What do your 4 -8 year olds eating for dinner?

[TheHouseofMirth]

DS2 (4) has never been an enthusiastic eater and now is down to potatoes (in various forms and which he'd happily live on), omelettes, chicken goujons, pizza and curry. He flatly refuses to eat any fruit or vegetables. DS1 has always been adventurous and good at eating a variety of foods but recently he seems to have "gone off" lots of things.

I feel I need to shake things up a bit to try and get them out of this rut. What do your children eat?

Ds1 (9) is having jacket potato, beans & cheese as he has a swimming activity so needs to eat early (just after 4pm) the rest of us (me, dh, ds3 (4) and dts (nearly 6)) are having cottage pie, broccoli, sweetcorn & green beans.

I don't have any problems with the dcs eating things, I just get stuck in a rut with mealtimes!

DS is 3.5, so we're not quite in the age range for your thread, but DS sounds similar to your son, except that DS will eat most fruit, no omlette or curry or chicken goujons. He will eat smoked fish though, so father and son routinely pong the house out on a Friday lunchtime with smoked mackerel or haddock.

As an extra to your potato repertoire, I'm trying out hasselback potatoes tomorrow night, because I'm sick of eating mash and jackets, and I refuse to serve DS plain pasta, although his dad will so he again just sits there eating plain carbs.

It is hugely frustrating - DS will eat anything at nursery, turkey creole anyone?, but very little at home. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for some more good ideas.

Will your DS drink smoothies, as a way of getting more fruit into him? I'm also considering growing tomatoes with DS on the patio, with the spring supposedly coming , is it worth considering stuff like that? Oh, and getting him to help with prep. DS ate cucumber last Thursday because his dad told him he could chop it up if he ate a bit. DS liked it, which he would, he eats it regularly at nursery (bangs head on desk).

DS (8) will eat almost anything apart from fresh tomatoes and courgette. DD (5) is a different story. What she gets served and what she eats are usually 2 different things. About the only thing I won't serve is fish pie as it actually makes her gag. She gets served all sorts of other things though, basically what we eat. Then she either eats it or she doesn't. If she doesn't there's no fuss and no alternatives. DS used to be just as fussy so I'm assuming she'll just learn to eat when she's hungry.

As for getting him to eat fruit and veg. I eat loads so the fruit bowl is always pretty full and varied. If they are hungry between meals, well they know where the fruit bowl is.

Agree though that making smoothies, chopping fruit and veg and growing them all help. Mine also have fruit as their snack at school and 3 different things in their lunch box if they are having sandwiches. They also have breakfast cereals like ready brek or weetabix sweetened with fresh or dried fruit.

We also do a meal plan each week and everyone in the family gets to choose the evening meal for at least one night in the week.

Can you sneak veg into the curry? How about a rosti - I make this for my potato loving dd, we also make sweet potato rostis, leftovers from roast dinner are mixed together and we fry the patties - she loves this so much she keeps asking me to post it online - there's no recipe though, just a bit of an onion flavour - garlic, leek or onion, butter and whatever else you can get aways with, chop small.
Have you tried potato curry? Bombay potatoes are a bit hit here. Mine mostly eat whatever they are given they don't like courgettes, aubergines and peppers and mushrooms.... I cut them small and include them anyway....I'd extend and build on what he likes...

DS1 is 5 and had a roast dinner yesterday (remains today in some form, probably chicken pasta or just chicken with veg), salmon and jacket potato wed and fish pie friday (I follow the Jamie recipe - grated carrot, celery, cheese with fish).
TBH though DS1 is definitely more fussy now.

My DSs (6 and 8) are pretty good with food. I am trying to do more cooking with them as I have been a bit rubbish, and I think that it is important in a life skills sense, but in the past it has also encouraged them to eat new foods.

What do you put in the curry? DS2 helped me make a chicken curry yesterday which had onions, garlic, ginger, red and green peppers in it. I then also made an okra dish about which they were very suspicious, but ate at least one okra each. They also had dahl (so more onions and garlic!).

In bolognaise, I put onions, celery, carrot, peppers, mushrooms. Controversial veg get chopped up smaller!

And then we have a lot of soup - some whizzed smooth, but to be honest the minestrone types seem to be more popular. I chop eg courgette very small (DS 1 can spot it a mile off). I also change the names of some veg (spinach becomes cabbage).

DS1 is 4.3 & will eat pretty much anything. He is not a fan of fruit & veg but can be persuaded to eat it, particularly mixed in with things.

