To only give kids shit food?

[Crocsandshocks]

Bear with me. I'm cultivating an inner scream.

I try to make a real effort to cater to my kids tastes. They are completely and entirely different to mine. I like curries, Thai, veg stir fries, tofu, lentils etc. I'm pescatarian. My kids have different tastes. They like ham, pasta, bolognase, Burges, fish fingers, sausages etc.

I try to meet them in the middle and though I dislike cooking meat, will cook it a couple of times a week and offer up soups or Dahl and flatbread or something the other days.

I have started getting hello fresh. I deliberately ordered a chicken flat bread Street food one, as I thought they would like that (I adapted my portion to use mushrooms instead of chicken).

It took 50 minutes to cook it. I burned my finger in the process. It used up most of the baking dishes and frying pans. When I served it just now, one moaned constantly about the topping on the corn. The other rocked on his chair and sat with legs acimbo, with bits of food hanging out of his mouth.

I was a hot sweaty and sweary mess. Over half of each of theirs was left untouched. I've refrigerated what leftovers I can and am going to sneak it into their packed lunch tomorrow.

However, I am a bit broken. They're getting ready for bed and are now claiming they are hungry 😩AIBU to just go back to shit food? Like frozen pizza and pesto pasta.

I hear you OP, I am in a similar position with a 9 and 12 year old. Oh the pain and moaning on the weeks I decide to get a hello fresh box

I don't really have much advIce, I just continue to try to mix it up and aim not to get too frustrated when anything even slightly different or new is rejected. I get so fucking bored of only eating the boring, bland crap that they like though.

The few slightly more flavourful meals that we all enjoy though are: tacos (made with beef or pork mince and very lightly spiced), fajitas (again, not too spicy), a mild prawn curry (v easy, can share recipe if you like), M&S do some nice pesto halloumi kebabs that they'll eat, and a Jamie Oliver pork and porcini pasta (from the 5 ingredients book)

I agree about some of the smug comments. Also the eat what you are given advice wouldn’t be recommended by a nutritionist or dietician unless you want to set your kids up with a weird relationship with food. It may work for some children but can be very damaging for others, particularly those with sensory issues.

There’s a pasta sauce on the Feed Your Family for £20 a week page that’s absolutely packed with veggies and then blended down.

I could use it with even my fussiest eaters and it meant there was a good amount of veg getting into them.

if you batch cook something like that then you’ve a quick sauce for pasta, over plain chicken (especially if you have a nice sauce for yourself) and on pizza.

I know you don’t like the idea of the pizza but seriously consider it as a meal they could make for themselves with just light supervision. That sauce defrosted, some cheese and a topping and the pizza is ready in 10 mins. That was my go-to when I wanted a night off as they can DIY it from relatively young with help just taking it out the oven.

You don't need Hello fesh, you can cook something quick and healthy yourself. Even if they like just 2 types of veg it is doable. Grilled chicken, steak, chili, pasta etc. I eat everything and enjoy curries, dhal etc, but if someone forced me to eat so much south Asian food every week I would rebel too. You are imposing your flavour profile on them. It is not 'curry' or junk food from the freezer. Also you are veggie, but they are clearly not. It is not a right approach to limit their meat consumption to twice a week

I force myself to eat stuff that I don’t like if other people are eating it and/or it is healthy for me. I don’t generally like cooked fruit or game meat, but will eat it if my husband cooks it. My child didn’t like onions. Onions are in most food. I continued to cook with them. He used to pick them out. He now eats them.

the kids say they don’t like mushroom. They like veg pasta. One day I chopped mushroom into tiny pieces and put it in. They liked it (but still only chopped up in tiny pieces).

halloumi works well on roast veg

It is infuriating. You had this nice idea to cook something fun and new, something they should like. Kids are such ingrates.

Try not to take it personally or as some evidence of your failings. Lots of kids are fussy and/or suspicious of new foods. I personally don't force the issue.

I remember not being allowed to leave the table til I'd finished shepherds pie (I still dislike it to this day). Not happy memories, and made me more stressed about trying new things, not less!

I'd go with choosing foods you know they'll like or variations on things they might like, and focus on making them as balanced as possible.

Those saying "mine eat Thai curry" - well, that's lovely. But op serving up a Thai curry is going to go down like a shit in a waterside when her kids don't even like rice. She can't force them to like something they don't. Let them come to thai curry on their own. Probably as adults.

I don’t know how kids here get away with

Dictating foo
Many families cannot afford to choose food with the cost of living crisis. They eat what served or go hungry.

Also unless they have been diagnosed with sth this seeensory issue thing is bollociks.

SOme of the things you mention like pasta and bolognaise aren't shit food though. Only diet and low card culture tells us that. Kids need carbs (and pasta is a perfectly good source of them), and bolognaise can be made healthily with fresh ingredients and lots of veg. Burgers equally can be made from scratch and served with salad, pata with a homemade or fresh pesto with tomatoes and salad (sweetcorn and/ or cherry tomatoes are good added to that for kids), fish finders the same (we often do homemade fishfinger tacos which has lots of fresh vegetables and is healthy) etc.
So (1) I think you sound like a bit of a food snob, and that your attitude to your own diet is distroting what you consider an appropriate diet for kids and (2) rather than trying to get them from Pizza to lentil dahl in one step and expecting them just to lap it up, work with what they like and bring in elements of what you like slowly - e.g if they will eat a mild creamy curry with white rice, that's a good basis for introducing similar flavours to a dahl. Maybe you can serve dahl on the side.
My kids love a fish or prawn coconut curry, but I make it child friendly (not too spicy, and creamy/ sweetish). I actuall serve them dahl too, they don't tend to eat much of it, but I serve it with rice, poppadoms, mango chutney and bananas, all of which they eat, so they won't starve and a bit of dahl tends to be tried too. A lot of getting kids to eat new things is simply just continual exposure.

