I can't cook and have no confidence to feed my 18 month old

[bepi01]

This is my first Mumsnet Talk; I'm in awe at the mums out there that cook for their babes and I want to do the same. I really hate cooking and lack confidence and the few times I tried recipies from books my babe wouldn't eat it. She's in nursery 4 days a week and I get really worked up about what I feed her for the other three - readymade's, baked beans, toast, wheetabix, yoghurt, scrambled egg - in fact anything that is out of a tin/packet. Does anyone have an idea of a good basic, quick, any idiot could cook it lunch I could try her with to start with? Also, how do you get your babes to eat fruit or veg finger food?!!! I really want her to enjoy food but I'm afraid she'll just end up being offered exactly the same stuff from me all the time and I really feel I'm failing her badly.

try getting the annabel karmell cook book

or even one of the usbourne kids recipie books (they do loads)
the instructions are fool proof... (as they are designed for 4+ ish year olds) (not being patronising... i LOVE cooking but some of my favourite recipies are usbourne ones

ok well firstly calm down!
your baby will be fine, even if you do only feed her packet food for the time being.

i think it';s great you want to learn more and improve your cooking skills for your child, and you certainly aren't failing her!

i'd def second the recommendation of kiddy cook books as they usually contain easy "beginner" recipes which will get you going

how old is your little girl? it's fairly normal for them to be dismissive of a lot of new foods, but keep offering and she'll probably accept them.
I think the key to good eating is staying calm at the table, no pressure to eat, letting the child take their own time, and re-offering foods (at a different time) even if they've been rejected before

as for fruit and finger foods... just give it to her and let her explore it and try it. she may not eat much, she may gobble it right up, just let her take the lead

Ok first off there's nothing wrong at all with basic food, so don't feel you have to turn into Delia Smith overnight! EG scrambled egg on toast is a great nutritious meal. Here are a couple of ideas that are dead simple and not out of a packet:

Cheese sauce: Melt a bit of butter, add a bit of flour to make a paste, whisk in milk and stir til it thickens then stir in grated cheese. This can be frozen in batches and reheated to have with pasta, cauliflower or anything really.

Tomato sauce: fry onions and bit of garlic, add tin chopped tomatoes, simmer for a bit, whizz up in blender. Have with pasta or rice or meat or whatever.

Muffin pizza: Split a muffin, spread with tom puree, add grated cheese, stick under grill. (You can add tuna/sweetcorn/peas/any other topping your baby is amenable to!)

Start basic, build up your confidence bit by bit. You don't have to be a gourmet cook, just basic healthy food is fine.

Wow, that was quick - thanks! My babe is 18 months. I like the advice on kiddy cook books as that should help me tackle the basics without freaking. I've tried annabel karmel and just didn't get on. Think I'm a 'meat and 2 veg' recipie girl. Do you give the fruit and veg cooked or raw? Are any a winner?

Even if you can't actually cook you can still prepare healthy food for you DC while you learn. For example me and my dd, also 18months, made a healthy wrap for her tea together tonight.

We spread a tortilla with cream cheese, put chopped up veg inside including tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, etc. We sprinkled it with grated cheese and then chopped it up. She loved helping me make it.

Scrambled eggs are healthy too, I sometimes give her porridge for tea with chopped fruit in if there is nothing in and she has had her "tea" at nursery.

Hiding vegetables in omelettes is another way to get them to eat more veg.

Good luck. My friend taught herself to cook using a student cookbook so that's another idea too.

what does she eat at nursery. ask them. bet she eats everything. give her those things. why can't you cook. bet you can.
tell us what you eat/cook and we'll go from there.

Fruit: chopped banana, satsumas, pear, apple, grapes (remember to chop them in half) always a winner.

Veg: all babies seem to love peas and sweetcorn. My 15mo also loves raw carrot and cucumber, and steamed butternut squash and sweet potatoes.

I give raw and cooked. Depends what I have got in, how much time.

I often batch cook veg - just chuck brocolli, carrots etc into a steamer and freeze in portions and take out daily.

Can you roast a chicken? That is so easy and again, I freeze portions of chicken after I have done a family roast so she has quick teas onhand with a bit of gravy. Yummy.

