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.

Agree with LooLOO0. Easy cheesy peas, as we call it, is great: mashed potato with grated cheese and peas mixed in. Serve with fishfingers.

I give DS French toast for breakfast too: soak pieces of bread in beaten egg with a dash of milk then fry a few minutes each side. He will eat it plain but gets a little bit of honey as a treat sometimes.

He also loves peanut butter sandwiches, carrot pieces and humus. Actually, any lightly cooked veg with humus. DS loves the control of being able to dip the veg in himself.

Rice mixed with tuna, sweetcorn and other vegetables is also easy.

You may be surprised what your DD will eat- my nieces were both eating salami and olives (in very small amounts, due to saltiness) by that age. Try everything and see what's popular.

Kids in the kitchen by Sara Lewis is a very good book with simple basic recipies for the whole family.

cheap as chips better than toast is a great book with some very easy to follow recipies.

Jamies ministry of food is a very good book for basic recipies.

Delia's compleate cookery course is also a great book for the understanding of basics.

Just marking my place if that's okay You lot are so lovely and supportive! I'm sure OP will come on leaps and bounds with your help.

DD is approaching 10 months, this advice will be invaluable shortly!

Sorry I can't be more helpful to the OP, your advice seems faultless to me though!

One easy thing that makes you feel like Nigella is Veg soup.
Fry an onion in a little butter til soft.
Chop up a potato and carrot and whatever other veg you have, some red lentils if you have some, and simmer with a baby stock cube til the lentils are disappeared/ veg is very soft. Blitz with a stick blender.
I sometimes put a pinch of curry powder in as well.
Lovely with bread dunked into it and healthy from all the vegetables.

I would recommend Nigella Lawson's How To Eat for a very sensible section on what to feed babies and small children, and as a good basic "bible" of how to manage cookery in general. But try and borrow it from the library or a friend before you actually spend money on it because:
a) it may assume more cooking knowledge than you possess
b) you may find her tone of voice makes you want to throw up - I love her, but she's a bit Marmite-y.

What do you like to eat?

It is stressful cooking for kids, since they can sometimes reject things for no reason. much less frustrating if you,re at least getting a tasty meal for yourself out of it!

I,m anyone slow cooker fan, since the timings are much more relaxed. I,ve burnt many a fish finger when distracted with a child, butba slow cooker dish will just sit there until you,re ready to eat it. when my kids were in the ' into everything' phase, I used to set my alarm half an hour early to fill it. easier to concentrate without Little helpers and I,d start the day with the smugness of knowing I had a home cooked meal sorted. It takes a few goes to get used to it, but very very practical.

You said meat and two veg. Put chicken in the slow cooker for, mmm, I,d guess about six hours. ( check with a proper recipe here...) with garlic and bay leaf. Voilà. Serve with frozen peas nuked in microwave. Next day you can use cold meat for a salad.

Delia Smith does a fabulous all in one white sauce recipe, dead easy even for an idiot like me. In fact I would recommend her Complete Cookery Course because it gives you the basics of everything, then you can adapt things you learn from there. www.amazon.co.uk/Delias-Complete-Cookery-Course-Classic/dp/0563362499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281107763&sr=1-1.

She taught me how to scramble eggs (yeah that's how clueless I was) and I now make a mean fish pie too. Her instructions are very easy to follow and the book goes by ingredients/types of food so it is very simply laid out. It is my bible.

It's amazing how many things you can cook with just a few basic recipes. Good luck and have fun.

Hi,

I am a pretty competent cook but must admit that I found the annabel karmel book pretty hard - all that fussiness about skinning tomatoes etc. I used the Lorraine Kelly one which was fab and very, very simple.

Agree with loads of the suggestions above. Would also include hummus. DD loves it when I give her a litte egg cup of hummus or philadelphia and some pitta bread or toast fingers, raw carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, breadsticks etc. Also little pieces of cheese, ham etc. Quite often she would quite happily work her way through this 'buffet' even if she didnt want a proper meal of pasta etc.

Also what I find is that some days she only wanted stodge - weetabix, pasta, bread and butter then another day it was fruit, then another day it would be chicken and ham etc. So her diet wasn't balanced on a day to day basis but over the course of the week it all evened out. Also she had hungry days and days where she just picked. You sound like you're doing a really good job, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Hi

Sorry I've been a bit absent. I'm bowled over with all your help and suggestions and seriously feeling a LOT happier and slightly excited about giving some of the things a go. I think I've been getting really hung up about having to cook 'proper' stuff like they do at my babe's nursery. If a few nibbles and cheese etc is a meal then this is great!!! She's got more fussy as she's started to walk (18 months so bit late but hey)but I'm going to try not to worry about it. Thanks so much again.