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Meal ideas for DD

17 replies

Summernamechange · 28/07/2018 21:59

So have gotten into a rut with DD. We have gone through periods of time where she would eat NOTHING and with some perseverance she now eats.
Her choices are limited though (not helped by being coeliac) and she eats very well now but it’s very repetitive.
There’s lots of recipes available but would like ideas of things a genuinely wary child might like and enjoy.
Now she will eat:
Spaghetti bolognase
Pasta with tomato/red pepper sauce (this is her most favourite thing)
Chilli with kidney beans and rice
GF Chicken nuggets
Homemade soups
Chicken dinner with mash and veg
Macaroni cheese
Pizza

It’s not a huge amount, she’s fine with veg in things (celery, carrot in spag Bol etc).
She will not try stir fry/noodles. Same with eggs sadly unless it’s eggy bread.
She likes GF sausage rolls, ive never found a sausage she likes though.

I think she likes strong flavours, she loves garlic bread and olives.
I’m going to try curry again, I think I made them too bland before.

Any ideas ?

OP posts:
MerryMarigold · 28/07/2018 22:07

My son eats v similar food. He likes chipolatas (not fat sausages). He's just decided he likes marinated, grilled chicken. He tolerates fajitas because I let him make the wrap.himself and take out veg he doesn't like (I put baby sweetcorn, carrots, pepper, mushroom). You can get corn tortilas, not sure if coeliac friendly. He loves macaroni cheese with bacon (gf pasta obv). You could try carbonara. He's recently got into sweet and sour off the back of liking ham and pineapple pizza. I use pork chops chopped up and pineapple.

MerryMarigold · 28/07/2018 22:09

I sometimes try a new meal and he decides he likes it, but it's very hard going.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 28/07/2018 23:04

Could you introduce anything fishy? Salmon fillets, fish cakes (gf crumb), tuna pasta bake?
How about jacket potatoes and topping?
Gammon steak with pineapple.
Falafels (easy to make a big batch and freeze)
Dhal and rice

Blondie1984 · 29/07/2018 00:46

If she likes strong flavours then maybe try pasta with pesto

Other ideas
Homemade burgers - part of the fun is making them yourself
Tagine with GF couscous
Jambalaya
Moussaka
Smoked salmon fillets (or other smoked fish) with mashed potato and peas

Pebblesandfriends · 29/07/2018 01:04

Chuck tuna/ white fish/ chicken/ prawns/ lamb meatballs/ beef meatballs in the tomato red pepper sauce to vary it? Put potato and sweet potato on the bolognaise for a 'sort of' shepherd pie, try Jamie Oliver's fish pie, willnshe eat jacket potatoes? You can do any number of fillings with those. Smoked salmon and or prawns stirred into pasta with cream cheese and peas. *Disclaimer, I am completely ignorant as to what coeliac friendly is.

MerryMarigold · 29/07/2018 07:33

With the chilli and spag bol, I often make it vegetarian by using quorn and grated mushroom. The sauce I put garlic, onion, celery, aubergine, courgette and blend it with tinned toms, cook for about 20 mins and add to the sauce.

Ricekrispie22 · 29/07/2018 07:54

If she eats mash and minced meat, you could try shepherd's pie.
As she likes chilli, you could try doing it in enchiladas instead of with rice. Use the tomato sauce that you use for her pasta as the sauce on top of the wrapped enchiladas before adding cheese.
Try using pizza to expand her diet. Make pizzas yourself and mix it up a bit with different cheeses, different veg, meats, and even different pizza bases (we use pitta breads, naan breads and tortilla wraps).
If she likes macaroni cheese and spag bol, she might like lasagne.

kateandme · 29/07/2018 09:00

could you try her favourite pasta sauce with things.like over sausages or with chicken.or enchiladas.you could even try it through rice in stuffed peppers?
with her egg bread could you try some fruits and compote with it.so its tyring "treatie" foods aswell
what about meatballs in bolognase sauce
or the bolognase part under pastry as a pie.or under mash?
lasagne
what about pizzas.this a great way to try new flavours.anything with pizza helps!
what about adding some veggies to cheesie pasta bake.or some bacon.
some sweet potato wedges

