Can you list all the things you cook for your kids that are reasonably healthy and they reliably eat? Seriously need some inspiration!

[ElmMum]

I seem to be constantly wheeling out the same things for sheer ease. DDs are 5 and 1.5. I used to cook much more complicated stuff for DD1 but over the past couple of years I seem to have reduced my repertoire because DD1 got fussier and I got busier.

Here's my list of weekday stalwarts:

• Scrambled eggs on toast
• Dippy egg and soldiers
• Pasta (pesto/peas, tuna/sweetcorn)
• Fish fingers/breaded fish fillets, chips and peas/baked beans
• Baked beans on toast
• "Picnic" (sandwiches, humous, yoghurt and fruit etc in front of the TV)
• Chicken drumsticks, chips and peas/sweetcorn
• Veggie hot dogs in bun with corn on the cob
• Heinz tomato soup and toast
• Pizza (homemade because DH makes dough and freezes it)

Occasionally:

• Chicken in breadcrumbs with mash and veg

And at weekends, if we all eat together, we might have:

• Roast (chicken or lamb) with roasties and veg
• Casserole (lamb) with mash and veg
• Chicken pie with mash and veg

That's pretty much it! I feel a bit embarrassed looking at the list now. Looks so limited and not a lot of rainbow veg going on - veg for the DDs is mostly sweetcorn and peas. They do eat A LOT of fruit and plain natural yoghurt.

What I really want are things that are as easy as beans on toast, but more of them so I can vary it up a bit!

TIA

Macaroni cheese with broccoli through it
Lasange
Enchilladas
Chicken and mushroom pie
Chicken curry with sweet potato, carrots and apricots
BBQ pork chops with cous cous and broccoli
Sausages pototoes and beans

Batch cook Bolognese sauce and freeze. Then you only need to cook pasta and veg. One easy cooking session gives me meals for four other days (by freezing it, not for successive days, although DS would love it!)
Nothing wrong with peas. Will they eat carrots? Or Broccoli?

I think your list is ok really health wise.

Ds (5) loves a lot of the things on your list. Additional meals or variations he likes are:

Pasta with Philadelphia and peas
I sometimes substitute some pasta here with grated courgette when i have time, and it makes a kind of sauce with the Philly so he barely notices it.

Lasagne

Spaghetti bolognese

Spaghetti carbonara

Lamb and leek hotpot (this is the only way ds will eat leeks!)

Chicken fajitas (can use chopped peppers/sweetcorn/grated carrot for the veg)

A tasty veg accompaniment is crispy kale - kale baked in the oven for about 20 mins coated in olive oil, with a little salt if desired. It's surprisingly nice!

Chicken cacciatore (ds loves this)

Tarragon chicken with new potatoes and veg

Toad in the hole

I know a lot of these aren't particularly quick but a lot can be made in advance :)

The one dish that my two will always eat is made from leftovers from the roast. Put rice, tinned tomatoes, leftover meat and tomato purée into oven proof pan. Cover with water and bring to boil. Put lid on and bake in oven for approx 20 minutes. Check after 15 mins and add more water if needed. At this point stir in leftover veg and cook for further 5 minutes.

If you have different raw veggies that you want to put in just put these in right at the start. Never fails, either with my fussy eaters or any visiting children!

Stir fry veges with noodles in chicken stock broth, sometimes add salmon fillet.

Fajitas

Mini turkey burgers with Cous Cous

Beef stew

Chicken and mushroom pie

Fried rice with left over chicken from roast, egg, green veges

Risotto

Chicken curry

Fish cakes

A lot of stuff I make in batches and freeze then just have to sort out a side dish.

I batch cook and freeze
Spaghetti Bolognese
Chilli with rice
Pasta with pesto and tuna

Easy meals for us are
Stir fry (carrot, mini corn, courgettes, chicken)
Chicken kiev (chicken thighs, garlic butter, small potatoes, small tomatoes. Covered in breadcrumbs and baked in the oven)
Fish and rice (fish and lemon juice in the oven wrapped in a foil parcel)

Don't your kids like rice? Mine prefer it to potato, especially with soy sauce. You could stir fry a selection of veg (mushroom, red pepper, baby corn, green beans) and some protein eg scrambled egg or chicken pieces, then serve it in separate bowls so they can choose what they want to make their own 'fried rice'.

macaroni cheese (with wholemeal pasta and lots of peas and/or sweetcorn)
panfried fish in teryaki marinade
pancakes filled with chicken, veg, pesto (a bit like a wrap)
jambalaya (for some reason they really love this)
nasi goreng

Op, your list looks great. It is infinitely more than ds (4) will eat. i really struggle with any veg at all, and he will only eat pasta for carbs, no rice or potato. You are doing well!

My three loove special fried rice -
Rice cooked in stock (delia method).
Fried up with left over chicken, a few handfuls of peas, an onion, and scrambled egg. Soy sauce doused over. Your list looks fine btw

Roast dinner in week in giant yorkie
Sausage and bacon pasta
Salmon in soy sauce, lemon and garlic grilled with stir fired veg
spaghetti with broccoli and bacon in cheesy sauce
jacket pot with any toppings you want.
homemade pizzas
let kids make up there own fajitas serving everything up in small bowls
omelettes
casseroles
crazy faces ( any old thing you can find, have left over and make into a face!) I do witches with toast triangle for hat, spaghetti hair, sausages cut up in chuncks make the mouth and ears, then use veg to make eyes etc e
rare steak and homemade oven chips
chicken chowmein homemade
egg and chicken fried rice
chicken casear salad! would be eaten daily if allowed
shepherds pie with cauliflower and broccoli cheese topping instead of mash!!! just mash up first so more mash like! yum

Have you tried sauté-ing veg like spinach, or peas or peppers and putting an egg with a splash of milk plus mixture into a muffin tray, sprinkle of cheese and bake 15 - 20 mins at 180? River cottage toddler, my dd loves it. She'll eat his falafel too because I told her it was a biscuit and it has apricots in it...I think your list is fine though, dd eats a lot of fish cakes/pastas. Roasted veg is much easier to get her to eat than just boiled.

