Desserts - what do you give yours?

[Janus]

I have an 18 month old who has been surviving on a dessert of either yogurt or fruit (or sometimes both, whoppee!!!). I must admit I haven't given it much thought before but assume she may now be a bit bored with the same old!! What do you give yours (so I can pinch your ideas!!).
Thanks.

chopped banana, or mashed (whatever they cope with) and ambrosia custard. I LOVE the leftovers!

Otherwise same as you, yogurts and fruit, my ds has just discovered kiwi and really likes it in slices. Loves melon. Nice to get out of usual banana, apple routine and see what looks fresh and yummy at the supermarket.

Mine loves custard. He can eat 1/3 of a large "fresh made" custard pot (currently Sainsbury's but he's just as keen on Tescos) in one sitting after a huge first course. He's nearly 15months. He's tried rice pudding, not so keen, semolina, ditto, despite a generous dollop of strawberry jam, mince pies were popular at Christmas, and occassionally "Grizzly fruit bars." He likes fairy cakes (with raisons in but no icing on top) and fruit muffins, all, dare I say home made, apart from the custard, but rather infrequent as time never seems to be available. Besides what do you do with generous helpings of pudding that ds/dd doesnt seem so keen on. Good thing I'm preggers, I can't tell just how fat I'm getting! Most of the recipes I've made have been from AKarmel or a very similar looking veggie baby cook book.

Rice pudding & custard is great (not together!) - make it without sugar - tastes prettty horrible so you won't be tempted but DS seems to love it. Mix in any fruit if you have any around (NB I have found tinned in 'pure' juice very handy when you haven't got any fresh fruit around). Also loves any sort of cake - I was given some lovely homemade ones recently so I froze them in individual portions. Crumbles, bread & butter puds etc. Just agree it is hard not to eat them oneself.

NB - does anyone else have this problem - 10 month old son will just eat & eat, loves his food, even liver (yuk!).

Lindy, that's not a problem that's an angel!

Janus if you can stay off the added sugar you'll do well (your child won't know it's missing if he is not use to it). You can make rice pudding without sugar... and other deserts with as little sugar as possible. I tend to usually put half of what is recommended in the recipe and it always tasts good but I am getting use to low sugar stuff. I do not replace the sugar with other sweetners.
What about sorbet and ice creams that you could make yourself.

Oh lindy! I would love that problem. My dd 21mths is really fussy and not at all chubby like my ds was at the same age.
For her it is yoghurt or banana for desert or sometimes both. But Iam afraid she mostly just picks at her lunch and dinner.
What do you give your children for lunch?
I mostly give dd some cheese and ham or turkey with buttered bread followed by her desert.And would love some new ideas.

Thanks for your comments regarding my large eater - perhaps I shouldn't worry.

These are the sorts of meals (tend to alter main meal between lunch & evening depending on what we are doing etc.) he has, usually try to always give him the same as we have (except for very hot curry!) & try & make up extra freezer portions whenever possible.

Jacket potato - with cheese/tuna/chicken/bolognaise

Vegetables in cheese sauce

Pasta with spinach & cheese (a favourite)

Smaller size portions of 'Sunday roast', casserole, sausages braised in cider (! a great Delia recipe)etc etc - I love experimenting with new recipes so also give these to DS.

Bread with ham/cheese/marmite (sandwiches not too good as they go everywhere!)

Last night I was in a terrible rush so he had cheese & biscuits!

Yogurt - don't waste your money on those 'fun sized ones' - I get a big pot of Greek yogurt and add fruit.

I avoid buttering his bread as he is quite chubby - regarding his appetite he may be like me as I can eat & eat (unfortunately - hence 2 stone overweight) - I suppose my main worry is that he might end up with a weight problem like I have battled with all my life. Make sure we do plenty of exercise these days!

Hope this gives you some ideas, but I think my main aim is just to give him the same 'adult food we eat.

BTW anyone read 'The food our children eat',can't remember the author but it is excellent.

Lindy, he sounds absolute bliss. I think the book is by Joanna Blythman, good and thought-provoking, isn't it.
Dessert-wise, our increasingly pernickety 2 year old will tuck into fruit sauce (blended cooked prunes mixed with ripe pear, can you tell he has a tendency to constipation) over ice-cream at home, and enjoys sponge pud with custard at nursery. Pancakes with fruit and syrup were a huge hit on holiday.

Great, how could I forget about custard??!!! She hates bananas (think I over-did them when she was a baby because so easy to mash up!!) but the thought of sponge cake and custard is fantastic! Do the pots last quite well once they're open? (she has miniscule portions of food). Will try pancakes too - isn't it pancake Tuesday soon??
Callie, I can relate to your problems and just incase any of this helps this is what my daughter (fussy eater) will now eat (which is quite an improvement on a few months ago):

Pumpkin soup (look on thread of 'cooking with Ems' made quite thick so she can spoon in
Spaghetti bolognaise - nearly always eats and you can cook up a huge batch and freeze in little pots to take out when you need
Lasagne (as similar to above)
Pasta - plain or tortellini - with most of the available sauces (ie napolitana, mascapone and tomato)
Heinz Spaghetti Hoops - LIKE THEY'RE GOING OUT OF FASHION! You can also sneak in some small chopped ham, tomato and grated cheese to put some goodness in!
Laughing Cow cheese triangles - loves them (won't do dairy lea for some reason??)
Little sausages, eg frankfurters or there's a really good organic range which have little ones you can fry up (why can't I remember the name, agh)
Chorizo (don't know why but discovered when we went to Spain)
Serano or Parma Ham (ditto above!)
Sometimes mashed potato if lots of gravy and tomato sauce
Vegetables are difficult but she likes peas and sweetcorn which may be because she can pick them off her plate
Organix do a cereal bar range, eg raspberry and apple, and, again, she loves this and have tried many other varieties but has to be this brand
Loads of different fruits but especially raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries - really easy for them to pick up and eat which does sometimes help
I am going to try liver soon as everyone has said their baby loves it so this may be worth a try too.
If possible, try to eat the same as your baby as I'm sure that recently when mine sees that I am eating the same meal as her (eg spag bol) then she is more prepared to have a go.
I hope this helps as I know how frustrating it is.