Normal dinners are mostly family dinners & include: casseroles (beef, lamb, chicken, pork, sausage), cottage pie (with beef, lamb, turkey or pork mince, onions, carrots, mushrooms), curries (lamb or chicken), roasts, pasta with 5-veg sauce (tomato, onion, carrot, swede, parsnip), pasta with cheese sauce, fishcakes/fishfingers & jacket/oven chips, chicken nugget & oven chips, fish pie, meat pie (often chicken leftover from roast, in gravy, with carrots, mushrooms & onion), pasta with meatballs in tomato sauce etc

One way of getting veg into them if they like mashed potato is to mash either celeriac or swede in with the potato. They can barely taste it IME

I have 5yo twins. Dt1 will eat/try everything on his plate starting with (tonight's tea salmon, new pots and brocolli) the fish working towards spuds and finishing with veg so he can use the excuse he cant manage it as he's full. DT2 will ate broc, then spuds then fish - left 1/4 of fish.
Yesterday I asked them what was their favorite dinner. The winner was pasta in any way (carbonara or 'red' sauce), then shepherds/fish pie (as long as there was prawns in it according to DT2), then ribs, then curry and rice but DT1 prefers chapati.
Also DT1 will have ketchup/mayo/coleslaw and DT2 will not have 'wet stuff' even gravy is a bit of an issue.

DD generally eats what we eat but her favourites are roast chicken, cheese pancakes, spaghetti with not-at-all-authentic bolognese sauce, sausages baked with peppers and root veg, chicken risotto, and gnocci baked with tuna, tomatoes and cream. And pasta with pesto, toasted pinenuts and grated cheese - she'd live off that if she could.

She had fish pie tonight, I put in a whole load of veg (olives, leeks, carrots, celery, tomatoes, mushrooms) and did a rosti topping. She wasn't exactly over the moon, but she ate most of it.

Mine are 6 and 9 and both like roast chicken etc, fish pie, toad in the hole, omelettes, jacket pots w tuna or cheese, pasta many ways, pizza, quesadillas, cheese on toast, ribs, meatballs, salmon, curry, stir fries, dippy eggs w soldiers.

DD (6) is less fussy than DS and is a big fan of egg fried rice with soy, or just rice and soy with peas. She also likes soup a lot. And baked beans, and fish fingers. All the quick stuff.

Last night they are toasted cheese sandwiches which they loved. Bot night is lamb curry, DS very keen dd already saying she won't eat it. Oh well.

DD1 is 4 and recently has gone off meat. She would eat dry bread if I let her.

She hasnt realised spag bol has mince in it, so eats that. Shes not anti meat like I hear of some kids being, like she wants to become vegetarian, if she did I would support her, shes just decided that she doesnt like meat. But she does iyswim?

She didnt like sausages but I recently made sausage pasta and she ate them all, commenting on how nice the chicken was :o so I let her eat it then told her after that it was sausages not chicken.

Apart from that she eats everything we do except spicy things. But she does like mild curry.

Some dinners we have- naan pizzas, soups, mince stew, sausage pasta, curry.

Going to try her with stirfry in the next few weeks, and more beef casseroles (big bits of meat seem to put her off).

I have a 5 1/2 year old and a 9 month old. They both have what we are having, last night it was chickpea and kidney bean curry with rice and chapattis. He'll (5 1/2 year old) eat most things but favourites are macaroni cheese (with broccoli or peas and either tuna or bacon) and spaghetti bolognese. He likes things where he can make a wrap - like chilli with tortillas or curry with chapattis. Other meals we have include stew with dumplings, roast dinners, sausages with green lentils, mince and tatties - he eats all of those.

I know how lucky I am that he isn't fussy (and the baby isn't thus far) as I am a former childhood fusspot myself who would eat hardly anything for years. I eat everything now and look back with regret on all the great food I said no to!!! He did have a fussy stage between 2 and 3 but it passed. It's been much easier since I met my dh and there was more than just me and ds1 at the table for meals.

Watching with interest, love those hasselback potatoes :)

Monday we had cheese and left over dauphinoise pie and pork with mixed veg
Tuesday is always chicken with a Chinese sauce, noodles and rice
Tonight is lentil, carrot and tomato soup with par baked bread and homemade chips and ham.

My 4 and 6 year old are good eaters but my 2 year old is going through a picky phase, he hasn't eaten much all week, hence tonight's miss match :)