How many different meals will your children eat ?

[KatieDD]

Mine are starting to turn their noses up at old favourites and I'm panicing because at the moment they will all eat :
Spag Bol
Cottage Pie
Steak and Mash (carrot and swede) and baked beans
Fish and chips
Roast dinners (one will only eat meat and potatoes)
Meat balls and pasta sauce.
And that's it, i'm scared to try anything else because it goes to waste, what do other people cook and goes down well.

Hmm. They'll eat lots of different meals - whatever we cook - but very unwillingly...

They only love fishfingers and chips!

But we took a decision a couple of years ago to do them fishfingers and chips on one night a week but every other night they eat what we eat or they don't eat at all.

We've got it down to minimal fussing/pushing food around the plate. Meals they really hate (shepherd's pie - had it last night!) they'll eat about 1/3 of. That's fine - they won't starve and they have a good breakfast the next day.

Just keep going like it's not a big deal and keep serving up whatever you want to eat, not whatever they'll have a good go at.

Mine will eat most things but I realise we are lucky to have 2 good eaters.

Would they let you vary your current repertoire very slightly. For example, instead of meatballs serve the pasta sauce with pasta and grated cheese? My dd1 prefers some raw veg to cooked. Sometimes she chooses carrot and pepper sticks and cucumber slices with a hot meal but won't eat the same veg if it is hot.

I know it sounds odd but I think well at least she is getting the vitamins.

You see I eat pizza and curry and that's not really what I want for them lol

Mine eat whatever I put in front of them.

Aarrgghhhhh....

We're having the same problem here - the list of things DD1 won't touch seems endless

All my two will both agree to eat is

Mushroom Risotto (leads to requests for seconds)
Sausage pasta
Tuna Pasta
Tuna and noodles
Paella
Egg and prawn fried rice
Spag bol

tbh - only the first on the list is a guaranteed success. DD1 hates potatoes in all forms and that really restricts us. Neither will touch easy meals like beans on toast or fishfingers etc

If you are careful you can make versions of pizza and curry that are fine for children.

E.g. buy plain pizza bases and top with different veggies, cheese, pineapple, prawns, ham whatever really.

Get a basic curry recipe (make their milder if you like).

We eat healthy food but keep it really simple most of the time. E.g. I make a fish pie which is basically normal mash with fish flaked into it and one or two different veggies.

Oh and jacket potatoes if I give dd1 the choice of what goes on her potato (within reason).

Sausage casserole
fish with cous cous/roasted veg
quiche
jackets with tuna / coleslaw
mild curry

I make everything myself and the kids really like everything I cook.

You could try making your own chicken nuggets and hamburgers. My kids love these and when you do it all yourself it turns a crappy meal into something a bit healthier.

With the hamburgers, I even make the bread rolls in my breadmaker, so I know that hardly any salt is in the entire meal.

mine eat -
any kind of pasta
ds loves meat, dd hates meat
they both eat eggy things
stir fry and noodles (againn ds only)
shepherd's pie/mince and mash and veg(dd only)
roast dinners
veggie chilli (i make theirs the same except without the chili!)
pizza/ baked spuds and salad

again, i just make one meal, if somebody doesn't like it , they don't get anything else. The only time i cook different meals is if we are having curry as the dcs will not eat, other things i just make two versions of the same thing. i'm confident they will come to share my love of chillies eventually!

6yo will eat pretty much anything we will eat, so I gues that means lots of things.

I cooked a veggie stir fry with noodles last night and the kids loved it.

I would give my right arm for my ds (3) to eat even a fraction of the hot meals mentioned!
He will only eat sausages,meatballs,and rarely a puff pastry minced beef pie.
He loves his breakfast and sandwich's and will fight you for the last piece of fruit but my word is he a pain in the bum when it comes to cooked meals.
Somebody please tell me that this stage will pass (been like it for over a year now).

NF - kids tastes do change, so keep giving your DS different kinds of food.

I have been trying to get my kids to eat coleslaw for ages, and last week I just put it on their plates expecting the usual moaning, and they both decided they loved it and asked for more !!! I nearly fell over with shock.

How can you get a toddler to eat raw veg. or even potato that's not mashed? i don't feel like I'll ever get there.

ds eats everything except for milk, cheese,yogurt and mince

Anything I give him or anything he's served. If he doesn't like it he won't eat much of it, but he'll always have some.

I have always told him he doesn't have to eat anything he doesn't want to eat, in fact it is one of our house rules . But nopthing else gets offered if he doesn't like it.

In my house food is for nourishment, not for pleasure, and I am too broke to pander to any fussiness. He needs to eat whatever I give him if he's hungry.

What's wrong with curry for kids?

What do you think Indian children eat? Chicken and chips?

janeasher I didn't get my toddler to eat raw veg, the nursery did. They got offered cucumber and tomato etc at around 4pm most days and eventually my dd copied the others. I haven't got any magic answers, I think we are just lucky.

I have loads of friends (who like us) eat most things (the parents I mean). Some of us have fussy children, some of us don't.

I think that as long as they eat a few different fruit and veg (whether it is raw, baked steamed, smoothied or whatever) you don't need to worry too much.

dd1 won't eat olives, avocadoes, lettuce, banana or cooked carrots. Most other stuff she will eat.

My kids love chicken korma, they feel very grown up with the popadums and all!!!

If I make a curry at home and inadvertently make it a tiny bit too hot for dd1, we put a bit of natural yoghurt on the top. She will eat it, but likes to double check that the yoghurt is definitely part of the main meal and we are not trying to con her out of her dessert.

I don't tend to do korma, I buy a balti paste and add it to the sauteed onions and veg, sometimes chicken too. I then separate the portions and keep one mild for the children and the larger pot gets more balti paste added. When I was pg I preferred it milder and it is very easy to adjust the amounts.

I love Thai curries too, again it is easy to adjust the amount of curry paste and in the case of Thai curries the coconut milk.

I just make my own curries with spices at home. No need for the packaged pastres and curry sauces.

OMDB that is one of the things on my "learn to do list" as I know it would be much better than what I "cook" now. Also to make my own stock. One day I will do that too.

lol make my own stock has always been on my list of things to do. Funnily enough I've never got round to it!

My mum tought me to make curries years ago, she always has a larder full of all the spices and gives me little bags of them to use. It works out a lot cheaper than the bought pastes and sauces, and I love the smell of the frying spices!mmm

OMDB let's pick a night later in the week when we turn of mnet for an hour and make stock.