What's your child's absolute favourite meal?

[Janus]

My 14 month old daughter is EXTREMELY fussy on food - has been for the entire eating part of her life!!!
She has been monitored for low weight and happily she seems to be pulling herself out of the red but I think this is due to eating copious Heinz spaghetti hoops. Part of me is just happy that she's eating but I'm worried that her diet is not exactly varied or healthy!
She basically eats breakfast most days. We then use lunch as our experiment and try different pastas, meats, etc. Tea is nearly always something from Heinz, ie spag hoops or spag and sausages or baked beans. She'll also eat cheese triangles and usually yogurt.
As I'm running out of ideas for the 'experiment lunches' I thought I'd ask for your childrens favourites in the hope that it may be something she likes too.
I tried the pasta and baked bean suggestion I found on another subject but she didn't like it - literally picked out every single bean and threw pasta on the floor - AGH!!
Thanks to anyone who replies.

My daughter will always clear her plate if we have Linda McCartney Deep Filled Country Pies, mashed potato, broccoli and cauliflower. Anything else and once she's had enough she'll just throw everything onto the floor.
I'd say try not to worry about lack of variation in your daughter's diet. My brother (now 7) was really quite fussy and would basically only eat fruit and things like bread and plain rice and pasta (no sauce or meat) but it didn't last too long and now he eats anything.

Janus I am having a similar problem, mainly I think due to ds teething. I cooked a lentil and veg dish from annabel Karmels book last night and dh took it for lunch today. We all really enjoyed the rice dish she suggested from my question I posted to her last week.

Eggs! Scrambled, fried, omlette (i put little veggies in), and boiled with runny yolks otherwise she'll only eat the white!

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Ds NEVER refuses strawberries! We've not yet reached his limit (we stopped once after 14 strawberries) - and we now give him his own wee bowl with about 6 strawbs, once he's eaten his "main" course.

Main courses he goes through phases - he LOVED the swedish meat balls we gave him at the weekend at IKEA, so I may be going back and buying some for the freezer! Popeye (ie spinach & cheese) pasta (from Annabel Karmel's book), tomato chicken (onion and a can of chopped tomatoes cooked in the microwave, then add a breast of chicken, cook, then chop or blitz briefly in food processor), pieces of ham, pieces of roast chicken - anything he can handle himself.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

Cauliflower cheese - my 18mo ds can't get enough of it! I make huge batches and freeze. He also loves chicken with pasta in Chicken Tonight sauces - the Country French and Mushroom flavours. I usually add extra veg - peas, carrots, mushrooms and make a load of that to freeze too. That's about it for main meals, we are limited too. Chips of course! But other simple foods that don't take too much prep, like baked beans, fish fingers, etc. are thrown to the floor in disgust. Hopefully he will adapt soon but I am not worrying too much about it.
As for dessert, we go through loads of yogs a week and he likes the little mini tins of mixed fruit. He did love the mini pots of rice pudding that you can microwave but had gone off them now.

Thanks for the help so far. What I should have said is that she will not eat any vegetables except peas! I'm guessing everyone is now thinking 'she must eat something more than that' - no, nothing. I have tried every vegetable under the sun, some I hadn't even had before, and many times incase it was just a bad day. No luck - won't eat a potato mashed, baked, roasted, not even a chip - weird eh? As for brocolli, cauliflower, carrots, forget it, absolutely no go here.
I tried scrambled eggs with smoked trout today - I loved it, she chucked hers on the floor. Back to Heinz again tonight!
Will eat some ham, chorizo (for some reason!), smoked trout usually, so I try to make sandwiches which is very hit and miss, some days she'll eat and some she won't. She will eat the horrible sausages you get with the heinz spag. but not so keen on 'real' sausages. Will eat any type of fruit and luckily she gets quite a lot of this in a day but it's the complete lack of vegetables and not much meat I worry about.
I will try plain rice and pasta as this may be something she'd try - she likes to pick things up. Also, the little cans of tinned fruit is a good idea, especially when I've had a bad day with food and the thought of chopping just one more thing can sometimes put me over the edge.
Sometimes wonder how I stay sane.
Thanks again everyone.