And welcome to mumsnet by the way!

Don't beat yourself up about it, if no-one ever encouraged you or taught you to cook you won't know how to do it!

I strongly recommend these books - Delia's How to Cook and Grub on a Grant.

The second one is aimed at students but is fab for someone who really hasn't cooked before - it tells you how to make spag bol, shepherd's pie, even jacket potatoes!

It's a good idea to get the hang of some basic meals for your daughter, ready prepared stuff has an awful lot of salt and sugar and artificial ingredients. What kitchen equipment do you have - cooker, microwave, pots and pans? And how old is your daughter?

Some ideas (may need modifying if she's under one):

Breakfast - weetabix, toast, scrambled egg, porridge, cheerios, rice krispies, cornflakes, waffles, scotch pancakes, yoghurt, fruit

Lunch - sandwiches with cheese, ham, peanut butter, tuna, salmon, egg mayo, marmite, omelettes, jacket potatoes with cheese, beans, tuna, butter, soup with bread, noodles

Dinner - spag bol, sheps pie, fish pie, jacket potatoes, omelette, fish fingers, mashed potato, fishcakes, sausages, pasta,

Re fruit and veg the best thing I find is to offer it regularly and also as a snack, and don't be afraid to try and offer new things. My girls love bananas, apples, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, mango, pineapple, kiwi fruit, satsumas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, runner beans, cabbage, sweetcorn, baby corn and mange tout. Funnily enough they're not too keen on peas!

Awww. I know we're not allowed to say her name on here but the Gina Ford "Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning" has loads of great, great, easy-peasy recipes.

www.babyledweaning.com a great source of ideas for easy finger food btw...

Took so long to write I x-posted, have seen now that she's 18 months

I learned to cook from threads on MN!!! You're in very capable hands

I agree with the others, get a basic kiddy cook book & start with something simple from in there!

There's a book shop in town called The Works, they have quite a selection in there & always cheap.

My oldest dd's always liked banana's. I just gave her a whole one one day when she was about 9mo to see what she'd do with it & she chomped the lot with a bit of encouragement. Carrotts go down well here as well, steamed or boiled until they're soft. Bangers & mash is simple, few veggies on the side to try & you're off!

Cauliflower cheese, using the cheese sauce as posted above, I steam the cauli til it's soft & then top with the sauce, bit of cheese on there & in oven for 20 mins or so to melt the cheese.

She might enjoy something she can put together, although messy, this was always a good way to get our oldest to try something. I'll root out my book I write everything down in in the morning & post you some stuff that goes down well here

Hey hey hey don't panic! Seriously, there is no need to get stressed about this at all until your child is old enough to write food reviews. Meg's recipes above are great to start with.

Could you tell us, what has DC had over the past week? I bet if you write it down you'll find that it is perfectly nutricious and that you're worrying about nothing. As a guide, they need 1or2xprotein, 3xcarbs, 3xfruit/veg at least a day.

Shortcuts are fine, you really don't have to prepare food from scratch every meal. And don't be put off if she doesn't like something, if you serve it again another day more often than not she will.

What have you got in your cupboards? I often find that I don't end up cooking anything at all at least for one meal, as I can give bits of salad/veg, rice cakes/bread/breadsticks and cheese or meat on a plate, which only takes a bit of cutting, and she is happier with this than a fully cooked meal.

Don't let it stress you out, seriously.

Sounds like you are feeding her well, and the fact that you are concerned about her diet is a good sign. My most important kitchen gadget at this stage was a stab mixer. I used to grab a portion of what we had (it inspired me to cook good food for us too, which we needed, to be fit for this busy stage of life), puree it and give it for his next meal.

Have fun!

fruit is fine raw. you can give her a whole pear/apple etc or segmented satsuma and she ought to be fine

i would cook veg.
she ought to be able to manage basically what you are having, but cut up a bit at her age tbh

let her have access to a small portion of it to eat by herself, even if you spoon-feed the rest of it

Oh, and frozen veg is a must here. It's frozen when it's really fresh so still very good, and you don't need to buy a million different vegetables and throw half away every week.

