I give up! Please help me!

[NestaFiesta]

I have a very large repertoire of meals I can cook blind in my head. I am a creative and keen cook with loads of cook books and not afraid to try new stuff.

HOWEVER- DH can't eat onions and won't eat peppers, sweetcorn, green beans, or pasta. His ideal meal would be fishfingers beans and chips (yuk).

DS1 is 4 and won't eat anything spicy, or rice or sweetcorn, or peas, brocolli, potatoes (maybe a handful of chips or a potato waffle!) or gravy.

DS1 is 11 months and will try most things, but obviously I modify things for him a bit.

I will eat most things except peas.

The only meals we will all eat are shepherd's pie, cheesy baked spuds, pork casserole and um...that's it.

I am out of patience, on a budget and don't even talk to me where I'm going to put the 5 a day in! (I have been secretly feeding them all spinach for ages which they profess to hate). I love cooking but this is making it a chore. A shopping list is like a bloody United Nations document by teh time I have considered all ramifications and budgets,

I give up!!!! Help me!

How about

Soups
Tomato and red lentil (DIVINE)
Thai noodle soup, not too much spice
Butternut squash soup

Snacks
Dippy egg and toast
Muffins with blueberries/ raspberries
Pesto pancakes wrapped round ham
Scrambled egg and toast

Main courses
Soy sauce salmon with carrots, courgettes, beansprouts
Pad thai (doesn't have to be spicy - noodles, squeeze of lime, dash of fish sauce, prawns, crushed peanuts for the over 1s)
Turkey meatballs with couscous and home made tomato sauce
Home made pizza
Pork and pak choy stirfry with hoisin sauce (serve with rice excpet for DS1)
Pork chops with fried gnocchi (would that get past DH?)
Moussaka
Fishcakes (could you sneak some spinach and potato in?)

Any good?

Could you develop some meals where you all help yourselves? I mean like fajitas, but omit the spice or stir fry some veg separately - let everyone make their own. Otherwise what about fish pie? Roasts? Soup and pudding? Potato wedges make healthy chips.

Antichristi- You are so helpful and I love all your ideas but DH won't eat Pak Choi and
I gave up buying courgettes as I was the only one who liked them.

I do make a nice lentil and bacon soup but DH thinks soup is only a starter.

DH won't eat couscous either. Meat balls is an idea. We already make home made pizza- forgot to put that on the OP. Can 11 month olds eat pizza? I offereed to make Moussaka and DH and DS both whined they don't like aubergines. Tried DS with dippy egg and soldiers and he only ate the yolk. Scrambled egg on toast could be a goer- I already give that to the kids on madras night. Maybe I could modify that into omlettes all round.

Thatdamndog- communal eating- I like it. I used to serve tacos and may do again- could give DS2 something different that night. Fajitas may be too spicy for DS1 but something along those lines sounds good.

I forgot about fish pie- that can go back on the menu! Will try fishcakes too.

I just need seven dishes we can all eat and my shopping bill get cheaper and I will be a happy cook again!

nesta it sounds like they are really fussy eaters.

What would happen if you put your foot down and said, this is what you are having, and that's that?!

I mean, how can your DH not like pasta? Or couscous? Does he have a reason?

How about cooking a roast chicken/ leg lamb/ shoulder of pork, then they can have it roasted and leftovers for sandwiches
Fish chowder - that's definitely a meal in itself
Omelettes a great idea
Tacos as damn dog says, that's great
Corned beef hash
Plain grilled fish of some kind, with filling vegetables... swede and potato mash?

Yes AntiChristi- they drive me mad. When I was growing up we had one choice, one dinner and that was that. Some days it would be a favourite and some days not. Tough!

DH will eat pasta and couscous but his face is a picture and I end up throwing half of it away so I gave up. I hate wasting food. Your dieas are great. Even the baby can eat cirned beef hash. Its not my favouritre but I will eat anything- its the way I was brought up!

