To ask you to help me compile a basic healthy shopping list. I have totally lost my way with food for our family :(

[Onabudget2015]

Before the twins we used to eat porridge for breakfast, lunch at work and pasta/stir fry things after coming back from work late. We now have one year old twins and have totally lost our way with food. Breakfast is wholemeal toast for the twins as neither will eat porridge, we eat ham or cheese sandwiches for lunch with a slice of cake (!) husband has lunch at work, dinner is what ever I can get twins to eat, so sausages, fishfingers, spag Bol, jackets and beans, breaded chicken, quiche and that is it! Snacks are digestives and organix rice puffs. I am so exhausted with the twins and they are always knocking on the cupboard asking for bix and crisp, it's turning into a nightmare. They will not touch fruit or veg. I have no idea what to do :( I do not know 7 healthy lunches and dinners plus snacks that they will touch. Can anyone suggest a weekly list of food or a list of lunches/dinners/snacks for a family of four. Me and dh want to loose weight and I would somehow like to get the twins to eat healthy fresh food! I had a go this week but cannot seem to make any meals out if the bits that I bought, and the twins just keep wanting biscuit after biscuit and won't touch the rice cakes I bought. Help!!!!

Totally understand where you are coming from as my DS is an incredibly fussy eater and it makes preparing meals a real chore.

My advice re the biscuits and crisps is just not to buy them. If you don't have them in the cupboard it is much easier to resist the whining!

As a start how about sweet potato & date brownies? You'll feel like you're still having cake & your twins are having 2 portions from their 5-a-day?

deliciouslyella.com/vegan-sweet-potato-brownies-gluten-free/

I'm sure you can batch cook them (you know, cos you have so much spare time to batch cook looking after one yr old twins ).

That's a good idea to stop buying the biscuits and crisps, what can I buy instead though? They will not eat any type of fruit, not even dried fruit :( they would rather starve than eat fruit!

I will have a look at those brownies, thanks! Any way of tricking them to eat fruit and veg would be brilliant

Marking place to come back later, I need a bit of inspiration too:)

Hide veg in everything - spaghetti bol in this house usually contains onion, garlic, very finely chopped celery, and grated or shredded carrot and courgette. Same goes for shepherds or cottage pie. What about a yummy dip for breadsticks or bits of pitta made up of boiled and then whizzed broad beans and peas. Hang in there....almost all kids go through phases of being fussy about food. And I second the not buying junk in the first place idea. They'll quickly learn that the cupboard does not contain biscuits. Good luck.

Stop buying biscuits and crisps - persevere with alternatives and they will eventually learn that the 'treats' aren't an option.

Maybe offer:

Cherry tomatoes
Cucumber
Carrot sticks
Mango
Pineapple
Berries such as raspberries and blueberries
Cheese cubes

Breakfast can be yoghurt, cereals (unlike most of MN I don't think they're the work of the devil - rice krispies, weetabix and cornflakes are fine), toast, eggs, pancakes

For lunches try pasta (hot or cold)
Eggs - dippy, scrambled, omelette can be chopped up and eaten with fingers
Beans on toast
Soup they can dunk bread rolls into

Dinner:

Macaroni cheese with sausages
Pizza
Stir fry (mine liked picking out the prawns, colourful bits and the noodles...)
Lasagne
Roast dinners (quick midweek mini roast with chicken breasts, roast potatoes, frozen Yorkshires, veg and stuffing)

One year olds are hard work with food, it's frustrating when most of it gets wasted but just keep offering small portions regularly and they will try it. However if they know they can whinge and refuse and still get biscuits they will do so! Be strong, it won't last forever!

Try a dip made out of natural yoghurt and a bit of mint sauce for them to dip breadsticks or bits of toasted pitta, and bits of cucumber and carrot in. Even if they don't initially eat the vege, it's a way for them to get used to it instead of biscuits and crisps. Or you could try them with hoummus.

Grate carrots and add to spag bol, cottage pie etc - they virtually disintegrate. Add a handful of red lentils too and they'll virtually disappear as they cook.

If they like quiche, try making tiny ones with finely chopped spinach or courgette in.

If they'll eat spag bol and beans, have you tried them on things like daal? My 1 yo really loves it. Takes a while but is easy and really cheap. And how about chickpea and spinach curry? Chickpea and chorizo stew? Both really quick. Chickpeas count towards their 5 a day too. Have you tried hummous as a snack with some pita?

I'd try to adapt what you like already. If you're making spag bog or similar, use less meat and pad out with lentils and grated veg (carrots, courgettes) and add frozen peas. Kids won't notice, but much healthier. My DDs aren't wild on veg (they love fruit though) and we've got away with this.

We also add chickpeas to chicken casserole with tomato and paprika, and have that with couscous and salad. DD2 claimed for ages she didn't like salad but we offered a little every time and got her eating cucumber and tomato, and now she'll grudgingly eat a bit of lettuce too.