Can I say something about liver ??? It is a great source of iron BUT you should ideally find organic liver as it is the organ in an animal (or a human) which stores all the nasty stuff... so the least nasty stuff the animal has had to eat the better the liver.
I am lucky that I can find liver at an organic farm but I have a feeling it's hard to come by in supermarkets.

Digressing a bit here, apologies. When my ds was past the weaning stage but still on purees or slightly lumpy foods, if I went out anywhere I always took a jar and warmed in hot water or if in, say, Debenhams, where they provide free jars, would get one there and do the same. This was the start of the jar addictions that took months and months to shift (still have to have a couple in the cupboard just in case).
Did any of you take homemade dinners with you when you were on the go?

This may not be quite the right thread for this, but I'm keen to know what others think. I was eating out with my child-free brother recently in a noodle bar and said how much I wished I could take my kids to a place like that. I explained to him their refusal to eat 'bits' of any sort (hence, on the dessert front, fruit has to be peeled and seedless; puddings have to be raisin-free; yoghurt smooth etc. etc.). They won't eat anything where the food isn't clearly defined, preferably separate on the plate. Now this seems quite common among under-fives - but clearly, as my brother said, it can't be the case in more traditional cultures, where a bowl of vegetables and meat, rice or noodles would presumably be standard fare. So is it just Western children that are so fussy? Is it that they have the option to be so? Do we give in to them? What is it? I, like so many of us hopeful mums, started with fresh foods, pureed grown up food, fruit and veg, lots of flavours etc. - all the things they say you should do to produce a non-fussy eater, but each of them got to about 18 months and began to reject foods one after the other, refuse fruit and veg, and complain about 'bits' ... They will eat chicken korma, mind you, because you can give them pilau rice (bright colours) and simple bits of chicken (no sauce, yuk, might have an onion in!) so it can't be a flavour thing. I'm mystified. I don't worry about them; just feed them and hope, but on theoretical grounds, I'd love to know what others think?

PS. Sorry - just found the thread called 'Limited Diet and won't try new things .. ' that is obviously where my message should have gone!

Hi Inkpen, my SIL gives in easily and feeds her two DD's spaghetti hoops and typical kids food (nuggets etc) at every opportunity. They are 10 and 7. Even in a restaurant they stick to 'cafe' food.

Sometimes I wonder if we do pander to our children too much. I often make one big bowl of fruit for the children to share. This makes them v.interested as they don't want the other one to get more than them hence it disappears quickly.

My DD loves dried apricots and raisins and even kiwi fruit but DS is not so adventurous. R

jodee - I always took bought jars of food out with me when mine were babies. Quick, easy and no chance of anything leaking in your bag. But I agree, if you use them too much baby gets a taste for them, and then you have a real job on your hands trying to get them to eat homemade food. It's much easier now my youngest is 20 mths as all 3 of them eat the same. Infact they're in the kitchen right now, watching 'Don't eat the neighbours' and eating some delicious(?) pasta creation I've knocked up for them.

Inkpen - I think your theory is right. Most western children have the opportunity to try lots of different food, so they can be fussy about things. Children in poorer countries are lucky if they get anything to eat at all.

Chanelno5, thanks for your reply. DS was on jars at home as well when I was working and dh was looking after him, he found it easier being a novice at even heating things up! How I envy you being able to feed your 3 in the kitchen, no room to swing a cat in mine!
Back to desserts - ds had roast dinner and gravy followed by an enormous piece of angel cake (he's not on cake every day, mind)!

Inkpen, I think your theory is right.
I think it is also down to time and energy levels. This is not to excuse myself!
I know that if I am tired and just want to get something on the table I am far more likely to take some kind of quickly preparable kiddy food which I know will get eaten out the freezer or fridge and give them that.

I think today's Western kids get so much junk food (mine included!) and processed or packaged food, not to mention the advertising and character names on everything from yoghurt to breakfast cereal! More fresh food is the ideal of course but sometimes the ideal is just not realistic day to day...I try to give the kids a smorgasbord lunch as often as possible, with a big platter of grapes, slices of apple/pear/nectarine, melon, cheese and polony. They pick what they want for their own bowl. They love it! And it makes a nice change from sandwiches!

Back to desserts for babes and toddlers - how about this one?!

Fruity Fool

1 and a half cups boiling water
1 pkt jelly crystals
150ml evaporated milk (cold)
half cup pureed fruit

Pour water over jelly crystals, stir until dissolved. Partially set in fridge. Whisk evap milk til soft peaks form (it must be really icy cold). Mix jelly and fruit thru evap milk.
Place in bowl and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving or you can also freeze it and serve it frozen!