To ask for meal ideas for fussy dc?

[bobstersmum]

Seems to be a few good related threads at the moment so I'm jumping on if thats OK!
Can you give me some ideas for meals for fussy ds? I have two ds age 4+5, the 4 year old will eat /try anything, but the 5 is so fussy, he has some sensory issues so is funny about textures, he mostly likes dry foods, especially if it's finger food, and doesn't like foods mixing together, will not even try beans! He will eat shepherd's pie IF its mixed all up together to so not seperate mash, meat etc, he likes spaghetti bolognese but mostly only eats the pasta, this is adventurous for him! As a rule he avoids meat, but will eat sausages. He will eat fish fingers and occasionally chicken nuggets.
I am tired of cooking seperate meals as baby dd is eating as well now.
If anyone has any experience of this please can you give me some ideas, he's coming home from school every day after having a jacket potato most days and is starving hungry because he won't try the alternatives. I am going to have to give him a packed lunch which will consist daily of cheese sandwiches because that's all he will eat, then apple (only fruit he'll eat) crisps, yoghurt.
I want to help him to eat better!

Food related!

I had a really fussy four year old who at six has nearly grown out of it. I never stopped putting a bit of what we were having on his plate, and pushing the boundary of what was acceptable for him...e.g. if he ate spaghetti Bol, I'd try the same thing but with rice, or add extra veg in the sauce, if he ate chicken nuggets, I'd try chicken cutlet with a little parmesan added and gradually work up to roast chicken. He sometimes surprises me ...last week he requested a bacon sandwich and wolfed it down! There was one stage were he would only eat pasta with tomato sauce, so have hope and patience!!

Sounds like my son till he turned 6, he is now happy to try most food (convinced him that tastes change as you get older!) He still doesn't like a lot but just happy that he is starting to try new food.

He would eat roast dinner, chicken is hit and miss so usually do gammon.

Sausages, potatoes and veg (DS won't eat mash so we do his boiled)

We sometimes have fajitas but DS doesn't like the meat so he will put cheese, tomatoes and sometimes ham in his wraps.

Meat balls as an alternative to spag bol.

Cheesy pasta (just pasta with cheese sauce) .. used to do pasta with chopped tomatoes but he's gone off that although DD will eat that!

Pizza?

My DS is similar, won't have most meet, sauces etc. but will have sausage, nuggets, ham, hot chicken (but not cold). DH is veggie and I'm pregnant. Watching this as we already do 3 meals a wretched night and are desperate not to do 4 with the baby.

DS will eat chorizo, just cook it as sausage and present it as such, with pasta and cheese grated on top. DS will also eat tinned bolognese (depends how desperate you are but it's handy for camping) and eats quorn nuggets and veggie sausage so we're doing more DH meals including these to reduce the amount of meals. DS didn't know eiher were veggie but just ate them as sausage and nuggets, then one day DH blew it by eating a nugget that DS had left on the plate.

DS has said that he'll try the very mild fajita kit, but he won't eat chilli or mild curry. I'm going to give it a go though. DS will also eat smoked fish - haddock, mackerel etc. with mash and peas. Maybe worth a try for the omega 3?

Would he eat carbonara if you stressed it was pasta with bacon? DS likes bacon and sliced gammon but not gammon steaks.

He may try chorizo! He hates bacon it's a flat out no. He seems to accept tomato type pasta but nothing creamy or cheesy but he does like cheese!
I will hope that with time he will try new things, good idea about taking something he likes and changing one bit slightly, I will try that. Also going to try sneaking extra veg into shepherd's pie.
The baby has a more varied diet than him!

Watching with interest! My two are autistic and having a awful time with food!!!

My fussy DD will eat roast dinners (chicken, pork and gammon), toad in the hole, sausages, plain fajitas (no spice at all - we add it afterwards), pasta in tomato sauce, breaded chicken, sweet potato fries, normal fries, sweetcorn, raw veggies, chicken burgers, pizza, Scan meatballs, plain cooked chicken, fish fingers and peas. That's pretty much it for hot food, she won't eat anything mixed like shepherd's pie or stews, she won't eat rice or mashed potato etc.

I could live with the fussiness, it's the randomness that's killing me right now. How do you go from a perfectly decent array of foods one week to fuck all the next?! Not even chicken nuggets and the like, I swear lately he'd try and live on fruit and cereal, maybe the odd slice of bread.

My "kids are being fussy but don't want to give them fish fingers again" meals are;
Tuna pasta - tuna + pasta+ dash of mayo
Cheesy pasta - Pasta + grated cheese melted
Omelettes and spaghetti hoops

meals we eat together as a family:
Spag bol (meat on side for DS)
burgers and chips.
scan meatballs and chips
roast dinners
curry and rice

If he eats fishfingers try fishcakes. Either make your own or the supermarkets do some nice ones.
If you are really stuck on fishfingers try the salmon ones, can also get vegetable fingers. May be worth a shot.
I’ve also had success with skewers. There’s no end of things that can be threaded on a stick but I tend to stick to chicken breast with paprika interspersed with cherry tomatoes.
Does he eat eggs in any form? What about veg?

Some good ideas here that I will be trying this weekend so thank you!