Afternoon Tea - What do you cook?

[nannynick]

I made Toaf in the Hole with peas and potatos. One child ate sausage, one ate battet, one ate peas.

Finding food waste is getting worse so wondeting what other people do about children's teatime.

Two of the children have a hot lunch at school, so perhaps a hot tea is not needed?

What do your children eat after school?

Sorry for bad typing... on touch screen mobile (which I hate).

What about jacket potatoes with a choice of toppings for them to add/choose?

If some of them eat one thing and some another I let them 'share' so there's less waste. If they've been offered the food and aren't going to eat it then I'd rather someone else did.

If you have been doing a proper cooked main evening meal for them then I think you'd need to discuss with parents if you were going to stop, but to be honest for afternoon tea I just offer fruitcake, fruit or a muffin or something. Carbohydratey and hopefully substantial enough to see them through till supper at home.

I think if you've got one child who doesn't have a hot lunch then a hot meal in the evening probably is needed. Mine eat loads of pasta in various forms - spag bol, lasagne, macaroni cheese, tomato and basil pasta etc - this is mainly as one child refuses to eat potato in any form. We will often have a slightly strange concoction of say sausages, cheesy pasta and vegetables. Other things that tend to go down well are roast dinners (I sometimes cheat with frozen roasties if time is of the essence), fish pie and veg, salmon fillets with rice and veg, mild chili with rice etc.....

Ah - is this straight after school, not their main meal? In which case I give fruit or toast/crumpets/muffins etc or a bowl of breakfast cereal/porridge sometimes goes down well.

I always do a hot meal at 5:30 and aside from pasta things that go down well include chinese chicken & rice (chicken wings & drumstick marinated in honey, 5 spice, soy, ginger & garlic then baked for 30-40mins rice mixed with frozen peas, sweetcorn plus fried pepper & onion tossed in dash of soy & sesame oil), roast chicken with potatoes & veg; breaded fish, homemade chips (par boil pots then roast in a little oil) with peas, fish pie, Stir fry with needles then either chicken, prawn or beef; homemade pizza with crudités, steak & kidney pie and chicken casserole.

I work till 7pm, so it's their main evening meal. There is often cake/biscuits, fruit, yoghurt for immediate after school snack. Problem is I think they eat the snack (at around 3.30pm) and then are not very hungry for an evening meal come 5.30pm.

We have lots of pasta, the children seen to refuse potato in any form apart from chips. They won't even have mashed potato on top of a cottage pie. Roast potatoes is possibly an option but only if we can do it as a roast dinner and they have that at school and at the weekend.

Fussy eaters you may say... take it or leave it you may say (in which case they leave it). Reuse it you may say - the fridge is full of things that can be reused and eventually get thrown out as they don't get reused.

Youngest child often has a hot lunch, unless we are out on a picnic, but even then could have a hot lunch as we could go somewhere for lunch instead of having a picnic. As winter is coming, it will be more hot lunches at home.

I was thinking of trying things like:

cocktail sausages
toast
bread
pasta salad
egg fried rice with mixed veg/meat.
carrot / cucumber sticks
cake / biscuit
soup
selection of fruit
boiled egg with toast

So sort of having more than a quick after school snack but not as much as a main meal. Having a variety of little things they can serve themselves, so take as much as they want to eat.

If they are then hungry when the parents are home, I was thinking they could then have a bowl of cereal (I remember having that as a child after coming home from swimming, cubs).

My littlies have just wolfed down scrambled egg on toast with baked beans - (They are now asleep before anyone jumps on me for Mnetting!)

Youngest loves scrambled egg with peas. Alas the older ones would not. So it's one of our lunchtime things, rather than teatime, as I'll end up cooking three different things. 2 like pizza, so I could do Pizza, scrambled egg and peas... that's all 3 sorted then!

personally i wouldnt give them a snack if means they dont want tea an hour/90mins later

or would offer banana/apple as snack and then tea earlier and if want fruit/breadsticks/rice cakes after tea then fine

fussy eaters nick??????????

