To ask for meal ideas for our veggie family when DD doesn't like most things?

[PerverseConverse]

We are all veggie. DCs are 11, 9, and 3. DD1 eats pretty much anything I make, DS is 3 and getting much better but generally doesn't do dinner. He eats great at breakfast and lunch but by dinner he's just not very interested. Some days great, others he won't eat at all. DD2 who is 9 is the fussiest. She ate well until she was about 6 then became very fussy. She doesn't like things where the components are combined. She likes cheese but not melted unless it's cheese on toast yet won't touch pizza. Doesn't like pasta bake, or shepherds pie, or stir fry, or curry, and her vegetable choices are carrots and cauliflower. She loves soup and will eat vegetables blended together in this unless it's my fail safe lentil soup that's chunky with carrots and celery. I make soup once a week. She'd live off sausages and mash, chips, beans, Philadelphia and any kind of white bread product or cereal if I let her. Her favourite is a toast dinner without the meat but it's such a faff to do that I don't do it often. She has got a bit better lately as I've been a lot firmer with her and cut snacks to just fruit but it drives me mad trying to please everyone for meals. Any ideas?

What about pasta with tomato sauce and loads of veg blended in
Does she like curry? If she likes lentils a really mild Dahl
Leek and potato soup
Home made beanburgers
Sweet potato wedges and home made salsa, can cram loads of veg into that.
Fajitas?

Spag bol? Home made pizzas? Jacket potatoes? Risotto?
Veggie burgers?

Sounds like she likes simple stuff! Veg & potatoes.
'Roast' dinner without meat is so easy! Boil veg & put potatoes in to roast, use veg stock to make gravy & pop a few Yorkshire puds in the oven at the last minute.

Veggie bake
Baked potatoes - with various choice of toppings
Omelette (do you eat eggs?)
Maybe involve her more in the cooking side of things and she may be more likely to try foods again.

I’d keep making foods and offering her a portion but also make side dishes of veggies which she likes so she can fill up on those if she chooses not to eat the actual meal. Maybe also ask her to have a taste of what’s on offer before rejecting it outright.

My eldest was horrendously fussy and still won’t eat some foods, but I would ask her to taste whatever was on offer and then if she didn’t like it she could eat the sides or whatever. Slowly got her to start eating most foods thankfully.

We do halloumi wraps but I don't make them up, everyone gets a plate of salad and halloumi and 2 wraps and can do what they like with them.

Jacket potatoes

If she like cauliflower will she eat cauliflower cheese? Perhaps called creamy cauliflower instead?

Falafels and salad in pittas (usually with potato wedges or something)

Omelettes

Daal and rotis

Stir fry

Egg fried rice

Bubble and squeak type rostis

Any good?

She doesn't like pizza, curry, or anything where things are combined unless it's soup. She'll only eat plain pasta, no sauce, just grated cheese.

A roast dinner in our house is roast potatoes, roast carrots, roast parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing balls, cranberry sauce, broccoli, peas (not that she'll eat the peas) and cauliflower. It's rather time consuming to make hence why I don't do it often.

Things I'd normally make are spaghetti Bolognese, pasta bake, shepherds pie, chicken and mushroom pie, homemade pizza, tofu and veg with noodles, stir fry with rice but she hates them all. I feel we are restricted because of her fussiness and it's annoying as wasn't fussy when younger.

Do you eat chicken OP? Or is it quorn in the pie?

I'd probably just cook whatever and give her some salad/veg extra that she likes and hopefully she will come round. Easy to say though as my fussy one is 3.

Halloumi wraps sound great but she doesn't like halloumi or salad, or anything with melted cheese. Although she does like spinach leaves and cucumber so maybe I could do some wraps with those and something else. She won't touch falafel and she's tried it quite a few times.

I do insist that she tries things. If I just let her eat the veg she'd be living on carrots with the odd bit of sweet corn! No one else likes cauliflower, just her.

Sorry, everything is the veggie version with Quorn if things like chicken pie.

Chicken and mushroom pie? Are you vegetarian or mostly vegetarian?

Ah quorn

Can you not just do a less elaborate roast? You don't need stuffing balls etc every time

Sounds like a texture thing. Nearly all of those meals are of a similar texture.
So you need to try and think of things where the wet ingredients and dry ingredients are completely separate.

