Family meal ideas for fussy children

[6rainbow]

I am so fed up of cooking for our family as with fussy young primary school age children plus a couple of teenagers.

Our weekly meals are;

Roast
Curry
Spag Bol
Meatballs & pasta
Carbonara
Wraps / fajitas / quesadillas
Pork loin / steak with rice or chips

The younger children won't eat anything with bits in it like onions or chilli or in sauces, so we are just fed up of the same meals !!

Any suggestions for family fav meals

So the younger children don’t have the curry spag Bol or carbonara when you cook it?

Home made macaroni cheese and homemade garlic bread.. We have green veg with ours!

How fussy are the younger ones? Do they eat vegetables, apart from the 'bits' in sauces etc?

Things that go down well with everyone in our house are:

Risotto, with roast vegetables or salad
Slow cooker honey mustard chicken (I put whole shallots in too, but it would be easy enough to serve up without any, for those who don't like it)
Burgers in brioche bun
Teriyaki burgers (no bun) and vegetables
Slow cooker pulled pork / brioche bun, with coleslaw
Burritos
Homemade chicken nuggets, serve with whatever you like
Bean burgers with sweet potato mash and salad
Coq au vin with mash
Sausage tray bake

Fish and chips or fish and rice
Sweet and sour chicken
Soup with bread
Savoury pancakes

Once upon a chef has a lot of great recipes

Oooh - also chicken pie. Sometimes I roast two chickens and then use the second one for meals during the week. Mine love chicken pie, I do a super simple one (from Nigella, child-friendly) and it has peas and sweetcorn in it, not sure if that counts as bits.

Mine would always eat a stir fry - loads of variations. For some reason stir fried vegetables didn't seem to count as vegetables!

Gammon steaks
Casseroles/Hotpot
Chicken/lamb with roasted veg and couscous

They love carbonara
Will only eat a curry if the sauce is from a jar so a korma
I make pasta sauce for spag Bol, and meatballs but we puree the sauce.

They are really good at eating veg and fruit, like carrots, broccoli peas sweet corn, but basically any meat in a sauce, like pies etc are a no.

Roast dinners are a winner so I sometimes do a quick roast dinner with a pork loin chop.

They love plain rice or pilau rice but won't eat paellas of risottos
Burgers, hot dogs and pizza are normally for treat nights.

And half the family won't eat fish.

My husband and i often cook other meals for us and eldest like stir fry, chilli, pie or curry. Paella , risotto etc for ourselves but it's hard work cooking two dinners

Just to also note- I do think we are reasonably good cooks snd cook as much as we can from scratch, but working both my husband snd I work full time so we want to cook a meal quickly during the week that kids will enjoy and eat.

Can you adapt the meals you and the eldest children like so the youngest eat at least some of it? You have stir fry and they have some noodles and whatever veg they like from it? You lot have pie and they have the mash and veg with something from the freezer. Or just serve up the pie with plenty of sides they will eat and then it's their choice whether they eat the pie, pick at it or leave it. You don't want to be cooking two completely different dinners and with all the fussiness you're probably going to be limited for entire meals you'll all eat.

But if they like rice will they eat egg fried rice? Jacket potatoes and different toppings? Quiche/frittata? Shepherds/cottage pie? Lasagne?

Sausage and mash
Omlettes and salad
Chicken wrapped in bacon with baby potatoes
Jacket potatoes
Fish and homemade chips

What about Tray Bakes? You can put a mix of veg, meat & any seasoning, bung in & oven & it's done?
We do Mediterranean Chicken Tray Bake; Sticky Sausage Tray Bake; Salmon Tray bake; etc etc

My fussy ds won't normally eat fish but he will eat calamari, and he will eat a grilled salmon or trout steak because it doesn't look like fish. I serve them with chips and some sort of dip or sauce to dip the chips in.

He'll also eat sausage tray bake, and he likes chicken pieces coated in creamy dijon mustard, which doesn't count as a sauce because it isn't wet.

I’ve had great success serving everything family style and they all help themselves. Also did a meal plan and put up on board so they knew what was coming up.
It’s not been an overnight success but gradually people try more new things especially if I put garnishes etc in their own dishes like herbs, toppings. More work for the dishwasher but more enjoyable and relaxed mealtimes for sure.

Fritata?
Puff pastry tart (topped with whatever they’l Eat)
Toad in the hole
Pasta bake with chicken, bacon, broccoli and sweetcorn
Paprika chicken and veg / chicken and pineapple skewers
Falafel in pitas

Chicken traybake
Cheese and bacon quiche
Sausage rolls and salad realfood.tesco.com/recipes/the-ultimate-sausage-roll.html

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Since starting the thread OP, it’s been a few days, has there been any change at dinner time at all? Any of the suggestions “worked”?

Things my kids like as well as your list:
Toad in the hole
Quiche
Tuna pasta bake - fish wouldn't otherwise be entertained but this always seems to go down fine in a tomato sauce
Gnocchi with pesto and halloumi

I would double up the youngers on the meals they will eat, so later in the week you reheat spag Bol / curry for them, which frees you up for two meals you can cook to your tastes.

Jkt pot always works well here, with a variety of fillings buffet style for everyone to choose from.
Cottage pie

My pasta sauce always had peppers, onion, celery, courgette and carrots blitzed in with the tomatoes once it had all cooked down. Over time they’ll now tolerate courgette and pepper chunks.

When I wanted them to try something different like couscous and risotto I always did it with something they loved, like chopped up sausage or salmon, and a piece of bread and butter so they had the carbs too, but invariably they’d scoop up the couscous and rice too.

As a pp says above, I always meal plan, but I make sure they all contribute a meal suggestion, even the 6 year old, that way they can’t complain.

I feel your pain. Our youngest is dairy intolerant too, so that just makes it even trickier 😭🤦🏻‍♀️

@Whatawaytogo

Since starting the thread OP, it’s been a few days, has there been any change at dinner time at all? Any of the suggestions “worked”?

Well this weekend cooking didn't quite go to plan. We did however try tacos on Friday night. The youngest only liked the soft ones, middle child loved them both, and he's he's fussiest so really impressed he ate the minced meat with 'gasp' onions!

Sat we had a family pizza night. They all love my homemade pizzas so that's a winner. I was supposed to be making a roast today - again a favourite, but some friends asked us if we fancied getting takeaway fish & chips by the waterfront. However when we got home both little ones wanted to know whats for dinner so I ended up making them a quick tuna pasta

@daisydalrymple

I would double up the youngers on the meals they will eat, so later in the week you reheat spag Bol / curry for them, which frees you up for two meals you can cook to your tastes.

Jkt pot always works well here, with a variety of fillings buffet style for everyone to choose from.
Cottage pie

My pasta sauce always had peppers, onion, celery, courgette and carrots blitzed in with the tomatoes once it had all cooked down. Over time they’ll now tolerate courgette and pepper chunks.

When I wanted them to try something different like couscous and risotto I always did it with something they loved, like chopped up sausage or salmon, and a piece of bread and butter so they had the carbs too, but invariably they’d scoop up the couscous and rice too.

As a pp says above, I always meal plan, but I make sure they all contribute a meal suggestion, even the 6 year old, that way they can’t complain.

I feel your pain. Our youngest is dairy intolerant too, so that just makes it even trickier 😭🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes I do often do that but we really like eating the same thing and I still find it a pain as I have to cook pasta or rice to go with it. But if we are having a home made hot curry I will often use a curry I have frozen for the children for them