To cook from scratch or not to cook from scratch - that is the question

[handlemecarefully]

I cook from scratch 90% of the time - largely because I want my children to eat well and don't want to rely on processed food. I vary the menu quite substantially too using recipe books extensively.

But I wonder why I frigging bother! Dd is 3.4 and DS 19 months. They eat okay - i.e. sufficient range of vegetables, fruit, fibre and protein but from a very limited pick list. Pasta is rejected, my chicken casserole with dumplings from last week was spurned, so was boeuf bourginone (sp?) etc - sometimes even cottage pie gets the cold shoulder. It's really demoralising.

What would you do - just offer them the limited menu options that they will eat repeatedly, which are:

*fishfingers, jacket wedges and french beans
*home made chicken nuggets, home made over chips and broccoli
*home made pizza, new potatoes, carrots and peas
*mixed vegetable frittata and baked beans
*fish pie + veggies
*roast with all the trimmings

• and that is it? so they would get 6 different options repeated cyclically every week. Should I just throw in the towel and do this? - it would make my life easier..however equally I am worried that they will get bored with these and stop eating them too if they are endlessly repeated.

Oh, what to do!

(I don't enjoy cooking from scratch btw, I am prepared to do it and do infact do it, but it's completely disheartening when it is not appreciated and fed to our chickens)

my advice would be to keep at it - and to eat with them as much as possible. My dds - now 3 and 5 have always been ok about food but have variously rejected certain home-made stuff, but it hasn't stopped me producing it - and in the last 6 months they just seem to have made a real leap - they've developed a passion for fish (arguing over whether sea bass or mackerel or salmon is best and demand (and devour) home cooked shepherd's pie. It's really satisying. I think if you give up now you might find it a slippery slope that you won't be able to crawl back up. That's not to say mine don't have fishfingers and (home-made) potato wedges - just that if you keep producing other stuff I think eventually they'll crack!

as the others have said - I think what they are eating is very good - and what you said about a compromise introducing a few new things - is a good idea (did my usual trick of reading first post, posting, then going back to read everything properly)

Sorry about that elliott - quoting back is laziness on my part, it saves me paraphrasing you!

Thanks hatstand - I do that with threads too!

oh they are quite young

their diet sounds fine - in fact it sounds spookily similar to the dds.

I second cods reco of good sausages and meatballs in tom sauce - also 'easy' to make from scratch.

and i really believe it 100% is worth making those foods from scratch. With my chicken nuggets I know that even if they only eat three they have had a good dollop of good quality chicken, a bit of cheese and bread. With shop bought ones they would have had fillers and more fillers - leading to them getting hungry quicker.

re new foods: there are weeks when they are happy to try them (actually dd2 is very unfaddy and will try anything so its really dd1 i am talking about (the human beanpole)). If i feel like it and feel chilled I will make them, if knackered not.

Also if its freezable you could make double and then whip half of it out of the freezer a couple of weeks later.

hmc keep doing what you do. The food you are offering looks good (and I think that limited menu looks varied and good). Small children constantly reject food, strangely they never starve. One day they will surprise you and eat stuff they have never liked before. It happens.

and on that day Marslady I will momentarily be the happiest woman alive

I remember the first day DS1 asked for mushrooms..... I tell you trumpets were playing, flags waving, dancers dancing.... fireworks, party streamers the works! lol

Home cooked food for children cuts the risk of heart disease in later life
Source: Daily Telegraph
Date: 15/11/2005
The newspapers today report on a study by the Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation, and reported at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions, which has found that children who have more home cooked meals are at lower risk of heart disease than those who frequently eat out. The study was led by Dr Karen Olson, and involved a group of 621 American pupils aged from seven to 17. 20% of the group said they ate out four times a week or more, and when compared to the rest of the group they were found to have higher blood pressure and lower insulin sensitivity, a risk factor for type-2 diabetes. They also had smaller low-density lipo-protein particle size, associated with a build up of artery-clogging plaque. Ellen Mason of the British Heart Foundation said of the study: "This appears to confirm our worst fears that our ever deepening love affair with convenience is causing major health problems for today's children, which could result in heart disease in later life".

Mushrooms? - in my dreams.....

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Is there a meetup next Wednesday ? - have missed that...

I work Mondays to Wednesdays currently (quitting by Christmas to join SAHM-dom)

I'll look out for that cookbook. Sounds child friendly.

Oh, found it now - the Bournemouth / Poole one in the evening.

...ummm...doubt it.

What about you? - not your thang is it?

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hmc: if you possible can it's worth trying to eat all together (or at least reheat your portion after the kids have gone to bed). I cook from scratch about 80% of the time, and I find I get much less stressed out about what the kids are eating because dh and I are having what we like and the kids are just joining us - if I end up throwing it away, it doesn't feel like such a massive waste.

We do have their favourites now and then too, but not every day. Frankly I'd get bored if I only had variations on 6 meals every single week! For menu planning/shopping purposes we have a 5 week rotating menu, so they do get things regularly enough to learn to like them. Or that's the plan anyway

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Oh definitely Cod - another time (working still). I finish on 21st December though, until then Thursdays and Fridays are none working days, so let me know when you're next free..

I agree in principle GeorginaA about eating together. I often eat with them, but different things. It's a little more complicated currently because I am on a (successful) Slimming World diet and it wouldn't work to present them with the same grub that I am eating (it's a bit limited - not putting protein with carb etc)

Ah yes, that does complicate matters, hmc Sounds like a good compromise you've come up with then - especially if you can bulk freeze in advance to reduce the workload.

Yes - must bulk cook and freeze.

That would be good Cod - just give me a shout nearer the time. Thanks for the link btw, I like the write up on the book....will order.

I have some recipes from that book which were in the MOS, chicken nuggets go down well, and the pork meatball things were ok. Good tomato sauce.

(I want a meet up )

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Hop on the train / in the car then Oliveoil. Where are you?