Stewed chickpeas or lentils or beans?

These could be added to soup, are delicious, filling, and nutritious. You can buy them ready cooked in jars and cans too.

Does she eat hummus?

Quorn burgers are very bland tasting so she might like those. Also they're microwaveable so quick and easy to prepare one alongside the family's meal.

Toad in the hole made with veggie sausages. With carrots.

Sorry for the confusion, I just call it chicken and mushroom pie but is always Quorn chicken pieces and Quorn mince, sausages, etc. And no, a less elaborate roast just wouldn't cut it!

Nut roast with carrots and roast or mash

Rice stuffed peppers

Yes, she might like toad in the hole. I usually do Yorkshire puddings with sausage and mash and carrots so is similar.
Quorn burgers are one of her favourites but want to rely less on processed foods and make more wholesome things. I love cooking from scratch and am all too aware of how much processed stuff we eat.

No to hummus. Tzatziki yes though.

If you have a slow cooker you could make frijoles. (You can do it in a big pan but it's more hassle).

Buy a 400/500g bag of dried black beans. La Asturiana is an excellent brand if you can get it. In batches, put the beans onto a large chopping board and sift through them as occasionally there are little pieces of gravel in the bag.

Rinse the beans. Then soak overnight in a large volume of lightly salted water.

Then drain off the soaking water (which should be scummy) and rinse the beans, then pop in the slow cooker with double the volume of water as beans, and then some raw onion and or garlic (both peeled), to your taste. I tend to pop in two small whole (peeled) onions as I can fish them out at the end easily then decide how much to put back into the finished dish. I don't put salt but taste it towards the end of cooking to see how much is needed.

Slow cook until the beans are soft. You can then eat them like that as a soup. Some people add a dash of single cream and it's also quite popular to serve it with a poached egg in the soup or scrambled egg on the side. DH adds a few chilli flakes to his.

Then you can take the bean mixture, drain off some of the water (you need to leave enough to cover the beans), and blend it to a smooth paste, similar in texture to hummus. Serve it on crusty bread for a delicious and very filling lunch. It also goes really well in any kind of burrito, fajita, taco, etc. (with grilled vegetables, baby sweetcorns, grated cheese, salad, and so on). And it will last for at least a week in the fridge...if it doesn't all get eaten.

She doesn't like nuts or peppers. She's a nightmare! In fact non of them like peppers yet are supposed to be one of the things children like if fussy.

I might try making my own veggie burgers with mash, spinach, carrots and sweetcorn coated in breadcrumbs and serve with homemade wedges as she likes those.

I think part of the problem is that at her dad's they get their choice of meals about 95% of the time so when she's here she thinks that all meals should be what she likes best whereas that's not how it works and I can't be making 4 different meals each day.

If I take them out for meals it's chips, sausages and beans (if we can get veggie sausages) or plain pasta (no sauce). Eldest always go for pizza, smallest pasta and garlic bread.

Are they veggie by choice or your choice, just wondered?

Starve them all. LOL. (3yr old excepted but will have to get used to veggie living and will eventually).

They will eat anything then if hungry.

You are making a rod for your own back here. I think.

I would do the roast dinner with all the prep the day before.

I would do a nut roast with cranberries and pecans or a chestnut, parsnip and mushroom in puff pastry with a mushroom or creamy sherry sauce as the main dish.

If she likes spinach that could go in the sauce.

I always do self-service so everyone can help themselves. There will be something she can eat and she decides if she wants to try anything so the pressure is off her.

Just read she doesn't like nuts...
Sorry also read it as 'Christmas Meal' not just everyday meal....

They have always been veggie and know no different. They don't like the smell of meat and are very conscientious animal lovers so wouldn't touch it.

I did pasta bake the other day with homemade pasta sauce made with passata, courgettes and peppers blended up and she ate the lot with a good deal of encouragement and bribery with chocolate for movie night so I'm convinced it's more she'd prefer not to eat it as it's not her favourite rather than not actually liking it. Like I said, she has been better lately as I've been firmer with her. Maybe I just need to be even firmer. I certainly don't pander to her and try to incorporate everyone's favourite meals into the week. I don't make her eat anything I know she really hates either.