I wouldnt do a snack - serve a meal at 4pm for them, and do a biscuit peice of fruit, yoghurt at 5.30.

My dm is a CM and the most well received meals she does are Butternut Squash soup, Tuna PAsta, meatballs woth rice and gravy, chicken breast with wedges and coleslaw, lamb casserole.

Dinner at 6 and a smaller snack at 3.30 could be worth a try?

6pm would be too late for tea for me, as either need to do homework and bath or pick up mb 6-7

tbh prefer tea to all be finished by 5.30/6 to give enough time to tidy up etc

I agree, 6pm is too late. They seem hungry immediately after school but having too much of a snack then means they don't eat much later.

Try toad in the hole using cocktail sausages and mini Yorkshire puds. I make them like this in nursery and they go down a treat.

Soup and a sandwich always go down well here. Quiche? Frittata?

we just do fruit at snack around 3.30, then dinner 5.30/6pm. anything goes for dinner though

I think when you have 3 children you (and they) have to accept that they will have things they don't like because they all like something different.

What I do is make sure that everyone likes at least one thing on offer and then give them mostly the bit they like and a small amount of the bit they don't. So child A would get loads of peas and little bit of sausage, child B would get more sausage only a few peas etc. I then really encourage them to try the bit they don't like/eat everything. This has worked really well and my older 3 will now eat pretty much anything, even avocado and spinach which they don't like.

I do a 'picky tea' on the night when we have a late afterschool club to go to, it's fine, but I wouldn't want to do it everyday particularly not in the winter.

My school aged mindees all have a school dinners, so I give my son and 3 year old mindee a hot dinner.

I know I will rarely give them a meal that they all like. So I tend to do sandwiches/ wraps, so that I can alter the filling to suit.
They like making them themselves too.
Puddings are always easier though!

If I do do a meal after school it's likely to be fish fingers/ chicken wedges and veg - I do a variety 3/4 and allow them to serve themselves. (I simply don't have time TI do a full meal)

I do tea between 4 and 4.30 due to pick up times. And allow a fruit snack when they come in.

I have a similar problem. 5 of my mindees are pretty fussy eaters, 2 of them don't eat meat.

I end up serving pasta a lot which everyone groans at but it's one of the only things I know they all like!

It's an ongoing mission to find meals that I can serve that everyone will eat.

Re potatoes - have you tried homemade potato wedges? They take quite a while to cook but if you can par-boil them earlier in the day then they should cook in time for tea. My fussiest children won't eat mashed/boiled but love wedges. Ds prefers mash if it has grated cheese mixed in or is covered in gravy!

I think your problem is the after school snack.

I have fruit and water available at all times for those who are genuinely hungry. They sit at the kitchen table to eat it and most won't bother.

I do risottos, pastas, occasionally something on toast, baked potatoes and occasionally filled wraps.

My risottos, macaroni cheese, pesto and feta and olive pasta and any tomato-based pastas are always popular and they'll want 2nds as well.
They also like my kedgeree and my haddock pasta.
They're not keen on baked potatoes and they love making their own wraps.

Most of my mindees bring food from home. THis has enabled me to keep the price the same over the years.

The kids which came to me later pay a higher price but a snack included.

Example

Sandwiches made in the sandwich maker
Sandwiches
Pasta and cheese
Noodles
Jacket Pot/cheese/beans
Wraps

Yog/fruit

Drink

No heavy cooking for mindees.

I am avoiding food wasting, spending ages in the kitchen etc. I realise we have different taste buds.

• pancakes
• omelette with ham and cheese and separately veg (peas or broccoli or salad)
• pizza with on the side cucumber/carrot sticks and pieces of tomato
• fish fingers, chips, peas
• spaghetti bolognese or plain tomato sauce
• tortilla with chicken/veg and plain rice

After school snack: one cookie and a piece of fruit plus water or milk or tea with milk