To keep making this dinner

[Soitis83]

So, once a week I'll make a pasta and the sauce I make by myself. I roast loads of veg and blitz it in the blender with coconut milk. My two year old loves it, I love it and my husband loves it. Problem is, my 4 year old (who used to devour the whole plate) has now decided he hates it and refuses to eat it the last two times I've made it. Do I stop making it as it makes dinner time so stressful, or do I carry on making it as everyone else enjoys it and it's healthy? Making two separate dinners is just not an option as I also have a 3 month old and cooking dinner is hard enough as it is!

Just cook your normal food.

Kids can be a pain to feed, but they'll never knowingly starve themselves. Give him the usual and tell him that he can eat what he wants and leave the rest.

Get a dog who will lick everything off the plate.

He'll come round. Otherwise, you're making a rod for your own back.

I did the stop serving thing and now have an 11 year old fussy eater. I do wonder if I'd not been so accommodating he would be less fussy.

Other than the chicken I stated in the recipe, what else do you suggest I add?

I'd try a few things.

He could have:

Plain pasta with the sauce on the side.
Plain pasta with the choice of another sauce you've made (just do a big load and freeze it in little portions) and the original sauce.
Plain pasta with the roasted veg from the sauce.
The same sauce but without coconut. Some people aren't huge fans, he might be one of them!

I'd not stop making it entirely though. Whenever either of mine got fussy I just gave different options of the same thing. Obviously different if it's something they really hate, I'd not force that. DS can't stand mushrooms so we always make him something a bit different if we're having them. Sometimes we also just have a week without the meal in question. Being fed up of the same food can be part of it.

Oh I imagined lots more vegetables..that’s not really enough for it to worth hiding? Onions and a tomato.

If it makes you feel any better, I was extremely fussy and beige at 11. I'm now super adventurous in the kitchen and love all things veg!

somr foods are an acquired taste and this is going to be one of those.

Onions, tomato, courgette, garlic, carrot and bell pepper...actually.

Yeah I know, but still not a lot of vegetables.

My Italian ancestors are in uproar!

And the carrot, and the courgette, and the pepper…?

OP I would roast the veg and blend it first with some pasata like another poster suggested, and serve him pasta and the roasted veg sauce. Still healthy, but a different meal without much effort.

This is good advice, thank you.

I think they're here commenting on my thread 😂

If the 4yo still likes pasta, is it the sauce that's the issue? Just serve that with some cheese, garlic, olive oil. Or just warm some passata with spinach, tuna and olive oil or whatever they like to eat in a small portion for them to have instead of the other sauce?
If they've gone off pasta then a jacket potato with filling instead?

Once a week is far too often, bloody hell if I ate the same thing every week I’d be ready for throwing it out of the window.

If you only want to make one meal for your family, increase your menu options.

Yeah it's just the sauce, he loves pasta! I think I'll just make his more basic while we eat ours and leave a side of sauce in case he chooses to try it again

I’m imagining it tastes like a Thai dish?

I have a 5yo and for the last year or so I've found it useful to just put a plate of chopped veg on the table at most meals so she has the option to nibble on that if she has decided she "hates" a meal she has reliably wolfed down for years.
I would also serve the pasta plain with sauce on the side and a dish of cheese or whatever for everyone to help themselves from. Just helps with a sense of autonomy. As others have said, you are at the start of many years of this nonsense. I've found it useful not to serve up a special different meal for one individual, but instead to just make sure there's something on the table that each person likes and let the focus be on us enjoying a communal meal, helping ourselves autonomously to the elements we like.

Too many mealtimes when I was growing up were dominated by a stressy focus on what one child was/wasn't eating and honestly I can't be doing with it. As a parent I'd prefer to be satisfied that something decent passed their lips and that we spent family time together.

Are you seriously considering stopping a meal that 3 of you enjoy because your 4 year old doesn't want it anymore ! Since when did 4 year olds rule they world?

It's the only meal we have once a week, I switch every other day up. The only reason I do this once a week is because it's the only way I can get veg into my 2yo! But I do think you're right, I think he's sick of it. Whereas me, DH and 2yo could happily eat this once a week, he's just obviously not like that which is fine

I'm sure he thinks he does but I certainly don't intend to raise him that way. I just want to make my life that bit easier with three under 5.

The coconut milk would bother me - maybe he’s gone off the taste - try leaving it out and using veg stock?

Kids tastes go through peaks snd valleys and they simply don't have the reasoning we need them to have. (Mine isn't touching the bagel asked for right now because I've cut it into the wrong pieces.)

I would put some plain pasta aside for your 4 yr old and stir in some butter/pesto/bit of tomato sauce whatever dc will eat and put a bit of veg on the side. Don't fight about it. Let her eat what she wants from the dinner you are making. If it's still a no go at mine I offer yoghurt, toast, fruit. I always cook extra pasta to offer plain w butter and maybe some finely grated cheese.

Hang in there!

Can you give us the recipe pls

Why are people so obsessed with having to have tons of protein in every meal? Pasta is a good source of fibre and does contain a moderate amount of protein, and there will be a small amount of protein in the veg too. A good diet is about balance over time - not every single meal needs to be perfectly balanced. I'm sure there are plenty of us who have had spaghetti aglio olio or penne arrabiata for dinner and lived to tell the tale!