How to cheaply feed fussy eaters?

[NeedSleepNow]

I'm a single parent on a low income with 3 children aged between 6 and 13 and am really bedding to cut the food books down a little. My boys generally eat well, so eat most things without complaint but they are constantly hungry. They are so active and could just eat all day long and still have two portions at dinner followed by fruit and yoghurt after and then something before bed too.

My daughter doesn't eat as much but would graze all day given the chance. She is quite restrictive with food though which is making things really tricky as I'm struggling to find cheap meals to cook that are nutritious and everyone will eat.

She won't eat anything with a sauce so no pasta, pies, curries, chilli, casserole etc which area great cheaper meals. given the chance she would only eat pizza, roast dinner, pancakes, hot dogs or plain fish & oven chips. She also eats fruit, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, potatoes, peppers if raw, hummous and cucumber. I think most of her issues are sensory when it comes to food, rather than just dismissing things.

I'm really struggling now to keep the food shopping within budget and to keep everyone fed and healthy. How do others with fussy or trickier eaters manage? I can't afford to cook separate meals for her and I don't want to serve the same few things over and over as it isn't fair on the rest of us. I would love to hear any ideas any one has on how I can find cheap meals everyone can eat!

How old is the D?

She's 10

Would DD eat (or at least try things) if they were served up separately, eg pasta bows with a bowl of sauce that she could dip into if she wanted?

A friend won't eat certain things if they are together, touching, on a plate, but she will eat them if served in separate dishes.

Baked potatoes with different fillings such as cheese, beans or coleslaw.

Omelette with cheese and mushrooms.

Beans on toast.

Make pizza dough and let everyone choose their own toppings.

Chicken, potatoes and veg. Do a gravy for those who want it.

Savoury pancakes with sweet corn.

Tinned sardines on toast. (More of a snack though).

Can you make the foods with sauces for the rest of you and let your daughter choose and help cook the foods she wants? She should be able to do simple cooking if you are there to supervise.

We just crack on and cook what we want but serve it all separately and DD will eat the parts that she wants. So she'll quite often have plain pasta with cheese on top while we have pasta with sauce. We'll have chilli and rice and she'll just have rice and cheese or an egg or something. I always encourage her to try the sauce in a small bowl on the side so she 'has control'. It's tricky but I've given up making separate meals because life's too short!

Have a look at Pasta Primavera, any green vegetable selection (such as peas, broccoli florets, sliced courgette) stirred into pasta, so there is no runny sauce.

Homemade pizzas. Basic homemade dough is a good skill and cheap. Then whatever toppings each person prefers.

You can also make tomato sauce for pizza topping loaded with hidden veg. Just tin tomatoes/ onions/ garlic/ herbs/ various roast veg and blitz. Freeze in portions. Add or reduce what they don’t like

Thanks all, that's a big help. Lots of great idea.

She unfortunately won't eat rice and doesn't like pasta, although will eat plain spaghetti so I will try serving up the spaghetti, sauce, cheese, and some meat separately so that she can pick which bits she wants and have them separately. I might also try fajhitas but without any spices for her as she likes peppers, chicken and wraps so that could work if she has them separately and then the boys and I could have the meat and peppers cooked with some spices.

That's a great idea, I used to make pizzas a lot with them but since becoming a single parent I've slipped back to relying on premade frozen food more than I should.

That's a good range of items she eats already.
If the oven is on, put frozen chips in for her.
If the hob is on, boil up some spaghetti.
Always have some carrots & peas in the meal prep mix.
These foods are cheap to buy and cook.

What meat(s) or fish or poultry or eggs does she eat, how does she get enough iron?

Make a Bolognese for the rest of the family and if DD won't eat it give her a jacket potato with baked beans. It won't hurt her once a week and why should the rest of your family have such a restricted diet because of her?

She loves roast pork, chicken or gammon, used to eat roast lamb but I don't buy it anymore as its too expensive so only occasionally eats this at Nanny's house. Will eat cheap Sausages if in a bun as hotdogs, doesn't like mince or Burgers, will eat ham in sandwiches or with spaghetti like a dry basic Carbonara. Fish she only really likes cod, will just eat it plain, or in batter/breadcrumbs baked in the oven or shallow fried. She doesn't really like eggs, although she will occasionally eat a fried egg or eggy bread.

I tend to find she likes something and will eat a lot of it and then suddenly she detests it and won't touch it again.

That's my worry, that my sons end up eating a really restricted diet too because of it.

My youngest does copy at times unfortunately , if I serve my daughter an alternative meal then he refuses his food and wants what his sister has regardless of what it is.

Budget, put in the bare basics and that will be that.

I plate everything up separately and the children help themselves. Pasta/sauce/meat rainbow salad so stripes of salad on a plate rather than mixed. If you take it then you eat it but nothing is mandatory. Less waste though as I will take leftover stuff to work for lunch whereas I probably wouldn’t Tupperware plate scraps.

That's a good idea about the leftovers too. If I ever make too much of dinner I try to take any leftovers to work for my lunch the best day.

I think I definitely need to start having everything on the table separately and let the children help themselves. I used to do this years ago when my eldest was little and it really encouraged him to try new things. Eventually after seeing something there on the table a few times he would decide to try it. I think he felt less pressure that way. I don't know when or why I stopped really!

Then you need to cook a nice Bolognese for those who want it and only offer a jacket potato to the ones who don't. He will soon realise he's missing out by having just a potato with baked beans. It's not fair to deprive you other child or DH and you of a nice Bolognese because you have a couple of fusspots. Also have you tried offering your younger child when fussy DD not around and he might eat it.

Yes I tried feeding the boys separately and giving them things like Bolognaise, and then giving my daughter something else after so that her food choices don't affect the others but it meant dinner time was taking so long. My daughter takes hours to eat dinner usually (unless it's pizza or hot dogs), sometimes it can take an hour for her to eat a small plate of food

Would DD eat plain chicken / plain pasta / rice etc?

Can you batch cook a load of stuff she would eat eg chicken breast and freeze and then pull out whatever goes with the side for everyone else?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chipchip_cassoulet_67875
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/one_pan_sausage_pasta_55251/amp
Sorry, I'm rubbish at click links but you might be able to keep the sausages separate from the sauce in the cassoulet and keep some pasta/sausage meat/broccoli separate pretty easily if sausage is a safe food?

Thanks, the recipe looks good

She'll eat plain chicken, plain pasta but not rice unfortunately. That's a good idea, I think I need to get a bit more organised and start batch cooking again. Since the children's Dad and I separated I've let things like that slip and I am no where near as organised as I would like to be!

Just wanted to say my DD10 is similar in terms of food aversions being very sensory. A sauce dodger too, and likes most thing's separate etc.
She likes couscous - does yours? Very quick, cheap and easy.
I'll ofren make her little beef mince koftes/meat balls (plain for her, spiced for the rest of us) with plain cous cous and some steamed plain veg like green beans.
Thankfully she loves her veg, meat & fish but just as long they're plain and simple.. but it is more work and more expensive! I feel you..!

She has never tried cous cous, I've tried to get her to eat it a few times but she has always point blank refused!

It's so tricky isn't it. My dd won't eat meat balls, she did try them a couple of times when I pitched them as being like round sausage. I tried making them from beef, lamb, turkey mince but she did not like any of them.

youre just gonna have to give them what they want to eat and take that money from another part of your budget