Foodies - Enid et al - give me some meal ideas for my 18 month old DS

[PeterJones]

Stuff I can cook and freeze
Simple stuff I can get the nanny to cook "fresh" as it were (I work full time).

Please?

am feeling uncharacteristically unconfident about this food stuff

homemade chicken nuggets? (rolled in crushed cornflakes and parmesan)
tomato sauce made from scratch to serve with pasta/couscous?
cauliflower cheese?

bolognaise so you just have to do the pasta

homemade fish cakes are great and easy to make!

My 13 month recently has had

• a spinach vegetable casserole that I made for me and she had left over and froze lots too.

Chicken biriyani. I didn't make it too spicy and she loved this, again you can freeze

Cottage pie. Use sweet potatots and parsnips as well as normal pots for the mash and get as many veg as you dare into sauce.

Spag bol - again cram those veggies in.

Veg and lentil casserole.

Roasted veggies

home made chicken nuggests so you only use freerange chicken breasts, bit on onion and garlic and cheddar cheese or a bit of grated apple or even stewed apple

Stewed apple that you can cook in freshly squeexed oj

homemade lemon sole goujons

fish pie (use mash not pastry)

Chicken or beef and veg pastry type pies

Last night my 2 had Hungarian Goulash and the loved it.

Non freezing options

avocados, mackeral fillets, veg sticks such as peppers and carrots and cucumber

jack pots with mackeral or any healthy filling you like

i can give you receipes for anything if you want me to.

I also make large batches of cheese and tomato pasta sauce.

quiche
lamb casserole with sweet potato mash
tuna pie made with mash, brocolli and chesse sauce
cod pie made with leeks, cheese sauce and turnip and potato mash
bought veggie haggis and mash is a good one- haggis keeps in the fridge for ages and you can freeze portions of mash. I don't think you're meant to give real haggis to toddlers but veggie is fine.

How do you get a 13mth to eat chicken nuggets? ds 22mths still wouldn't eat them- in fact he can hardly eat meat at all. he's only recently started eating apple and satsuma pieces. He doesn't have any back teeth yet though and not a full set of front teeth either.

My 13 month old has been eating nuggets for months actually! She hasn't got back teeth either.

a) it might have soemthing to do with seeing her DS eating them
b) I coat mine in breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes but the insides are soft and using pureed apple makes them even softer (not too mushy and wet though or they are impossible to get off your hands and into balls before trying to get them intot he flour.
c) I make them quite big before cooking and then break them up into bite sized pieces for her.

Chicken (grilled separately), onions, garlic, mushrooms & avocado. Just need to cook rice.

Spag bol - add mushrooms, carrots & celery & anything else that takes your fancy.

Chilli con carne - use spag bol sauce & just add beans

Stroganoff - I do pork

Beef stew - another opportunity to use lots of veg

Mini fish fingers - cod & breadcrumbs

Individual shepherds pie - I make them in ramakins

Fish pie - I freeze with puree potato in it & leeks

Message withdrawn

DS also 18 months so very good thread! DS doesn't like hunks of meat so still mince things up when I do batches, even spag bol, into ice cube trays.

Pizzas. I freeze batches of tomato coulis in the summer when toms, peppers are tasty and cheap, put into ice cube trays and use it as topping for mini pizzas on muffins (also from freezer) with cheese, ham etc. Also as base for pasta sauce.

No freexing but also do a stiry fry thing with chicken, noodles, veg and teriyaki, I KNOW it's got salt in, but it's not soy, also use sesame oil to fry etc which I think is healthy??

Couscous with roasted veg. Also do freezer batches of roasted veg, whizzed up into ice cube trays and use it to make the stock for the couscous so it's tastier without salt etc, Guess you could freeze the roasted veg themselves. Also use this as base for pastat sauce.

Must admit I buy good quality fishcakes, beef burgers & quiches for freezing too.

Pancakes, not sure about freexing, but think you can.

Potato and veg tortilla, doesn't freeze I don't think, but can do pots etc in advance.

Banges and mash. Err...

I poach fish in milk then freeze it in individual portions.

Also tomato sauce for pasta, mince, shepherds pie etc.

A recipe page is a fab idea.

Thanks all

lots of good ideas here

lisalisa - there is a recipes section in food.

a couple more v quicky, simple recipes/snacks which are faves of my 2:

sticky chicken w/ mango slices & noodles:

-stir chicken breast pieces in mixture of honey (2 tbsps), soy sauce (2 tbsps), lime juice (1/2 lime) & crushed garlic (1 clove); lift out and stir fry; serve w/strips of fresh mango & noodles.

tasty toast:

-mash up a tin of mackerel in tomato sauce with grated cheese & toast on toast or use as a toast filling. also works as a pasta sauce.

DIY pizzas:

-wholewheat muffins (Waitrose do organic ones) halved & toasted on one side. Put out with little dishes of toppings - tomato sauce (with green veggies whizzed in); cheese; mushrooms; sweetcorn; pineapple; ham; pepper; olives, etc. - have little one decorate, then toast

Cauliflower cheese with spinach:

basic cf cheese recipe with spinach chopped up v small & added. Esp. good w/ breadcrumbs & mixed seeds on top