Noodle stir fry with chicken, brocc and sweetcorn
Beef stew
Chicken stew
Pork stew (detect a theme here?! )
Lamb chops, pots and veg
Pork chops, pots and veg
Spag bol
Omelette
Chicken korma and rice
Risotto with bacon and peas or brocc or broad beans

They are all quite easy. Stews I tend to bung in the oven while DS is having a nap and before I collect DD from school.

Mine eat their own weight in plain yoghurt too!

You're doing better than us - my dc only reliably eat Bolognese (with pasta, cottage pie, lasagne) roast dinner and pasta in a tomato sauce (pretty much like Bolognese) :(

I have two DDS 5 and 2, there's not a huge list of guaranteed eats for the two, because their each fussy about different things. But my regular meals are.

Soup- carrot and red lentil, tomato,, vegetable, pea and ham, chicken, potato and leek. I HATE soup. But DDS and dh love it, so we have it at least one night a week, big bowls with fresh bread. It's almost always made in the slow cooker and blended so not quick to cook but quick to make.

As everyone has said- spag.bol

'red' rice, rice with chopped cooked carrots, peas, and half a tin of tomatoes (Dh and I have spices and coriander in ours following the actual Thomasina miers recipe)
casseroles- always include at least two veg and can be slow cooked/pressure cooked- pork and apple casserole, chicken and butterbean casserole, beef and onion, etc.

Butter bean and cheese burgers from BBC good food

Potato pancakes and meats / chopped picnic veg

Cheese and carrot toasties ( I grate the carrot and call it orange cheese)

Carbonara

Carrot and broad bean risotto

lasagne- hfw does a mushroom and kale version that it really lovely with added chicken breasts , but other.lasagna too.

Dhal and flatbread- completely under spiced for DDS, we add extra for us.

Meatballs with pasta.

Pizza

Fish fingers
Pizza
Or anything that resembles breakfast or lunch.

Until 3 weeks ago I'd have said
Risottos so long as the garlic is toned down
Roast dinners
Pilafs, stir fried rice, chicken gumbo, most Mediterranean rice dishes

I know others have said it but fajitas are my go-to in times of need. They get to make them up themselves one I've done the meat and veg (onions, peppers and whatever I have in the freezer) and they are quick.

..and soup. I batch cook different sorts and freeze in portions so soup and bread is a regular here as they don't have to agree which one to have!

My DC are similar ages, and DS (almost 5) is also quite fussy, but he does a lot better with fish than he does with meat.

I do salmon fillet topped with pesto baked in foil, with potatoes and peas.
Baked cod topped with a tomato sauce and breadcrumbs
Fishcakes
Pasta - macaroni cheese, prawn and tomato, ham and pea, salmon and pea, meatballs, bolognese, chicken and sweetcorn, tuna and sweetcorn
Risotto - pea and ham, chicken and butternut squash
Spanish omlette
Burgers
I persevere with chicken or lamb curry but it's not popular!
Things on sticks are quite well received - lamb koftas, chicken teriyaki
I was also really surprised by how well chicken/prawn stir fry noodles went down with my DS...I do have to grate the veg or chop up really small otherwise he'd start picking it out, but I put carrot, courgette, brocolli, pepper and mushrooms in there, which he'd never usually eat.

DD (1) eats most of this stuff as well.

The nights my DS is out, it's sooo easy to cook for DD. She likes all the easy things, which he hates....

Jacket potatoes with cheese, baked beans, tuna, whatever
Egg fried rice with peas and soy
Soup and bread with cheese on side
Smoked salmon on Melba toast with crudités
Scrambled eggs with toast
Dippy egg and soldiers

The only easy things he likes, are things she doesn't.....

Bacon sandwich with raw carrots on side
Omelette with ham and cheese
Ham and cheese toasties
Ham and cheese quesadillas

The only really quick thing they both like is pasta.

With tomato sauce and cheese
With grated courgette and bacon ( although DD picks the bacon out )

And then DH likes the more complicated stuff. I made fish pie tonight. DS made vomiting noises, DD ate all the egg in the whole pie and DH ate the rest.

The only meal we all like equally is roast chicken with all the extras. Not an easy meal for a weekday though.

Here's what my DC eat on a regular basis...

Risotto
Curry or dahl & rice
Vegetable lasagne
Veggie chilli & either rice or wedges
Gardeners pie (veggie pie with cheesy mash topping)
Pasta & veg/tomato sauce
Frittata

I don't think there's much they don't eat apart from meat (DD) and pizza (DS).

We tend to eat vegetarian meals most day as it saves cooking two meals although tonight we had chicken & mushroom and leek & mushroom pies.

turkey enchiladas
HM pizza
meatballs
rice crispie chicken
HM burgers
sausages

Tuna and pasta
Meatballs
Lasagna
Home made veggie pizza

Have you tried a fish pie with a pea, mint and potato topping? You just add a good handful of peas in about 6 mins before the potatoes are ready then mash as normal with a tablespoon of mint sauce in, its blooming lovely and makes fish pie a bit more interesting.

My fail safe meal is a mixture of couscous/quinoa/bulgar wheat (whichever combo I happen to have) with raw salad veg mixed in (cucumber/carrot/tomato/radish/avocado etc).

Also red lentil and root veg soup with spelt bread is a winner. Dd is veggie and very whole foodie though so might not tempt most children!