vegetarian mum with picky child. want easy meat recipes

[yehudiwho]

I am a veggie but stuck in a rut with picky ds 8. I cook some 'easy' meat like burgers and. Chicken nuggets. What else can I tempt him with?

Bump

Spaghetti Bol?

Meatballs and pasta, or with mash and gravy?

Chicken escalope?

Sausages, or any meat that can be grilled - pork chops, lamb chops etc?

How about fish, does he eat that, or prawns?

Just curious- but why are you giving your child meat if you're vegetarian?

(I ask because I am too, so have this to look forward to, potentially..!)

Cut up a chicken breast (can use scissors for speed, or chop with a knife) and fry it in a little butter or oil in a small saucepan until sealed on the outside - if you keep the pieces small, like no more than 1-2cm thick, then it won't take much further cooking to cook through. Add some chopped onion and garlic and keep stirring/cooking until soft. Then you can add some chopped red pepper if your DC likes this, add tinned tomatoes and simmer on a low heat while you cook some pasta. Drain the pasta and combine, DS loves this.

Don't know if that's "easy" enough or not because it does involve handling the raw meat.

Another thing you can do is a "cheat" roast dinner, stick a chicken breast in a small roasting/baking tray, dot with butter, salt and pepper,garlic, herbs, lemon juice - whatever flavours appeal (or leave it plain, but you'll need some kind of fat or liquid to keep it moist), cover with foil and cook for about half an hour in a medium-hot oven. You can also make roast potatoes or wedges, stuffing from a packet, yorkshire puddings (any combination of these!) and cook some veg to go with.

Bertie that's exactly the kind of recipe thanks. Its just been so long since I cooked meat that I an nervous about checking or knowing when its cooked
ghastly, he's so picky I just want to give him the widest choice. My choices aren't his and he appears to like some meat.

you can get bags to cook meat in so it is very tender - you cook in the oven on a lowish heat for a longer time. You could put in a lamb chop or a pork chop and bag will retain the moisture - with picky children they may well prefer the tender juicey meat than meat that has gone dry form slightly over cooking to make sure it is cooked IYSWIM. You find the bags with the tin foil and cling wrap in the supermarket.

Would he eat a little fish? thinking kegree - something you could make and then add a little smoked haddock or smoked salmon in at the end for your dc. and you eat the none fish portion

A fun idea is to take a hot dog, and turn it into an octopus. These instructions are assuming you start with the hot dog horizontal (--) You just take the hot dog, cut in half vertically, so you have two small hot dogs(- -), then on the cut end make several horizontal cuts. Place in boiling water until heated all the way through. There you have it! I hope these instructions are easy to follow, lol. It's an easy way to make meat a little more fun.

We all like kebabs - in fact, we're having them tonight. Cut a chicken breast into chunks, toss in olive oil and lemon juice, and thread onto a skewer with some squares of red pepper and onion. Season and grill until cooked.

I am veggie but give the DC meat as DS1 is allergic to eggs and pulses, and quite fussy too. They love spaghetti and meatballs (Sains/Tesco Swedish meatballs, in a homemade tomato sauce), sausages, fish cakes/fingers, kind of thing. I can't bear touching raw chicken but Tesco do bags of frozen chicken breast strips which can go straight into the wok for a stir fry.

As it is summer why not make up a tuna pasta salad and keep in the fridge?

Just boil and cool pasta under cold water. Drain dry. Then add a tin of tuna, c
Couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise, sweetcorn and mix. You can also add cooked peas, or some raw chopped peppers, onions, celery etc to taste.

My DS absolutely wolfs this down.

I'm the same!
Tonight my DS1 (6) and DS2 (16 months) had meatballs, pasta and tomato sauce... (I had frozen veggie meatballs) I bought ready made ready cooked meatballs from Sainsburys... just 15 mins in oven. And organic!

I've got a George Foreman small grill for chicken fillets and chops and things. Serve with veg/rice/pasta. My boys both love savoury rice or noodles... DS2 is a major tofu fan though! Can't bear the smell of sausages etc so they tend to have veggie sausages and veggie mince, don't think they care or notice to be honest...

I buy the meat in the 'ready to roast' metal containers too, my boys love the roast chicken and the gammon with the honey glaze. Chicken leftovers could be a chicken caesar salad or just cold chicken wraps and sandwiches. Or even make a veg casserole for yourself and pop the chicken bits in for him! The gammon is great cold in rolls the next day with some ketchup too.

Cheesy pasta with peas and ham? Very popular in my house... I just snip the ham into theirs when I've taken my portion out. Broccoli/peppers/mushrooms are nice in this too.

Sausages - either with chips or in a caserole.

Ham sandwiches.

Anything you do with tofu (virtually) can be done with chicken.

pies and pasties.

Shepherd's pie.

To check if chicken is cooked - put a meatal skewer in - the juices should be clear and the skewer should be hot.

For steak - pinch your thumb and first finger together then with the other feel the fleshy part of your thumb, the bit that is palm when your hand is open- that's how rare steak feels. Add your middle finger and you have medium and add your ring finger for well done.

thanks everyone will try some of these- adding chicken where I would have done quorn is an idea - if I was putting cubes of uncooked chicken in something how long before its cooked?

and my thread has come up right below - someone gave my son gelatine thread - blimey we veggies seem to have slightly different views!

www.sojuicy.co.uk/Range/So-Juicy/Sticky-BBQ-for-Chicken/

Looks easy :)