MerryMarigold · 29/07/2018 09:06

If she's anything like my ds, it's hard to combine different foods even though he likes them individually eg. Jacket potato and chilli is not acceptable! Has to be with rice. He can also get bored of favorite foods a while so I to overdo them, but this is hard with veg. He's recently decided he won't eat peas anymore, which he's been fine with for 12 years. He will now eat French beans though which he stopped dugout a couple of years. It's all weird food control stuff, so I pick my battles. As.long as he's eating beans I'm not going to insist on peas!

MerryMarigold · 29/07/2018 09:08

Ps. If you don't have other kids, please rest assured this is not down to parenting. My other 2 kids are fine with most foods. Ds has been difficult since a small baby.

redcaryellowcar · 29/07/2018 09:13

We make a version of a Thai curry by marinating chicken strips (cut up chicken breasts) in the zest and juice of a lime (for 2 breasts) then cooking chicken (without any remaining juice in a pan with a little oil, simultaneously cook some Thai rice (it's a bit stickier and has quite a nice texture with the sauce, but basmati or whatever rice you usually have would be fine) then when chicken cooked through, add any remaining lime juice, and add some chopped coriander, some supermarkets sell it frozen so it's easy to keep, or half a small bunch chopped is fine. Then some fish sauce (2-3 table spoons?) and some coconut cream or milk, you can get small jars of the cream in Waitrose and Sainsburys do a small carton of cream, but milk is fine about half a tin? Taste the sauce once it's all combined and check if you need/ want more fish sauce. I serve with some green veg, eg broccoli, green beans etc. The original recipe was from Waitrose and included spring onions and green chilli.
I've just looked for original recipe but can't find it. Sorry.

madvixen · 29/07/2018 09:35

Re the sausages, Tesco have now made most of their finest sausages gluten free. The Lincolnshire ones have a nice peppery kick to them and make a really good carbonara.

MerryMarigold · 29/07/2018 09:42

Never tried sausage carbonara! Thanks I will do that.

BrutusMcDogface · 29/07/2018 09:45

She eats loads! Way more than my 4 year old.

Ricekrispie22 · 29/07/2018 11:32

I used fish cakes to gradually get my DS to eat fish. First I started with about 90% potato and only 10% fish! I gradually increased the proportion of fish to potato and I don't think he noticed. Fish pie is also a good fishy disguise.
I also got him eating eggs by starting with savoury pancakes and gradually turning them into omelettes! I also did fried rice with only a tiny bit of egg in at first and slowly increased the egg. He now is fine with scrambled egg on toast and omelettes, and I've started doing quiches, but he still won't touch boiled, poached or fried.

Summernamechange · 29/07/2018 12:46

I will try fish cakes for sure. She says she wants to try lasagna- although it’s quite samey to what she already likes.

I don’t eat fish so it’s a hard one. She does eat GF fish fingers at School (they’re nice apparently- which is weird as I supply them!)

Eggs is the one I need to tackle more as DH and I often eat omelette and is naturally GF.

I’ve bought sausages this morning (and a bribing pudding!)

She won’t entertain burgers. This is annoying as you can get GF burger s in several places when you eat out and would make life easier. She is the child who wouldn’t eat chips for years though.

OP posts:
Almostthere15 · 30/07/2018 08:50

Could there be a way of introducing extras/sides into meals she already likes. I'm conscious that you don't want to ruin the progress so feel completely free to ignore me if you think by doing that she'd reject the whole meal. So for example could you serve meatballs, initially on the side not mixed in, with her fave pasta. Or would she try another meat instead of/alongside her chicken dinner (or maybe the gf fish fingers but everything else the same?)
Lasagne is a good shout, it's adding cheese and white sauce so easier to get more calories if that's a problem, you'd need gf flour for the white sauce I imagine. If she likes garlic could you try baking garlic dinner rolls/use gf rolls brushed with garlic butter to serve alongside? This could make burgers less scary in the long run?

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