Fussy toddler family dinners

[Tigger14]

Looking for inspiration!

Our 2year 9months old us just starting to turn a corner (18months of refusing everything apart from fruit and weetabix) and is starting to eat mash, plain pasta (cheese cant be melted), basmati rice and occasionally roast potatoes!

Meat is still having finely chopped but getting better with fish. Ate 1/5 of a fish cake both haddock then cod.

But im running out of family dinners and using the same one. What do you all have for dinner with mash, pasta or rice?

Or what does your fussy toddler like? Meal inspirations needed

My eldest, DS(4) is autistic and is extremely fussy with food and certain textures etc. I have always taken the approach of cooking whatever we like as a family and serving that alongside something I know he will eat. That way there’s no pressure but occasionally he will try something new.

So for example if I wanted to make spaghetti meatballs and garlic bread I would also serve that to him in small amounts alongside something I know he will eat like potato waffle. Usually he will eat the waffles, plain meatballs, garlic bread, cheese and some sweetcorn but he will normally leave the sauce and the spaghetti but that’s fine , it’s still there if he ever decides to try it. I think exposure is so so important.

Basically what I’m trying to say in a clumsy way is I think you should make whatever you want along with something you know your little one will eat so you know they are going to have something.

some of our favourite family meals are

spaghetti and meatballs
chilli con carne and rice/ tacos
jacket potatoes
omelettes
homeade burgers
bbq pulled pork
A treat one- american style breakfast for tea so pancakes, sausage, lots of fruit (always goes down a storm)
Homeade pizzas or pizzas on tortilla wrap bases
chicken curries
Homeade chicken Kiev’s
gammon, parsley sauce, mash and veg
sticky chilli beef and rice

Another tip I picked up for DS is when trying to encourage new foods, start with foods that look/ feel similar to foods they already enjoy. So DS loves potato for example so we’ve had some success with parsnip as the colour is very similar.