Please help me feed my four and six year old better

[Pearl2015]

I have a four year old and six year old, the four year old is dairy intolerant and the six year old hates all dairy products so in a way that is easier as they can both eat the same. The trouble is they won't eat hardly any fruit or veg, hardly any meat, their daily diet is getting worse and I am worried about their fruit and veg intake and their calcium intake. I am going food shopping tomorrow and need to start from scratch basically. At the moment they eat toast for breakfast, ham sandwich for lunch (I also put in cherry toms and raisons etc but these get left) after school is a biscuit, dinner is something like home made chicken nuggets, oven chips and the peas etc are refused. Fruit for desert is also refused, help!

If they like soup, give it them as often as you can. That's what I do with my veg hating toddler.

Make a big batch of hidden veg sauce and keep portions in the freezer so you'll always have that to fall back on.

Have a look at annabel karmels website. I used a good chicken meatball recipe with grated apple in it. She had some other good ones too.

Have they tried carrot sticks recently? They might eat them with hummous? If so then could this replace the after school biscuit.

DS is allergic to dairy & soy. We have the same issue with limited meals, he will try most things too but won't eat them if he does t like it. His favourite meals are:

Gnocchi with bacon, peas (won't always eat them) and oatly cream. Fry the bacon, remove from heat and pan, add oatly and a squeeze of BBQ sauce. Then add gnocchi, peas and stir. Sprinkle bacon bits on top.

Tuna mayo and sweetcorn jacket potatoes (Hellmans full fat mayo is DF)

Fish parcels with sugar snap peas & mash potato. He loves opening the pods and eating the peas.

Granola for breakfast with blueberries or Banana.

Could you make ice lollies out of blended fruit? Strawberries work well, you need to blend them with a little water then just pour into moulds and freeze.
You can also make "ice cream" by freezing chopped mangoes or bananas and then blitzing in the food processor.

Brilliant ideas here, am taking note!

Strawberry lollies sound good

I think I might try the icecream for myself!

You can also add nutella to the banana ice cream but it becomes slightly less healthy!

I think my oldest dd would love the Nutella added to the icecream. She hates bananas but this may disguise them?

Worth a try and if she doesn't like it you can eat it

In an attempt to broaden my 3yo pallet I came across the website 'super healthy kids'. It's great and has lots of visually exciting healthy food. I tried their ice lollies for the first time yesterday. 2 cups of watermelon, 1 cup of strawberries, 1 kiwi and juice of a lime (I also added a bit of honey and fresh mint). I blitzed the lot and it froze very quickly and made about 6 lollies. I sat there silently amazed as dd ate an entire lolly! It's a great website and has given me lots of enthusiasm!

If they eat cucumber, raw peppers and grapes I would buy loads of these and offer them as snacks or include them with lunch. Variety is not the be all and end all, sometimes you just need to work with what you've got. My youngest is OK with fruit but only eats carrots, peppers and sweet corn for veg, so she just gets served 2 out of 3 of these with every evening meal plus a little bit to try of whatever we are having. She won't eat pasta sauce or bolognese or baked beans either, all those count towards your kids' 5 a day.

Nutella's got milk in it.

Offer cucumber and pepper with houmous as a snack. I'd nonchalantly offer a stick or two of carrot too - don't worry if it doesn't get eaten, just keep offering.