CM Club: Ideas for meals please!

[Numberfour]

I have been CM for over 3 years but I seem to do the same things over and over for the children.

Can anyone come up with some new ideas for me, please? Like most CMs I have some fussy, some not fussy kids and some that are a bit in between.

I do things like spag bol, pesto pasta, sausage and chips, beans on toast, sandwiches, pizza, roast chicken, chicken nuggets (outright disaster as the children hated them!), .... any other ideas?
fish fingers, macaroni cheese.....

ho hum.

jacket potatos with whole range of fillings

cheesy scrambled egg on toast

omelettes with veg/ham/cheese

eggy bread with beans and cheese

risotto with peas/chicken/veg

sausage and bean casserole - throw into slow cooker with baby potatoes, ready by lunch on 'high'

make your own fish cakes with the children [they always eat what they make IME ]

make 'toasties' with different fillings

I often also do 'themed' days - italian, chinese, french, american, etc and we shop for the ingredients together, prepare the food together - even my own mega fussy ds eats the produce .

TBH, I often prepare food the night before - or cook surplus to what we have as a family - and it makes my life a lot easier. If the children you mind are anything like those I've had over the years, I can get them to eat at my home everything they won't even look at for their parents . I also put more on their plates than I would expect them to eat, then 'section' it off when they say they've 'had enough' or 'am full' . Reverse psychology....

If all else fails, bribe them with stickers for clean plates...

thanks, underpaid! i am doing far more meals now that I have for ages and I have lost my mojo!! not sure about where to find the time to shop and prepare with the children but a good idea for the upcoming half term (all but one of mine are schoolies)

what about VERY fussy kids??? how "strict" for want of a better expression are you? one child i have hardly eats anything at lunch no matter if it is his favourite or not and then 30 min later wants something to eat. no ways could i just lunch, snack and tea!!!! i feel like i am a waitress permanently on call.......

Had a child like that - agreed with parents that if they refused to eat when the meal was prepared then we still had to go to planned playgroup/toddlers/library/parks because I had other children to consider too. It took a week and we were then all eating everything up at the same time

It's a control thingy I think....

Might be worth asking parents how they handle it at home - bet it's a case of child wants fed=child gets fed when child wants.

Am waitress only to myself now [tiptoes through to kitchen to pour a glass of wine ]

thanks, underpaid. this particular child is only with me a few hours a week so it will not be easy following a similar strategy as yours. the mother has given me a list of things that he does eat so i will go with that for the time being. the problem is that he wants something every half hour!! mum reckons he is underweight and the child has even said to me that mum says he must eat a lot.

but the pain in the neck thing is him not eating up at meal times and then wanting more less than an hour later.

but thanks again for your ideas for meals! great help.

PS have a glass for me.......

Happy to help no4.

[slopes back off to fridge for another...don't need any encouragement but always do as I'm told - most of the time]

Today mine haad faggots mash peas and carrots, which dissapeared in the blink of an eye.

Tomorrow is beef stew another favorite.

Thursday is filed pata in homemade tomato sauce.

Friday is toad in the hole, roast potatoes, veg.

Pudding are usually Yougurt, Rice pud, bread and butter pud, sponge pud with custard sort of thing.

thanks, wailing. NO idea what faggots are.....
beef stew would go down like lead balloon in my house.

filed pata?? filled pasta? or something else?

hmmm.. must look into toad in the hole too. read about that in my english mags like Judy, Mandy, Bunty, and the like when i was growing up in Deepest Darkest!

I dont know these southern hempsphere girls

If child consistently did not eat lunch then wanted food 30 minutes later and was becoming a pattern, I am afraid I would not accommodate this. I have in the past explained to mindees that if they don't eat all their lunch then they will feel hungry shortly after and that they will have to wait until snack time to eat again (mindees fed every 2 to 2.5 hours throughout ten hour period). This is a difficult one really because child may naturally be a graizer (sp). I would not like to think of any child feeling hungry but on the other hand would not want to pander (for want of a better expression) to these sort of demands.

When I used to cook for mindees (they all provide their own food now) I always prepared a plain pasta backup daily, this was so that the children who really did not want to eat my food, did have something else but that is all that I would offer.

How about making pizzas with the children (if old enough) from muffins etc mine used to love that. I'll fish out some recipes tomorrow and post.

thanks, sofewetc. i do feel like i am pandering to this little one because he gets that kind of treatment at home (eg mum says he screamed so much before school she had to give him crisps - but then i have not been in that situation so try VERY hard not to judge......)

Numberfour; here are some recipes that I used to cook until I persuaded parents to provide their own cooked food - Obviously some recipes worked more than others!

*Falafel, humous, cucumber, carrot and pots
*Sticky salmon with chinese fried rice
*Easy chinese fried rice
*Chicken balls
*Lamb and dried apricot pilau with spinach (really yummy)
*Bifteki (greek beef burgers) really yummy
*Ratatouille with rice or pasta, sprinkled with cheese
*Spinach and cheese lasagne
*Chicken and potatoe pie with hidden veggies
*Chicken korma stir fry with noodles
*Feta, spinach and chicken pasta
*Meatballs in tom sauce
*Shepherds pie
*Basic fish pie topped with mash
*Thai-style chicken and noodles
*Various Risotto's

Most of these have come from a children's cook book that I used!

Happy cooking

Cheese and rice balls are a big hit here right now, simply boiled white rice, mix in grated cheese till it melts, seasoning, rolled into balls and served like that or you could do them dipped into beaten egg then breadcrumbs and baked off (or fried but not too often obviously). We sometimes put sweetcorn, fried onions/raw chopped spring onions or peas in too.

My mindee invented these with me as we were going to do mac and cheese but had run out of pasta.