I'm disappointed as DH wasn't this fussy when we met and I ceratinly didn't raise my son to be a fussy eater but what can you do when the plates go back to kitchen half full?

I am going to draw up sevne meals from these ideas and I think my shopping bill will be halved too! Thank you!

i will continue to think of ideas for you

are rice noodles a good idea?
Woudle they eat quinoa? I kniw a great chicken and quinoa all in one pot dish...

Did you see Jamie oliver's 30 minute meal idea today, crispy skinned duck with croutons... You could do that with chicken etc

Another thing, why don't you go on holiday on your own and leave dh to cook for the kids!

further idea, have you ever tried bread salads, torn up nice bread tossed with nice ripe cut up tomatoes, cucumber, olive oil dash of red wine vinegar, i think called panzanella or fatoush in moroccco

And how about minute steaks, fried briefly, squeeze of lemon at the end, served with warmed up mashed cannlini beans from a can, some veg on side

Do butternut squash and sweet potatoes pass muster? Could you roast a tray of them and spread over some sliced halloumi toward end of cooking. Squeaky cheese!

I can understand picky kids but picky DH's?! Mine was a bit like that and I've more or less reformed him to everything by cooking what ever I like and just leaving him to it if he doesn't fancy it. Suprisingly after 2 weeks of pizzas he went from hating all veg to slowly building up quite a repotoire of stuff he will actually eat.

Can't do fussy adults!

Will your dh eat lasagne? I stretch lasagne in all sorts of directions. There's the classic lasagne al forno, then there's an Annabel Karmel one with tuna and courgette that I made a few times, then I replaced the tuna with mackerel so it was less environmentally knee-trembling, then sometimes i just do a very plain tomatoey one, then I replaced the courgettes with whatever seasonal greens were around, then sometimes I just grate cheese over the layers instead of bechamel sauce so it's quicker...

Potato wedges well worth trying as you can leave the skins on for more vitamins, and add ketchup which I count as one of the 5 a day. Actually I count homemade jam as one of them as well.

ooh Prinnie- I might try that "here's your dinner or there's the kitchen".

maktaital- I used to make lasagne and he used to like it but I just get back a rearranged plate and a face now! I will try the eat it or beat it approach.

Honestly when I think back to meals as a child, we just weren't allowed to be fussy and that was that!

Yep Nesta - it felt a bit harsh originally but it has worked!

Nesta I've been thinking more today...

Crispy duck with pancakes (hoisin sauce and cucumber too and spring onions maybe?!)

You can make a 'lasagne' using pancakes too, and Nigella's newest book has a 'Mexican lsagne' using tortillas instead of lasagne sheets

Any successes today?

Well Anti, I drew up a menu for next week. deleted my online shopping list and started again. This time I am only buying exactly what I need for the menu I wrote. Already I have saved £40 in one week. We will all be eating the same and the menu is a bit like this:

Moussaka
Fish pie
smoked fish with baked spuds and veg
Shepherd's Pie
meat loaf, mash and veg
curry (children having pasta)
pork casserole

I have also included all desserts, all of which include fruit (5 a day back on menu!).

I read the menu to DH and said it was inflexible and he was fine! Result!

And thank you so much for putting so much thought into helping.

I've come to this late but what about taking what they do like - eg baked beans - and doing a big home-made pot of them? You can make them more healthy, with hidden veg if you want, then freeze them, so if one of your suggestions doesn't go down well, or you are short of time, or one of the crucial ingredients has gone off in the fridge , you can use them as a fall back?

Also everyone here always goes on about how to get the most out of a roast chicken, but I think it's worth repeating: have some of the roast chicken with lots of veg and potatoes; take all the leftovers (including veg and potatoes) and bung them in a pie with a white sauce and some ready-rolled puff pastry on top; make stock with the bones and use it for the pie, and a risotto (doesn't look like basmati rice so maybe DS would go for it?) or soup: if you have extra veg left over from the roast and pie you could puree that and add it in, or you could do chicken noodle, maybe with leeks and mushrooms?