Both of my kids (now 6½ and 3½) have always had a mixture of home cooked (mushed up adult food without the salt) and jars. When my daughter was 9 months old we took her abroad for the first time, I was really worried about how she would cope with the hotel food, and, that we were only staying on a half board basis, so thank goodness for Heinz jars, bought from another hotel's supermarket, no preparation involved, no trying to find child friendly restaurants/cafes, all we had to do was find somewhere to sit (usually on the beach) get the jar out, and, as they say Bob's you're uncle!!! Luckily she didn't mind eating the jars cold, you name it she ate it. My worries about the hotel food were totally unfounded, as she loved it, and because she was one of the youngest children in the hotel, she was well pampered by the waiting staff.
My son was pretty much the same, he's now 3½ years old, and absolutely loves Chicken Bhuna Balti, he eats more of my portion than I do!!!! They both still have a weekly visit to a certain well known burger chain, they're more interested in the toys than the food, the only sticky patch we had with him was trying to get him to eat the dreaded CARROTS, Mother-in-Law has solved this one for me, he loves mashed potato and gravy, so she mashes up his carrots and mixes them in, and pours gravy on top, he's so busy concentrating on the potato and gravy that he doesn't realise that he's eating carrots as well.
Anyway, back on to the main topic, Annabel Karmel, who is she? I've never heard of her, and, the only childrens recipe book I have ever used (borrowed) was one for birthday cakes. Basically, the kids eat whatever I have time to cook whether it's from a tin (Ravioli/Spaghetti on toast) or completely home cooked (spag bol/lasagne), whatever they eat, over the week they have had a well balanced diet, they're healthy, rarely get ill, so surely that's the only thing that matters.
Maybe my following question is for another discussion but here I go anyway, My daughter has been watching alot of the news on tv recently, and seen pictures of sheep and cows being culled because of Foot and Mouth, because of this she has decided that she doesn't want to eat anything that was alive before it became food for us. Has anyone got any tips to make sure that she still gets all her essential vitamins and minerals? I have just bought some of those children's chewable mulitvitamin and mineral tablets, but don't really want to continue along that line, I'd much rather she got everything she needs naturally. Any tips or suggestions would be most gratefully received.