I'm a terrible cook and now need toddler foods - help

[mairimac]

When my ds was a baby I weaned him on all my own purees and moved on to home cooked meals made from Annabel Karmel recipe books for his age. Before 1 years of age he ate and enjoyed almost everything. After 1 year he started visually seeing everything and hated everything and for three months all he would eat was baked potato and beans. From there we have slowly moved on to various things like different types of potato products, still beans and things like fish finger, chicken nuggets and sausages. Because it's been so tough for the last two years with his eating I just became uninterested in cooking for him as everything I tried was refused. Problem is now I'm stuck in the rut but I would like to now improve and make more for him to try, however I work and have little time and don't want to spend hours cooking for it be refused. My partner and I eat later in the evening during the week but we try to eat together on the weekends. However can someone help me with recipes suitable for toddler that are quick and easy to make daily. I've gone down the route of giving him what he wants because he hates new things and at least he's eating when given his favourite but I need to move on and would like help and advice please.

Pasta, pasta, pasta!! Quickest and easiest thing there is...

I batch cook and then freeze. We also eat after the children have gone to bed so sometimes I save a bit of that for them.

I make spaghetti bolognese, and freeze the sauce and pasta together.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1556/sosimple-spaghetti-bolognese

Macaroni and cheese which sometimes they have with sausages and sometimes without,

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5240/macaroni-cheese-in-4-easy-steps

A fish stew with haddock, cooked in cream with shallotts and then a handful of spinich chucked in and then freeze with rice.

Beef or lamb stew.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5533/herby-lamb-cobbler

I like Nigella's 'How to eat' children's section at the back of the book for easy basic stuff and I get Good Food Magazine too.

mine love pasta too- I started off doing pasta with tom ketchup and cheese and now I do proper pasta sauce with loads of veg- mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes and they love it.

Meatballs and pasta/spaghetti

Fish Pie (white fish/leeks/cheese sauce and mash on top)

Pizza- bought and home made (ds loves pizza toast- toast with pizza topping!)

Scrambled eggs and pancakes

DS also loves a 'fry up'- sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs and toast (mostly grilled)

I do lots of soup- lentil and vegetable, leek and potato, butternut squash

Cottage Pie

Salmon fillet lightly marinaded with veg and mash

Quiche and boiled potatoes and salad

Picnic style- mini sausages, bread sticks, cheese, pepper, carrot and cucumber sticks, apple, ham etc

Scampi

Fishcakes- bought and homemade

(mine are 2 and 3yrs and they eat all of these)

Give him whatever you and your DH are going to eat that night, you might as well get him used to family meals as soon as possible.

As savoycabbage said, I second batch cooking and freezing things like sbag bol, shepherd's pies, fish pie, any pasta dish in fact. You can buy individual foil containers just the right size for toddlers and just plonk the frozen meal in the oven when you're rushing around in the evening.

DS lives almost entirely on frozen ready meals when I'm working lates. It is a godsend.

I would add rice dishes to soph's list.

Rice with stir-fried chicken and veg

rice with chilli (without the chillies though, just bolognese with kidney beans)

rice with lentils

rice with mild chicken korma

etc etc

Look there is a toddler section in MN recipes.

I would really recommend the dinner lady cookbook, it has recipes for healthy, nutritous traditional meals. I got a copy from the library.

Thanks all for your great ideas, will give some freezable recipes a go and see how we fare.

Sausages are always a hit with mine (15 months and 4 years) and they're quick, easy and adaptable (mix with tomatoes and pasta for a tasty alternative to sausages and mash). If you're worried about nutritional content of sausages, try Ellie and Roddy's sausages which I buy in Sainsbury's. They've got 25% less salt and fat, and no artificial colours of flavours. My two love them, they're really meaty!