacon and is unimpressed by cheap nasty battery chicken etc (but so am I), but he is not evangelical in the least. The decision about DD was mine, not his, though of course he was pleased.

And I'm not being sarcastic at all, it genuinely does make me laugh that people cannot conceive of having little meat/fish in their diet, in this day and age.

[ChocsAwayInMyGob]

I got so sick of pleading with everyone to eat what I cooked and then throwing half of it away.

I did this: I asked my DH and the 2 DCs what their favourite meals were, that they would always eat.

I then did a menu and a shop and every week we eat more or less the same. it's occasionally boring, but everybody gets their favourite at least once or twice a week. When DH and I have a curry we eat after the kids have gone to bed as they don't like it,but that is the only concession I make.

monday- macaroni cheese
Tuesday Shepherds Pie
Weds- Tuna pasta bake
Thurs-homemade soup with bread and cheese
etc etc

So much cheaper and barely any waste.