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!!!!

Stop buying crisps and biscuits. If they'd rather go without than have a piece of fruit, then that's fine. They will not die of starvation between meals.

95% of kids would "refuse" fruit if they'd thought there'd be a Penguin in it if they held out long enough. Yours are no different to anybody else's . Perseverance (and the word no) is key.

Lunches
CousCous- if you make with very finely chopped shallots and chopped up squashed tomatoes (made into a sauce and stirred through the couscous), then add a tin of tuna
Cheese on toast
Hummus and breadsticks
Peanut butter and banana sandwich on granary bread

Really odd but DGS prefers to have 'whole' fruit- (hates things cut up) , but will completely eat an untouched apple or pear or banana

Treats
Multi veg muffins my DGS loves these - I add extra cheese
broccoliandricecakes.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/vegetarian-recipes-multi-veg-muffins/
I have a fabulous recipe for courgette brownies - everyone loves them :)

Can you introduce eggs into their eggs as that will be a quick & easy form of protein.
My ds is very fussy but is happy to eat the following:

Pizzas made from Tortillas - I always keep a pack in the freezer so it's easy to make up quickly with Tom puree, cheese & toppings

Home made nuggets - keep a pack of fillets as above & dip in flour, egg & crushed cornflakes or breadcrumbs before cooking.

Noodle stir fry with chicken/fish & veg

Fish pie - you can buy fish pie mix & a ready made,sauce so just top with mashed potatoes. Keep a bag of frozen mashed potatoes & it will be quicker to make fish & Shepard pies easily.

For convenience I buy a lot of frozen veg as it's easy to cook a meal from scratch cheaply ( onions, corn on the cob, peas, sliced green beans, squash & roasted veg).

Thank you for all the good ideas, a lot of the things like chilli and Shepards pie fish pie they do not like, they love pasta though so I will try a hidden veg pasta sauce. I also have a step son who stays with us once a week who constantly asks for biscuits and crisps, he also hates fruit! What kind of things should I offer them all as snacks?

Just don't buy the naughty stuff. Children won't starve. They will, eventually, try new foods. Try petite filous etc?

If stepson must have snacks, then try a slice of wholemeal toast and peanut butter, or crumpets, or maybe a hot cross bun or piece of malt loaf.

I wish the "they will eat when they are hungry" advice actually worked - I have a child who will starve rather than eat something he objects to, often due to smell or texture issues. I don't find that presenting food attractively makes any difference. However, it's worth persevering with tiny quantities of "normal" food presented at every meal and maybe even being a bit adventurous - my DS's all time favourite meal for example is moules marinière (not suggesting that you try this with 1 year olds, but maybe try something different from "nursery" food).

Have you tried putting foods in serving bowls on the table and letting them choose what they want rather than plating it up for them? For snacks we have babybel, breadsticks, little pot of blueberries or grapes, little pot of dry cereal and raisins, hot cross bun, malt loaf, frubes, crackers with dairy lea, plain pancakes.

I have a 20 month old DD. She loves fruit, which is no help to you (sorry!), but would also gorge on chocolate/biscuits if we had them in. I just don't buy them, and because she has them so rarely she doesn't think to ask for them. Your DC may well drift out of the habit of whinging for biscuits after a couple of weeks of not having any. (This worked when we recently had to go cold turkey on watching Something Special- she had got to a point that she didn't want to do anything else!)

DD will have sweetcorn (cold, straight out of a tin), cubes of cheese, fingers of wholemeal seeded toast, or Organix multigrain nibbles as stand-alone snacks. She will also sometimes have a snacky lunch with a few of those things plus cold prawns or quiche.

Small changes may work at first. E.g. With jacket potatoes and beans, serve with chopped cucumber/carrot sticks.
Serve strawberries or blueberries with a small pot of dip. (Caramel sauce or yogurt of they can't have chocolate/dairy)
Berries stirred into soya yogurt.
Smoothies. Soya shakes,
IMO bread for breakfast and lunch is too much. Maybe pitta strips with cheese and ham (rather than sandwiches) and serve with other 'bits'
Will they eat soup/hummus/salsa.
Cheese or Wholemeal scones rather than cake?
At that age I would give a very tiny quantity of organix crisps (2 or 3). crisps and biscuits should not be a daily snack.

Does the following look ok?
Breakfast: crumpet
Lunch: ham roll, cut up pepper, fruit (even though they won't eat it I will offer anyway)
Dinner: roast chicken and veg, fruit
Snacks of fruit, cereals, toast or alpro yogurts

I make homemade veggie fingers for our 2 DSs (no dairy as we are Kosher) They freeze well too.

OK here's what I do:

1. Bake 6 large potatoes - I do 3 regular and 3 sweet

2. Whist they are baking cut up a selection of veg, all different colours, as small as you can. We've got a pampered Chef chopper DMIL brought it over on one of her visits from Germany, but you can get them here now.