Fruit, fruit and more fruit! My son would quite happily eat it all day if he could but unfortunately if he eats too much fruit he gets a very sore bum from too much pooing!!

When we were on holiday last week in Cornwall we went blackberry picking and I swear he must have eaten about 1lb of them.

Jack eats cucumber sandwiches mainly this month and then he has the dried spaghetti that you have to boil, with Passata the next day. It's Italian sieved tomatoes with no salt or sugar added. And that's it!

At least it's some sort of fruit though. (technically cucumber and tomatoes are fruit!) Can't do much regarding veg though, not at the moment. He could be through another phase next week though.

I know what you mean! I knew someone from the US once who still thought all Brits eat crumpets and tea on Sundays!!

I hope to hell he doesn't end up liking cricket! I can't stand it. His great grandad used to love it though, in the days when it was on during the day on BBC1.

Blimey, I don't feel so bad after all!
I haven't tried Passata for Lottie, I used to use it in pasta dishes myself but will try it added to dried spaghetti to see if she likes too.
How do you find something new each week that they happen to hit on? I bought M&S mini frankfurters yesterday and nearly fell through the floor when she shoved them in whole. I feel such a sense of relief when I find something else she likes but 99 times out of 100 she hates whatever new I put in front of her so sometimes you just feel like giving up trying. She used to love cucumber but now hates it, why do they go off food? Also, how do you ever relax when you go away because you know it's going to be a nightmare to find some food for them to eat - I just pray that wherever we're going has a fridge so I can do a mini food shop for her but it can be days where she hardly eats.
No-one told me it would be this hard work!!!
I keep thinking that if I had given her jar food from the start (which I really tried to avoid) she'd now be eating better, I will definitely feel more relaxed about giving it to the next, if I'm ever ready for 'the next'!!
Thanks though, doesn't make me feel nearly so sorry for myself!

Janus - You seem to have a daughter in the same mould as mine. DD is now 23 mths, and things have improved a little - she eats more variety now, but getting it in is still a struggle.

You will, I am sure, have seen the looks of 'but she must be eating something', and 'I don't really believe you' when you try to recount your fears re the amount and/or variety of food that she will eat. I kept a food chart when my dd was under the paediatrician, and often it contained 1/2 fish finger, 1 chicken O etc (that's per day I hasten to add!) I too thought that perhaps I did the wrong thing in not giving jars.

I can only say to cheer you that they really can survive on very little, and don't succumb to letting her eat rubbish just so that something goes in. My HV suggested puddings to fatten her up! Or was that so she got up the centiles and didn't become such a worry?

I got through by continually trying different things - not at every mealtime, but every couple of days. I know that my dd became very suspicious of food in general, even when it was familiar.

I don't have any brilliant food tips to offer, except that I bought an ice-cream maker. Dd will eat ice cream, and when I make a fruit ice-cream with a custard base (fruit, eggs and cream, very little sugar if any), I know she's eating something good for her.

Also, after discovering that she would eat cheese on toast, she now gets cheese mixed with poached salmon, or tuna, or ham, and/or mushrooms, peppers, onions etc (soften in frying pan or microwave first), and mix with a little mayo. I basically have become the master of disguising food.

Sorry to go on, but I really know what you are going through. I just hope that your dd improves with age. Good luck!

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Well things seem to be improving a little. M&S have just started (I think) a healthy childrens meals range, so I bought their pasta with hidden vegetables sauce! Miracle happened yesterday - she actually ate at least half. It may sound extravagant but it's 99p which I didn't think was too bad, so will be buying in bulk!!!
Her dietician also recommended I give her chocolate, chocolate biscuits, wotsit crisps, everything with cream, etc. My gut feeling was if I started her on all this she'd never ever eat a vegetable so I only introduced a small amount, ie a corner of my chocolate biscuit. I too think this was just to boost her weight and get her up the centiles as I can't think this is going to get her to eat any more, especially anything healthy.
I will try and get some scotch eggs as I have a feeling she may like these and I hadn't thought about this before, so thanks.
Good to know I'm not the only one with a limited diet child!! Thanks for your comments.

Following on from what Robinw said about mild curry, have you tried a veggie korma? My daughter loves it, especially big chunks of pineapple and cauliflower with rice and naan bread.

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