Fairly easy recipes that your toddlers love? (No fish fingers!!!!)

[Chocolateporridge]

I love trying new foods and new recipes and there is absolutely nothing I wont eat but unfortunately my dd has inherited her daddy's picky eater genes. I make little double potato pies (thanks River Cottage) and I have a standard pasta sauce that I make which I can hide veg in, but other than that I really struggle to find something that's not fish fingers, that wont get chucked on the floor. I know I'm not on my own in this and I was wondering what foods you've found that toddlers love?

My DS is really fussy too, but he'll sometimes eat rice, cous cous or quinoa-based dishes as an alternative to pasta.

Beef stew and dumplings always gets gobbled up too!

jacket potato with cheese and beans/tuna and sweetcorn in mayo
dd really likes dipping things so we do cucumber batons, carrot sticks, red pepper sticks etc in a variety of sauces (mayo with a slug of tomato ketchup is a winner at the moment, or houmous/philly)
Both my dcs love corn on the cob dripping in butter. Cut them in to smaller pieces for them to gnaw on.
dd loves soups of all kinds, I usually cut up chunks of bread and put them in the soup to make it thicker (and easier for her to eat) and add lots of grated cheese.

Is it particularly vegetables you're trying to get in to your dd? I've had quite a bit of success with pizzas, esp if you get them to make them with you and spread their own toppings. You can add lots of different vegetables on them. I've also made little corn fritters which ds loves. Basically anything that's either breadcrumbed or fried is popular :o (that's how I got the fussiest child on earth to eat my homemade fishcakes with creme fraiche and chives :o)

Homemade soups go down well with my two (age 4 and 2). I also second corn on the cob!

Other ideas:
Macaroni cheese with peas and sweetcorn stirred in
Stir fry (used to be a massive hit but the 4yo has now decided she doesn't like it)
Risotto
Lentil cottage pie
Spag bol
Omelette

Homemade soups go down well with my two (age 4 and 2). I also second corn on the cob!

Other ideas:
Macaroni cheese with peas and sweetcorn stirred in
Stir fry (used to be a massive hit but the 4yo has now decided she doesn't like it)
Risotto
Lentil cottage pie
Spag bol
Omelette

oh yes, I forgot stir frys and another one is egg fried rice. DD loves it, I add peas, spring onions, red peppers, chopped omelette, chopped ham or chicken. If you can find it Indonesian soy sauce (also called Kecap Manis) is brilliant because it's quite sweet and a teeny bit adds a really nice sweet savoury flavour that my kids have loved.

risotto
broccoli and potato mash with sweetcorn
rice salad with natural yoghurt and veg
spag bol

DS isn't a toddler now, he's 4, but his favourite quick'n'easy foods are:
tuna pasta: cook pasta, include some frozen veg (peas, sweetcorn, mixed veg) for the last few minutes, drain, add tin tuna and spoonful of mayonnaise (or tartare sauce) - stir, done.
pasta cheese with broccoli and cauliflower: cook pasta, steam tiny florets of broccoli and cauliflower over the pasta as it cooks. make simple cheese sauce in another pan (Butter, small amount of flour, cook for a couple of minutes, add milk and stir well to get right consistency (might need to whisk to get rid of lumps) then add cheese to taste). Combine it all.

For a while there DS was going through a "I don't like onions or mushrooms or red peppers" phase, ingredients we use a LOT - but I have one of these now, which chops them up so fine he can't find them in food so eats them without realising. It's a hand version of a food processor, but is so quick to use!

Oh thanks so much to all of you! We did baby led weaning and she ate everything we gave her but when she got to about a year she started to get really fussy. She won't put meat near her lips unless I blend Bolognese really smooth and stir it thru pasta. She'll eat green beans and loves corn on the cob but no other veg. She won't touch jacket potatoes or soup or anything mushy like cottage pie, and hates to touch rice and cous cous. She's 19 months old, am I expecting too much? It's so frustrating!

It sounds like she's put off of the texture of rice etc... Ds didn't eat actual meat for two years, I have to blend everything and serve it in one kind of pasta sauce. It sounds like your dd is entering that delightful phase known as fussy eating toddler stage. It's bloody frustrating but don't fight it too much. They usually start to grow out if it around 4-5.

Ds was insanely fussy and just now he's started to be more adventurous.

Will your dd try potato wedges instead of jacket potatoes? They're also good for dipping in things.

what about home made fish fingers I know they are still fish fingers but at least you know what's in them

my two like them best when I use smashed up cornflkes as the coating rather than breadcrumbs, then you can just bake them rather than fry

sounds a bit odd but they are delish thank you Australian Woman's weekly

Thanks for giving me hope headfairy! I'll try the wedges. And thanks workshy, I've made them before and she seemed to prefer shop ones but she loves cornflakes so ill try that instead next time.

Baked potatoes
Home made chicken dippers or home made fish fingers (just breast meat or whatever fish fillet you like, cut into chunks, tossed in flour, egg and crushed cornflakes) baked in oven.
Corn on the cob
Chicken drumsticks with honey and soy sauce with plain rice
Spaghetti with chopped up bits of salami
Nibbly bits (party plate with dippy bit in middle, with things like bread sticks, mini savoury eggs, chopped veg, cherry tomatoes, pitta bread etc around the edge and something like cream cheese, hummus, tzatziki or just ketchup in the middle)
Scrambled eggs or omelette/frittata
Tuna pasta
Scone based pizza
Meatballs and rice or spaghetti
Sweetcorn fritters
Pikelets with butter and jam or syrup!
Dippy eggs and soldiers
Soup
Cubes of cheese, apple and raisins
Toasted fruit bread
Chips!

I would say that you need your OH to get on board with this and start eating 'properly', not making a fuss or saying eating vegetables (or whatever) is yucky as it's not going to help. Don't pander to your LO's food fads. Just cook whatever you want and serve it up, don't worry if she picks, pokes, leaves it, cries etc. Do you spoon feed her or does she feed herself? If you don't think she's eaten much at the end of the meal, a yoghurt or small banana will fill the gap.

My eldest son was the fussiest child on earth and caused me no end of grief. He is loads better now at six years old, but we still have days when he is an awkward sod and turns up his nose at stuff.

pasta, pesto, pancetta/bacon lardons, cheese. some brocolli on the side.

I make different types of fishcake for my fishfinger- loving fusspot child. Salmon, tuna and smoked haddock onesgodown well and you can make up with a mix of mash, usinf potatoes but also sweet potato, mashed carrot/ parsnip/squash etc.

I've got no great ideas but I am bookmarking my place on this thread since my eat-everything-under-the-sun toddler now exists only on toast, rice and bananas.

Pancakes. My 20 mo loves them. I always add shredded cooked spinach to the batter before cooking and add different filling before rolling and cutting in yo small wheels for him to eat himself. Ham and cheese is his favourite, but sweet corn, tuna, broccoli, l/o roasted squash have all been tried too. You can stick virtually anything in a savoury pancake!