to think it's not child abuse to make the DC's....

[BigMomma3]

eat spanish style chickpea stew with wilted spinach . DD has made herself choke to get out of eating it and DS1 has been in tears at the table. I cannot believe the fuss they made! DS2 ate it all after a slap bit of gentle encouragement!!

DD screamed 'why can't we eat normal food like normal families?' When asked to elaborate she said we should eat mashed potatoes, chips, fishfingers and sausages etc (which we do eat as well as my veggie concoctions ).

I have also refused to buy their usual Cocopops and Cheerios and am making organic porridge with dessicated coconut and golden syrup for their breakfast and we were late for school this morning due to the amount of time it took for DS1 to take one spoonful . I am sick of them always wanting to eat crap (although even if I give them pizza or chips they usually don't eat much because they are constantly raiding the fridge). AIBU to take a stand or am I wasting my time??? They are aged between 7 & 12 BTW

ewww op not really liking the sound of that, i would love my dd to eat more healthy but sadly thats not the case, i get the pretending to be sick,crying and trying to make me feel like i'm the worst mother in the world - but i give in fair play to you.

fantastic spidermama

ElectricElephant what is your definition of 'normal' food?

NOA I know!

The mum was torn between pride and wincing poncetasticism.

I dunno. Ar e you insinuating I don't know - or don;'t care about - the difference between a good quality sausage and a crap one?

No, its not child abuse, but I wouldn't expect DS to eat this meal (nor DH come to think of it).

I don't feed my family 'crap' either - but I think that there is something in between two extreme points of view.

We will eat meals such as roast chicken, home made beef casserole, cottage pie etc. As you can probably tell we are not vegetarian! Although I do make vege pizza and pasta meals quite often.

For breakfast - what about plain weetabix?

Oh loads of crap eaten here too. We have loads of lentil-tastic meals with lots of veggies and so on and then have ice-cream for desert or whatever. I think a little bit of what you fancy is great. But IMO it should be a little bit.

I hope I didn't come across as smug when I mentioned that kids here in Spain eat a lot of crap. All the cereals are sugary. The kids in the park all really do have massive bags of crisps every day and we must be the only veggies for miles, and I think it's natural to worry about how my dd will feel about being so "different" in terms of the food she eats...

Nothing wrong or smug in wanting to be healthy and eat nice food IMO.

ROFL at sausage roll insinuations

Only on MN

Tinned coconut is fine. I use it all the time. Realistically I aint grating coconuts that often.

They need to be really fresh though or you get a nasty rancid hit.

Little rectangular stool like this.

Put some water in with grated stuff and squeeze through a muslin.

oh pmsl at points scoring dilly - my kids are thinner than yours therefore i win also lolling at "i'm far too working class to give a shit about this".

i feed my children what i like to eat. not abnormal, not precious, just tasty and reasonably healthy. i won't countenance unreasonable fussiness because i refuse to cook food i don't enjoy, so i encourage all members of the family to be a little adventurous in their tastes. works fine, responds to a little tweaking now and again [shrug]

Wow Moondog!

You are officially a culinary extremist if you really have one of those 'stools' in your kitchen.

< Googles to find picture of puy lentil scoop >

PMSL at the sausage in a croissant

thesecondcoming, my mum loves frosties too! And she (and most of my beloved family) would rather starve to death than eat any of my weird food Oh no, I've just remembered, she loves porridge, but puts about three tablespoons of sugar on it! She used to make me sugar sandwiches when I was young, actually...

I'm off to the freezer to dig out the last of the choc ice cream, even though I should be in bed...

Oh please do (and I shall then raise you my blini pan)

Or howzabout my shashlik skewers, purchased form half starved Tartar somewhere to the west of the Urals??

Dittany, that stuff costs a packet.

I love thinking about how my morning porridge costs about 3p or summat (and it salves conscience when I then go berserk in Majestic wines).

Oh my giddy aunt

Moondog you definitely rule on kitchen implements.

I really want one of those egg slicer things.
Not to eat eggs, just because I like them.

My blini pan was found by the side of the road and rescued by my sister. No doubt someone will use this as further proof of culinary apartheid. (Twas France though. Haute Savoie).

oh egg slicers.

Many a happy hour of my childhood researching what that was capable of slicing.

And I want to bugger about with an icing bag too and diffenrt nozzles.

no no noooo not the egg slicer

they are DANGEROUS - have you not seen Ooglies???

not spinach! no way I would have eaten spinach and chickpeas as a child, and I was fairly unfussy with food, I'll eat anything (and love spinach in curries now)

Just thing, what's wrong with a bit of spag bol, mild curry, homemade pizza, tuna pasta bake (), jacket potatoes, macaroni cheese, chicken and ham pie.

Most kids like fairly bland food, and like the same thing over and over. If you give them green stuff that they don't recognise, they'll be suspicious.

~shrug~

wasn't trying to be offensive, but the thoght of trying to force spinach down a small child made me laugh a little. Why bother??

tuna pasta bake

I'd never force owt down anyone's neck. It's take it or leave it in our house.

hollow laugh at u12s eating chickpea stew with wilted spinach. In my dreams

my tuna pasta bake (circa school ds lesson 1985) required the use of said egg slicer

oh happy days