Yes, what do you eat? DD (13 months) almost exclusively eats what I cook for myself and DH now (I just don't add salt, or at least not much, then cut it smaller).

The usbourne book on weaning & toddler foods is fab. Can't find it on Amazon strangely but there are loads of others here.

Our local children's centre does cooking courses for parents. See if there's one on near you, it's free and they teach you a few basic recipes and about nutrition etc.

I would recommend mastering a couple of things that can be used for various meals and made in big batches and frozen so dinner is as little faff as possible. For example, we cook a big batch of mince on our days off then have spag bol one night, cottage pie the next, etc. etc.

There is nothing wrong with simple food- a piece of cheese with some tomato and cucumber slices is a decent lunch for example. The main thing is that all food groups are covered and you offer a variety of foods (most of which will probably be rejected given her age but don't lose heart!)

Good luck

You might find your dd will be more adventurous than you give her credit for, and will go for surprisingly strong flavours - a mild curry for example (I have a good basic lentil one from mn which uses curry paste and is really easy). Once you have got to grips with a few basics - tomato sauce, mild curry, bolognese, you can chuck anything you like into them to make a change.

It's honestly just a case of making one dish a handful of times and you will feel so much more confident. We've all had to start somewhere

Also it might be worth looking here for some inspiration. He set this up for people with little cooking experience. I often look there for ideas.

Hello,

Have you registered with sure start at all? We did a little cooking course with them. Over 4 weeks we did pizzas which gave us loooooads of ideas. Muffin pizzas now a favourite as above: DD likes to spread on tom sauce, cheese and them what ever is in the fridge. You can but them into fingers when they're cooked (10 mins in the oven). Also did basic scones to add fruit, cheese or veg too, then soup and cake.

But as above, don';t stress or feel guilty. Maybe aim to 'cook' something once a week? Maybe at the weekend or a time when you have a little more time.

What about expanding what you already do first? For example

Baked beans - add some little pieces of ham or cheese, cut up a carrot really small and let it cook in the baked beans while you heat them up, nice with small pieces of potato too.

Eggs - our dd likes a fried egg, dipping toast, carrots (cut like chips and boil for about 5 mins) etc into the yolk then chop up th rest to eat with fingers. Add ham, cheese, bacon... to scrambled egg?

Toast - have you considered buying some toaster pockets/bags (can find the for a pound in soe pound shops) They are a little toast sized packet made of stuff htat you can cook in. You can make any sandwich you can think of, pop in the pocket then cook in the toaster like you would some toast. Then chop up for your little one.

May I recomend pasta. If you follow the instructions on pack they will work. Add can of tomatos...... job done!!!! Or expand by putting cheese on top of the pasta, add can of tuna, add teeny veg to pasta while it cooks......

Maybe if you had an idea we could help you? Do you wok those 4 days? Man I bet you're knackered!!!! I work part time. I am in awe of you!!!!

If you want to introduce her to more fruit, try those pre-prepared fruit salad things. All cut up and ready to go, so you can't get easier! And it's more cost-effective than making your own fruit salad if you only want a couple of toddler-sized portions. You can also work out what her favourites are without spending a load of money.

I make my own ice lollies for DS. Blend up some fruit, pour into ice lolly molds and freeze. Really, really easy and DS loves them. Any soft fruit works really well - peaches/apricots, berries etc.

Get your daughter involved in cooking. Even if it's only putting toppings on a pizza or helping to make a sandwich. I've found that DS is much more likely to try something new if he's "helped" me make it.

Two suggestions that my dc ate at 18months:

fish fingers, mashed potatos and peas.

(peel cut up and boil the potato ( one per child) boil peas for 3 mins. Do fish fingers(2 or 3 per child) under grill or in oven. Mash the spuds with a fork and add a bit of butter. Cut the fish fingers up for her and let her use her fingers to eat if she wants to)

pasta with ham cheese and peas

(boil the pasta (a handful per child)for 10 to 15 mins. drain the water. Cook the peas. put on a plate with some bits of ham and bits of cheese. )

Or start with some simple things like just mashed potato with grated cheese if you've never made mash before.