Menu planning for children

[MooseBreath]

We do family meals at breakfast and lunch, and about twice per week at dinner. Eventually we will have all dinners together, but DH and I like to have food that the kids won't eat (too spicy and more "grown up" flavours)

I find that the kids' dinners are very repetitive and similar to what we would have for lunch. I'm short on ideas! They weirdly don't like fish fingers, chips, or chicken goujons.

These are the meals they have regularly:
Macaroni cheese with peas and carrots
Grilled chicken with rice and sweetcorn
Spaghetti and meatballs with salad
Cheesy mash and beans
Chicken curry with rice and broccoli
Pizza toast with cucumber and tomato
Vegetable soup with crusty bread

If you don't eat the same thing as your children every night, what do you feed them?

Roast dinners, spaghetti bolognaise, korma, chilli, panini with wedges, baked potatoes, pizza, bacon and eggs, burritos, quesadillas…

Risotto

We take food out for dc before we add in chilli as such dc used to spice. Could that be an option?

When they were little mine always ate a lot of curries/chilli with rice plus pasta with veg. Risotto went down well too.

DD didn't like the texture of meat when she was young so lentil cottage pie was a favourite and she liked fish pie too.

DS doesn't really like potatoes, not even chips. Even at 18 I would say he still just tolerates them when we have a mash meal. Sweet potatoes are ok though.

How old are your DC? There's no harm in trying kids with something a bit spicy. I've been eating curries since I was weaned, as have my DC. Just don't go full on vindaloo!

We make soups, dhals, pasta sauces, etc., with an extra bit of sauce packed with spices. DC has started to add some of the spicy sauce.

Sweet potato wedges.

Getting them involved in cooking increases the likelihood they will eat it.

Sorry, I meant to put their ages. DS1 is 3.5 and DS2 is nearly 11 months, so still very young.

I have tried them with risotto and paella, but DS1 seems to be adversed to foods touching each other. "On the side" is a very important thing to him.

Sweet potato wedges is a good shout! Burritos might also be a hit if I "deconstruct" them.

I would give them what your having with adaptions/extras.
The repertoire won't increase unless they're exposed to new things.
When mine were small we had some really odd combinations of foods and bread, peas and/or cucumber on the table with virtually every meal but eventually they started eating loads. Now they love some foods that I hate.

Our DCs always ate the same as us, whatever we were eating.

Omelette or cheesy pancakes
Hot dogs
Chicken noodles www.myfussyeater.com/sesame-honey-chicken-noodles/
Jacket potatoes
Mini toad in the hole www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/mini-toad-in-the-hole/
Tuna sweetcorn pasta
Pesto and tomato pasta
Fishcakes

Do they eat any form of fish? I batch cook tuna or cod fishcakes and freeze. I do similar with falafel. Salmon fillets just season with black pepper and topped with lemon slices before baking, serve with broccoli and rice.
Would frittata be too 'mixed'?
Skewers are popular here. I usually marinade chunks of chicken breast in some lemon, garlic and fresh parsley or honey and whole grain mustard. I intersperse the chicken with veg. Or chicken and pineapple is popular here. Halloumi also works well.
Sweet potatoes make great jackets with a choice of toppings.

@AtleastitsnotMonday DS will entertain the idea of tuna at nursery (he goes twice per week), but not at home. He may like skewers, so I will try that! Frittata might be too mixed, but scrambled eggs would work.

Pesto pasta with garlic bread
meat balls and tomato pasta
sausages chips and beans
fish fingers with pesto pasta and corn
kebabs with chips and salad
roast chicken and sides
chilli con carne
spag bowl
beef stew with potato’s
…..it’s so boring and repetitive, they barely eat it even when they are the few foods they eat. I loathe menu planning

At that age I found they were too tired to eat much at dinner, so I did the main meal at lunch and had ploughman’s (whatever I had in the fridge), homemade soup (I made different ones each time like mixed veg, butternut squash, lentil, chicken) with bread, eggs (scrambled, boiled, omelette, poached), baked potatoes, and other lighter meals. Sometimes with chopped fruit or veg to keep them going while I was cooking, as that way they’re hungry and usually eat it.

Get a copy of the nursery menu and make stuff off that. They know whereof they speak ime.

I have a few meals where everyone tailors what they eat to them, so they are all happy + kids try stuff if they want.
Choose your own chicken: chicken breast, sometimes wrapped in bacon. They choose their own sauces. Gravy, bbq, salsa, sweet + sour, katsu... with microwave rice its so easy to do different sides.
Tacos: make your own, with mince, salad, salsa, guac, cheese + whatever you want to add. I used to have to offer plain chicken for my youngest, he's over that now!
Fake harvester/buffet salad: croutons, pasta salad, noodles, sweetcorn, beetroot, carrot, salad,
Messy but fun!

Have you tried prawns? They go down quite well in our house but if I do them too often my DD goes off them. I do them usually just cooked in butter with lemon to squeeze on, with a bit of pasta or potatoes. You could thread them on skewers too.

I do a really easy to make dish of chopped up chicken breast cooked in a pan, add some diced onions and a shake of curry powder. Add a packet of microwave rice and some flaked almonds and sultanas. Kind of coronation chicken vibes and goes down well.

Boiled eggs with toast, carrot sticks with hummus to dip, chopped up fruit and a chunk of cheese.

@Snowpaw I don't cook prawns because I am allergic! My DH has made them for DS1 before when I wasn't home though, and they were not appreciated...

I feel your pain pp

We have:

Cottage pie
Sausage and mash, veg
Meatballs and gravy, mash, veg
Spaghetti in various sauces
Pies
Burgers
Soups

It does get repetitive