3. 1tblsp each of frozen peas and sweetcorn. Season with any flavours you think they might try, no salt though obvs.

4. Scoop middles from potatoes and mix in a bowl (me and DH have the skins loaded and salads for supper)

5. Add veggies, stir through and press mixture into 1inch deep baking tray (oil and grease proof)

6. Chill in fridge for 1.5hrs

7. Slice into fingers makes between 24 (large) 36 (small)

8. If egg is OK, coat them in breadcrumbs. If not you can brush a little oil and do it, but doesn't work as well IMO)

9. Bake at 200C for 10mins, until golden.

10. Serve/ Leave to cool and freeze in a box, with greaseproof in between layers.

My DC at 1 was very very fussy.

I second not buying crisps etc and hiding vegtables in pasta sauces etc. My DC consider a yoghurt as a dessert and they like your DT are not keen on fruit (but will happily munch on raw carrots, peppers, cucumbers as a snack).

A few suggestions:

Quesadillas:

fajita flat bread, with a combo of cheese, homemade tomato sauce (you can hide your vegetables in this) and ham/chicken (if they will eat it, but you could sneak it in). You then fry (in light oil) on both sides, then cut and serve (very similar to a cheese toastie but a Mexican version).

Home made pitta pizzas:

Pitta bread, homemade tomato sauce (with hidden vegetables), cheese and any other 'pizza' toppings. You then grill and serve with a salad (cucumber/carrot sticks).

Loaded Yorkshire puddings:

Make Yorkshire puddings (homemade are so much nicer) and fill with, sausages/chicken/ slow braised beef in a sauce (hidden vegtables in a gravy type thing).

In all the above you could get your DT to help, which may get them to at least try it.

Also, if you are giving them biscuits/crisps; maybe make your own (you can use less sugar or use an alternative), and even limit these to just once a day.

And to end, it is well documented that young children must taste something at least 15x to get used to it. So even if they say 'no' (I mean in regards to dinners) serve it anyway (children will never starve).

If they like pasta perhaps noodles? Mine really like them even the rice ones. I always serve with stir fry veg and chicken. Most if the time they eat the chicken and noodles but leave the veg.

I tend to work on a basis of giving a meal they will eat one night then something a bit different the next.

When I cut out snacks I found they were much eager to try new foods

Hi I have twins and hit same prob around same time. They were fab at weaning stage then suddenly hated everything. For around a year I had a meal plan that was the same every week. It was tedious for me and dh but it did get boys eating. Apparently a child has to try something 14times before accepting it. So, our week looked like this
Mon: curry from left over roast (I omitted spices for them)
Tues: macaroni cheese n salad.
Wed: fish with potatoes and brocolo
Thurs: lentil cottage pie
Fri: pasta pesto
Sat: pizza n salad
Sun: roast
I was cruel. If they didn't eat it, they got nothing else (they had warm milk before bed). Snax were fruit, oat cakes cherry time and cucumber. I baked a lot.and didn't see problem in cakes if theyd eaten main meal. Breakfast was usually Wheatabix or bran flakes with fruit.
Hope that helps. Do persevere..mine are past that and will eat pretty much anything!
Ps.We were financially struggling at this time too and this menu was economical. I also cook from scratch though
Good luck

cadenza1818 I think that is the route I will have to go down, cooking the same 7 things every week. Thank you, it's nice to know it's not just my boys that were excellent at weaning age and now suddenly refuse everything! I really hope they grow out of it!!

And thanks for your weekly menu plan, I may steal done of it :)

Some not done, grrrr stupid phone

Could you buy frozen fruit? I buy the huge bags of frozen summer berries, take a few handfuls and let them defrost, stirred into yogurt or a small amount of ice cream the actual fruit wont be obvious to your twins but but tastes yummy and could probably be two of their five a day. Its one of my favourite puddings.

Could you add some fruit/ veg to smoothies and give this as a drink along with their toast at breakfast. You can add milk to smoothies to so that could work out healthy.

Would they eat the chicken or fish without the breadcrumbs? Quiche with veg isn't that bad.
They eat spag bol, so why not put in a tin of beans, and slowly move to chilli and rice?
Have you tried them on tinned fruit?
I'd go for variations on what they currently accept to widen things initially. Tuna (and sweet corn) with the jacket potatoes? Lasanga?

Good luck.

Oh, and google banana ice cream. Basically frozen bananas blitzed up.

Welcome

Loving this thread (and pinching all of these great ideas!).

Go online and get some free Annabel karmel recipes

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Food-Our-Children-Eat/dp/1841154776

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/22/dont-make-children-eat-greens

This recipe is cheap, simple, healthy, can be frozen, have served it to meat eaters who were surprised to realise that it's vegetarian -

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/236609/black-bean-chilli