OP you just need to broaden your horizons a bit on healthy kids meals. There’s lots of relatively quick stuff that’s better for them than frozen nuggets and chips.
And also maybe be a bit more open minded?

Just give them what they want with veg and salad. Nothing wrong with fish fingers

I understand op. Mine are similar. I've told them that I don't want them to tell me if they don't like their meal.

I am a single parent. I agree.

My DS became very picky when he started school, he is 9 now and is getting more adventurous again, but he currently doesn't eat any dark meat so the usually quick spag bols, cottage pie etc is out of the question. And he will only eat beans and corn on the cob in way of veg. Although he is actually tasting other veg now..

Good quality fish fingers and chicken nuggets (not the formed chicken paste type an actual peace of beaded chicken breast) are not terrible imo. He will have these once a week.

I found sauces etc are too much for him unless they are in moderation. So usually I will make a plain protein and sides and have sauces separate. E.g Sunday dinner he will have gravy in a little ramekin to dip into but not smothered all over his food

I remember as a child not liking some foods (Boiled Bacon anyone)! And DM being obliging would do a ready meal for me or something like that.I personally dont like Lentils or curries overly (Though I do eat mild ones) Children like Fish fingers (These are healthy ) Try with some veggies or a jacket potato rather than chips. Spag bol pad out with veg . and so on .On a separate note ,how come it takes 50 mins to cook a Hello Fresh meal when sold on ease to prepare and cook? Plus a burnt finger! Same here seems to take a lot longer than they say!

I'm the same op but my dc eat the same as me. Or I should say, are cooked the same as me. I hate food waste too so have tried to make their portions smaller than they were giving them the option of a second helping or, if not, me having it for lunch the next day. I think you should continue to introduce new food maybe once a week or fortnight. If they don't like it, have it yourself the next day and give them something very boringly simple as an alternative, like pasta with butter and broccoli (so they aren't tempted to not even try the new thing).

Just cook the dinner and put it in front of them. They either eat it or they don't. Stop pandering.

You want us to tell you it's ok, but it's not. It's not good parenting. The easy option. Some kids are fussier than others, admittedly. Yours sound like they only like few very bland items. But you could at least try. Little by little, it's a very long and slow process. But you have to put in the effort.
Taste buds change over time, and they may be a bit young yet for some items. But your request earlier to them one day like beef stir fry, and someone replied 'one day', probably won't happen easily, without at least a bit of effort from you now.

DS ate anything I put in front of him. And I mean anything, oh except peas which he hates more than death, no idea why. He is 40 now, we have always been vegetarians.
However Dsis who is the same age as DS and I'd cook for both of them if I was around was a fucking nightmare - she only ate rice and peas, wouldn't even try anything. Moaned all the time. Pretended to be sick.
Because she was Dsis I told her she's die of malnutrition and her hair would fall out and then she would be sorry.
Now an adult she is still an incredibly finicky eater and we've long since agreed I won't cook for her.
I'd just give them whats easiest and insist they eat some vegetables otherwise you will go mad.

I'm usually quite sceptical about fussy eating kids but from your OP it sounds like you like almost exclusively Asian foods. I would focus on making decent meals that aren't from that kind of cuisine.

I'm a single parent and work full time. I gave up on hello fresh because it all takes too long but I liked it taking away the burden of meal planning.

My DD is fussy with food (ASD) so I decided to bring it all right back to basics.

I keep frozen pasta in the freezer, takes 2 minutes to cook. I use that with sauces with loads of veg in that I have blended.

Daal, with microwave rice (I sprinkle ground chilli on my portion)

Whole grain covered nuggets, you would never know, with corn on the cob sides.

Other sides she will eat, raw carrots, cucumber, pickles, black olives.

I'm exhausted by the time I get to cook so it needs to be quick.

Oven risotto is a good one, loads of recipes around that you shove in the oven.

Quesadillas.

I really like spicy food, so I often end up using jalapeños, chilli flakes, chilula on just mine so I don't have to cook twice. (But I often end up eating a salad with protein if I don't want what she's having)

Did you answer your own post?!

What foods did you eat growing up?

I think we tend to forget that we used to it much more bland food growing up - in my house anyway it was meat and 2 veg etc I hadn’t tried bolognaise until I was mid teens (I’m 44 so not that long ago )

now though I eat everything, love spices and so many different cuisines.

so don’t feel guilty about feeding plain simple food they will find their own way

Also, there is somewhere between Dahl and oven pizzas. You seem to be saying that because they aren't at your end you just won't bother. there's also plenty of ways to make more bland/ convenience food healthy (buy good quality, make from scratch, serve with plenty of veg etc).