Quick kids meal ideas for fussy eaters - for tonight!

[PavlovtheCat]

DD aged 7 eats most things. DS aged 3.5 is a fussy ol fusspot when it comes to food. He mostly likes pasta, sausages, peanut butter.

They have had hot dinner at school/pre-school today of spaghetti bolognaise, so don't need a big dinner, something light and some fruit for pudding. But, DH and I are stuck for ideas and inspiration, mainly as DS is so fussy!

Any ideas of light meals that can appeal to the fussiest of eaters? DD would be happy with toasted sandwich and some salad. DS would be happy with peanut butter on toast. but he had that for breakfast.

Does he like eggs? I often do scrambled or boiled eggs for a quick dinner.

Or just plain pasta with ham, corn and cucumber.

My dd would live on pasta and cucumber if she could!

He eats scrambled eggs, or the white of boiled, but not the 'oke'! We had scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday...can a child eat too much egg?

He had pasta for lunch, and we have eaten rather a lot of pasta over the last couple of weeks. my DD will not be impressed...'not ergain mama!' she will say, rolling her eyes.

Eggy bread, possibly with baked beans.

oh, yes, eggy bread is a good one...any suggestions of how to get some veg into that?

Maybe only offer cereal or porridge at breakfast so you can use the toast and peanut butter in the evening for tea?

It drives me mad when hubby cooks an egg (son's favourite) for breakfast and then he asks for it at tea time as well! I keep saying don't use up our secret weapon so easily when he will eat cereal just as happily!

It's a bit hit and miss, but my son (almost same age as your 3.5yr old) will sometimes eat light meals like; 1. cheese and biscuits with grapes and yogurt,

1. sliced fingers of toasted pitta bread with houmous and cucumber wedges,
2. bagel with cream cheese and marmite,
3. muffins with melted cheese,
4. cocktail sausages and potato cakes....

However our real challenge is trying to get veg into him - he's a cucumber and carrot sticks only type, so we try to slip that in at every meal (while offering a taster of something new that always gets left) and then rely on fruit galore instead!

I would probably put some cucumber and tomato with eggy bread, if he'd eat that, or just offer fruit after.

he doesn't eat cucumber or tomatoes unless it's tomato sauce for pasta. or ketchup with chips. But, not my home made chips either, only shop bought or from chippy

I just love toddlers and their eating habits!!

and he has gone right off fruit too. He only eats pineapple at the moment. Or, blended up frozen fruit with porridge. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, and the sun is out.

going to have to give him some supplements I think...

Maybe I will give him porridge and fruit for his actual tea.

Have you tried toasties? I used to grate carrot in with the cheese and plead 'orange cheese and yellow cheese toasty.

I also did them with a cheese and tomato sauce- but the tomato sauce was tomato, spinach, and carrots blended.

butter beans burgers from the good food website were also a hit with my fussy one.

Homemade pizza, again my version hides grated carrot, grated Courgette and puree tomatoes.

Theres a recipe for carrot and parsnip bread on a girl called jack (it's a budget eating blog), that she used to lije abd served well as a healthy light snack.Though now I've got to a point of eat it or starve.

pregnantpause I alternate between eat it or starve and caving in, because he actually does have a big appetite when he does eat the foot, and he is such a grump if he is hungry. He has been at pre-school all day, is going to be home at 6pm starving. You would think that means he would eat whatever he is given, but actually there is a very short window for him to eat anything at all before tired/hungry meltdown occurs. So, I feel very mean trying to make him eat something I know he won't eat when he is so hungry and already emotionally on the edge!

he won't eat cheese on toast/cheese toasties. he eats mini babybels only.

I really don't get his fussiness, DD eats most things, and tries new things and has always been quite adventurous. She will also try something again, that she has tried before and didn't like. DS will look at it, not like the shape, colour, smell, texture or whatever and be 'don't like it, it's yucky' before even trying it. If we manage to persuade him to eat it, and he doesn't like it, that's it, never again to be eaten by him!

pavlov ref. you don't get his fussiness; IMHO and E it's a stage a lot of L.O.s go through, asserting their individuality and personality, honest it's quite normal and will pass as long as you don't make a thing over it. I find its best not to comment positively or negatively about the eating. We tend to invest much more emotion in food than L.Os do.

As long as he's happy and healthy don't worry at all and its best not to compare L.Os.

He is happy as long as he is not made to eat anything other than pasta

Eggy bread will go down well though.

I will second the stage theory. My eldest never had a fussy stage, will eat anything, but my youngest, who for the first six months ate everything is shockingly fussy. Thankfully she will eat her own body weight in fruit, so if she declines food, an hour later I will give her a banana , so she's had something. My dsis has twins, one a fussy eater, the other will eat anything, including whatever twin 1 has rejected given the chance

My LO just had toast, butter, tuna and tomato. Did not want to eat casserole.

ooh I can sometimes get him to eat caserole! if, I mash up the veg etc really small and break the meat into tiny weeny chunks, serve it with pasta and tell him we are all having caserole but he is not, he is having pasta n sauce. Then sometimes he eats it. Or sausage caserole if served with pasta and no 'bits' in it. You see a theme?...

They had scrambled egg on toast and a slice of eggy bread. On the basis we stupidly gave them a choice between eggy bread and scrambled egg on toast, one said scrambled egg and one said eggy bread. now, we know that means if we do separate meals, the other will want what the other has, so we did a bit of both for each! They ate it all, followed by an unhealthy slice of chocolate birthday cake from DDs birthday yesterday. They also ate that

I've been thinking about this, and what I do, is on nights it needs to be quick I just give both dc something quick that I know they'll eat, I don't worry too much about the nutritional value, so it will be eggs, or toasties and they can choose.

When we've got more time, I just cook a dinner and there's no choice. I don't make a fuss, just dish up, if they eat it great if they don't, no big deal.

I have noticed that on the no choice night, they are both starting to eat a bit more.

I really hope that doesn't sound preachy, the meal thing happened by accident, but at the mo seems to be working!

savoury muffins
courgette/sweetcorn fritters
Mini hotdogs
Quesadillas
Eggy bread + baked beans
Jacket potato with baked beans
Pasta salad
Pitta bread pizzas

a bit late now but for future maybe some bread and butter (on its own that would be a 1950s tea) or a bread roll with a couple of bits, cherry tomatoes, cheese (baby bel), olives - the kind of thing you might get in a packed lunch.

BTW is ds one of these children who is too lazy to chew? Some children (you know this) just find chewing too much trouble, especially when they are tired.

sash you know I didn't think of it that way, but you might have a point. He would eat porridge when tired. And often when really really tired he will fall asleep eating it! That might be true when tired that he doesn't want to chew.

We do sometimes do a 'picnic' tea when they have had a good hot meal at school. Might do that tonight for them.

those courgette and sweetcorn fritters sound lovely! I will make some of those, but minus the sweetcorn as DS won't eat that either! He might go at the courgette, but maybe not! DD loves sweetcorn so I can add some into hers. I have also seen s recipe for courgette muffins and think he might eat those ok.

My children eat Eggybread and love it and they're very fussy. It's soft and mushy but a good starter for bringing kids onto solid foods. You can put some baked beans on the side with it too. Or if you want some yourself, it goes well with bacon.