How did you get your toddler to eat a roast dinner?

[Maloneyb]

One of my favourite things in the world is a roast dinner!
im always making something extra for my DS(under2) because he just won’t engage in eating a roast.
he doesn’t like mashed potato- loves chips though!
broccoli is ok but picky…
I just don’t know what to do / how to offer it differently to gage his interest?

any tips?

any particular sides I can try?

Parsnips are good for toddlers because they’re sweet and look like chips

I just put it down in front of them really.
Just like every meal. I would make sure not to overload the plate and would put extras in the middle to help yourself to. Gravy in a jug on the table so they could have it or not. They would sometimes have a ramekin of gravy to dip.
Main thing was I never made a fuss. Just put the meal out, they would eat what they wanted.
I applied that to all our mealtimes from as soon as they were weaned. Sometimes they would literally eat peas for dinner and nothing else, other times they would put away as much as the adults. Main thing is not to get stressed.

Just keep offering. I find it goes in phases too. Until around 2 DD would have ignored the meat, eaten the veg (especially if there was cauliflower cheese) and probably had some roast potatoes too. At some point that switched to eating the meat, refusing the veg except maybe a few peas under extreme sufferance (wouldn’t normally do peas with a roast but did during this phase in the hope something green may pass her lips). She’d also refuse the potato unless mashed up with the gravy - and then she’d demand extra gravy.

Shes 4 now. Will eat most of it really, except cauliflower with or without cheese sauce. Less enthusiastic about the vegetables but they do get eaten. Would eat 20 ‘Yorkshire pies’ as she calls them if we let her, and still wants double gravy.

Just make things in easy to pick up sizes. Now mash isn’t easy, but roast chicken strips or some pulled pork is, same with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puds, roast carrots/parnsips, even cauliflower cheese (the sauce is nice for dipping).

Actually a roast was our dd’s first ever meal at 6 months.

Did I cheat by blending it (with non salted homemade gravy before any one freaks) and feeding it to them from a very young age?

Haha love that ketchup worked!
Our best one for making the veg more enticing was to fry it in garlic (eg cook the green beans, then lightly fry in a bit of oil and crushed garlic). Turned out garlic was the entry drug to all veg.

Blending is rank 🤢 🤣
Just give it as finger food.