Whats expected in terms of nanny cooking - not sure

[ishika]

Hi All,

I am looking for advice in regards to whats appropriate to ask a nanny to do.
We had a full time nanny before who was cookign fresh lunch and dinner for 2 year old DS. She loved cooking and would make meals like chicken stew for lunch and fish for dinner etc kinds. She also made fresh snacks for him like pancakes etc sometimes. And this was all without me sayign anything at all. Now we are moving to a nanny who will be with us two days. I am not sure what should i ask her to do.
Is it normal to cook two hot fresh meals a day - a different nanny who came to see us told me that i will need to pick one meal as the main one when she could do like chicken/ fish in the oven. And one meal will have to be pancakes/ scrambled eggs etc. And that no-one likes cooking twice in the day. I agree she has a fair point that its probably too much to cook "time consuming" fresh meals twice a day for a toddler. Do you think what she said is right? I was wondering how others manage cooking for toddlers or what your nanny does. I wouldnt want any undue expecttaions from the nanny - would rather my son was eating happily.

Our cuisine is different so i dont have much idea as to what is normal or not normal for toddlers to have for lunch or dinner.

My only thing is - I am a vegetarian and DS loves non-veg. So i just was hoping that he will get his share of non-veg when he is with the nanny. I realise that

Appreciate your advice.

There are lots of cooked dishes that are not time consuming - stir fry, pasta, omlettes etc.

If you want your child to eat 2 cooked meals a day, then that is what Nanny should be doing - she shouldn't be dictating to you about it!

It is quite normal to only eat one cooked meal. Depending on time constraints my 2 charges sometimes have a sandwich supper. And in the holidays it will be a picnic lunch when we are out and about. In the winter we eat cooked for lunch and supper quite often. It's nice to have something hot when it's cold outside. I make quite a lot of fresh soups.

Maybe you should look for a nanny who is familiar with your particular cuisine/ culture, who might be more amenable to cooking two meals a day?

I agree there are many options that are not pot-intensive or time-consuming, but every fresh-cooked meal requires some cutting, chopping and other preparation before cooking, and cleaning up afterwards, no matter how small it is.

OTOH, this nanny will be working only two days a week so I don't think it's that much of a burden -- and you are the one who is employing the nanny, so really, what you say goes, here. I think switching to a different diet according to the nanny might also be upsetting to the child.

Well, finding a nanny familiar with my cuisine will be difficult as i would like someone who can speak english well and take him around. And it is more important that
he gets to go around, meet other kids and be well stimulated.
DS goes to nursery two days and he is ok eating english cuisine (i actually think he prefers that to ours). He gets our food when he is with me.
Also, DS sleeps 2 hours in the afternoon - so there is time to cook dinner. Its just i am not sure whether its too much to ask for two hot meals a day.
Would it be far better if they cooked only once but did two things together. Looking for ideas as to how everbody does it.

Our nanny cooks much the way I would for them if I was there - lunch is a smaller snack type meal, either hot or cold (omlette, soup, sandwich, etc) with supper as the main meal of the day. Supper is always a 'proper' cooked meal, unless for some reason they have swapped around and had it at lunch. I think that's pretty normal.

She also often cooks a large meal - e.g. a shepherd's pie that would be time consuming to cook in the portions for two children and gives it to them two days running. I have no problem with that.

I don't think it's too much to ask for there to be 2 cooked meals, but it rather depends what you consider as a cooked meal.

Is an omelette/scrambled eggs a cooked meal to you?

Could nanny batch cook shephers pie, bolognaise sauce, lasange etc and freeze to defrost so she doesn't have to cook twice a day? Or soup?

All nannies are different. Some like cooking and will easily cook twice a day, others have skills which lie in different areas. If cooking is important to you then I would specify it in your ad. If you say 2 cooked meals a day then that's what goes...

well - i disnt know what the norm is regarding having 2 cooked meals a day . My last nanny was our first one who wanted to cook big meals and would cook fresh. I remember telling her so many times to put it in fridge and rest but she wouldnt listen.