In fact, have you tried them with raw veg as well as cooked? mine are unimpressed with cooked veg as a side dish but like raw veggies more so for lunch we'll sometimes have 'pick and mix' - carrot and cucumber sticks, and bread sticks to dunk in a dollop of hummus, with a few tomatoes, olives and chunks of cheese - they can choose what they want from the selection, which they like, and makes a change from sandwiches.

Cross post with everyone, distracted by DD halfway thru typing!

Any veg is ambrosia here once it's covered in cheese sauce

veg chilli (or normal chilli), you can grate carrot & sweet potato in it. Also has beans & chickpeas which count (and tomato sauce, onion). That could be 6 in one meal (if it gets eaten). And I do a huge pan of this & freeze it for when DH & I fancy a takeaway.

Blitz veg into spag bol, chii, shep pie etc BUT also put whole vegetables on their plate, even if they don't eag it, keep offering.

Annabelle carmel does a chicken burger recipe with loads of veg blitzed up.

Pasta sauce, same, also use on pizza

Personally I would'nt stop buying crisps snd biscuits. Move them and ration them.

Keep trying with fruit.

I used to sneak vegetables/fruit into everything… a ton of veg in ragu, chilli etc, just used to sploosh it through the food processor so the sauce was smoothish.

My green-veg dodging children have always unknowingly eaten grated courgette/sweet potatoes in brownies (some recipes are better than others, the best are gooey and lovely).

I used to add a layer of soft avocado underneath peanut butter on toast.

I also make sweet potato 'chips' (baked in olive oil) as a treat.

Took ages, but both now happily eat vegetables.

Will they eat soup? Can get loads of veg in there.

Today we have had chilli containing mince, onion, courgettes, red, yellow and green peppers, mushrooms, carrots, red onion and fresh coriander as well as tinned tomatoes. If j put those things separate on a plate half of them would be refused but I chop them small
And they love it.

Do they need snacks? Don't replace the crisps and bics with anything maybe. They'll eat their meals better too.

Re fruit and veg refusal, I just kept putting it on their plates and over time they began to eat it. I never made a fuss about it and accepted that a lot went in the bin.

Get a knock off nutribullet, and do low sugar smoothies for breakfast with curly straws. E.g. frozen dark berries, frozen spinach, milk/almond milk, and, if you like, a bit of sugar free whey protein powder ([[http://www.myprotein.com/sports-nutrition/impact-whey-i
isolate/10530911.html this stuff]] is good).

Or 'chocolate milk': unsweetened cocoa powder, stevia or xylitol, milk/almond milk, a handful of nuts (Assuming your DC aren't allergic), frozen spinach, cocoa powder, stevia or xylitol.

If it's all in the fridge/freezer/cupboard it takes seconds, and I am evangelical about frozen spinach - you can't taste it AT ALL!!

This isn't totally helpful but my advice would be to make sure you keep offering them the fruit and veg. My dd is just over one and her tastes seem to change every month or so.
Also agree with the hidden veg- anything that looks like veg will be instantly rejected but 'tomato' (and the rest) sauce with pasta and cheese will go down well.

You might need to use a bit of reverse psychology .

Roast any veg, potatoes, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, mushroom etc and then serve with wraps, salad, salsa, cream cheese, grated cheese - as colourful as possible. You can add strips of roast chicken or flaked fish if you like. Assemble into a wrap. Leftover veg makes a great soup.

In the meantime give them fish fingers and tell them they won't like the grown up food so you've made them something they will like. If they insist on trying some say "only a tiny bit because it's my favourite and I don't want it wasted"..

My dc were soon weaned from their diet of nuggets and oven chips using this method ..... They all eat very healthily now as adults.

Another fun thing to try is pizza (you can use wholemeal baguettes) with everyone putting on their own toppings. My friends ds was a green veg refuser until we introduced him to nettles as a pizza topping, and then nettle soup ... The very idea of it is hugely attractive to small children!

Good luck - many of us have been there!

Oh I forgot to mention they have dairy allergies as well :(

If they're 1 you do have quite a lot of control over their diet. If they are of normal weight and are neuro-typical, I really believe that they can skip two or three meals without anything untoward happening to them. Once they get hungry, they will eat everything you put in front of them, I promise. This will only work if they are not getting their calorie requirements from other things such as milk/ formula.

Either that, or put nothing at all in front, but let them eat things from your's and DH's plates for a few days. There's nothing like food from your parents' plates. Do they eat with you normally?

X posted with Catsrus!

How about hiding veg in tomato sauce? serve with pasta and cheese, similar for spag Bol. Or use in tuna pasta bake.

Cauliflower & broccoli cheese]]

For you eat fish and veg, grill or oven bake in foil. Chicken and veg, stir fries with lots of veg.

Get a spiraliser thing and do ribbons of courgette and carrot to use instead of noodles.

Half corn on the cob? My kids live them.

Omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes, spring onions, bit of ham.