DS cant eat eggs(his dietician has excluded it from his diet for now) but i wouldnt mind if it was a simple thing like omlette etc as long as he ate well, it was hot and it was nutrititous.

When nannies batch cook, for how many meals it is normally?

"Our cuisine is different" - perfect for nanny to learn some new recipes.

A lot of English children... actually eat Italian! Think about it. Children love pasta. Pasta isn't English Cuisine. Toad in the Hole on the other hand, I think is English Cuisine (though happy to stand corrected if someone knows if that originates elsewhere).

Children change over time... your DS will drop his afternoon nap at some point.

Today I baked bread rolls (as oldest child liked them yesterday and sort of demanded them again). Toddler and I had a hot lunch (variation on macaroni cheese) and toddler had cheese roll and a sausage in a roll, with carrot and cucumber side. Fruit is often pudding and homemade cakes.

I used to do more for tea... but recently things have changed and the children often refuse to eat it. They seem to want more snack type things for tea at the moment... so that's fine.

One hot meal a day is fine, if your DS wants more than that then perfectly ok to ask nanny to do something hot for tea. However your DS will change over time, will like something one day and refuse it the next. When he goes to school he will probably be hungry once home, so you have afternoon snack and a later tea, or no snack but a much earlier tea.

It is not too much to ask for two hot meals a day... though that is assuming you are not expecting a Sunday Roast every meal time! It's more about what you define as a hot meal. If one item in the meal is hot... is it then a hot meal?

Depends how big your freezer is and how long you're happy for food to be stored for. And the size of the dish.

I used to get 4 adult-sized portions of lasagne in a dish, serve one fresh that day and freeze 3 in tupperware boxes. That fed a 5yo and a 2yo with some cucumber or carrot sticks.

Bolognaise I'd make a big pan and use the ice cube tray method to freeze cubes, then put them into a freezer bag and defrost as necessary. That was a basic sauce (meat, onion, tomato, herbs) with no added veg though. I had small tupperware pots for chunky veg sauce (no meat...) and usually did half a dozen of those?

I made a fish pie yesterday that did a meal for us all and 2 potions for the freezer. Sometimes if I'm just cooking for the 14 month old there is 4 or 5 portions for the freezer.

Hot meal for me in my own little world would mean anything like pasta/ spaghetti/ meatballs/ fish baked or fried/ chicken fillets with gravy/ panini etc... I have no idea whether whether thats the general definition or not?
I was hoping that my son gets used to all kinds of food since he will be eating at school and nursery, hence i thought let him get other foods when with nanny and our food when with me. Was hopign to get his palates more varied.

If you definition of a hot meal is Pasta with sauce of some kind - then that's fine... simple enough to serve that for a tea. Note: How do you get the Meatballs to bind without egg? There probably is a way but most recipes I find contain egg. That is something you will need your nanny to watch out for. Even the homemade bread rolls I made today could have contained egg - I forgot to add it they still worked.

If the nanny will be working two consecutive days then she could cook a meal or meals that could be refrigerated and eaten the second day, maybe swapped in order. If she's there Monday and Friday though, then I don't think what she cooked on Monday would be very appetising by the time Friday rolled around.

How about cooking a larger than normal meal yourself the night before the nanny is there and having leftovers of more familiar food for the DS for at least one day?

Your definition of a hot meal sounds like mine.

The thing is if you insist on two cooked meals a day then you probably cant insist on other things such as going out, activities, friends etc? Cooking twice a day is a bit restrictive, if you go out in the morning you have to look the watch to go back home and cook lanch. Personally, i would prefer they spend more time outdoors and eat healthy but simple meal.

• Jacked potatoes for lunch, easy and healthy
• Ditto scrabbled eggs, beans and veg. hummus and veg. Toasted s/w and veg.
• For tea a shepherds pie or lasagne that she can freeze half for next week?
• Snacks: fruit and youghurt, banana on the go. When is very cold rainy day they can bake together lots and freeze half for the rest of the month.
• Budget permitted they can have some lunches out?

Nick - I don't use egg in my meatballs - just minced meat, herbs, sometimes finely diced onions or veg, breadcrumbs - squished together. Trick is to put them in the fridge for an hour before cooking them off.