Ideas needed for what to give a 21 month old for tea

[Melly]

Am hoping someone can give me some ideas on what I can give my dd who is 21 months old, for tea at 5 pm. My ds is now nearly 3 weeks old and I need my dd to be able to be able to feed herself finger food type things at 5 pm when I am breastfeeding ds. I try to give dd her main meal at lunchtime when ds is asleep, but am struggling for ideas at teatime. She isn't very good with sandwiches and will only eat these with lots of supervision, which at the moment is very difficult if I am on my own. Have tried cheese on toast which wasn't very successful. She loves cheese but I obviously can't give her this everyday.
Any ideas gratefully received. At the moment dh is on leave and also getting help from my dad and stepmum, but next week dh working away and I'm nervous about managing the teatime & breast feeding scenario on my own.

Off the top of my head...

Pizza slices (add pureed vegetables or other stuff to make them healthier)
Sausages cut into little chunks (I use Tescos pork & tomato or Pork & apple)
Chunks of vegetables and spiral pasta which can be picked up.
fish fingers, cut up, or flakes of other fish.

I must say, I hate thinking of what to give for tea too! My mum was exactly the same

My dd is nearly 20 months and loves whole wheat pasta with either red or green pesto, or just a tomato sauce with grated cheese. It works well as a lunch too 'cause I make enough for me! Something else 'finger foody' is macaroni and cheese (but can get a bit messy) or a mini pizza cut up into small pieces. What about fish or chicken fingers with chips?
I'm sure you'll get lots of ideas here,
hth
hana

Hana - ditto with the Pasta and Pesto! DS (22ths) loves it.... it's by far his favourite and you can serve it with Broccoli or peas or any veg mixed through it. Deeeeeelish!! I love it too.

DS also loves chipolata sausages.

Cous cous is another good one, with just about ANYTHING you have in the fridge mixed through it. Get ready with the hoover though.

These are things my 16 month old can kind-of feed herself with (although I help out occasionally to get it in faster!) :

Spaghetti hoops (Quite easy to manage with a spoon & a deep bowl and once she's fed up using the spoon can be picked out by hand!)
Pasta shells
Pieces of ham/cheese/apples/chicken/raisins
Bowl of peas
Crackers with cheese spread/jam etc
Fish finger cut up into chunks
Waffle broken up into chunks
Bowl of rice with tiny bit of sauce
Bowl of mashed potato and veg (turnip a fav)- it sticks to the spoon quite well

of course the floor is always a mess

Here's a list of what my 20 month ds has:

fishfingers/chipolata sausages/steamed chicken breast/tivalli veggie hotdogs with beans/spaghetti/peas

If I want to add a carbohydrate to that I give mash, potatp waffles (surprisingly additive free!) or chips made of chipped potatoes dried and shaken in olive oil and baked very hot for twenty mins

omlette/scambled egg with ham/cheese mixed in, with vegetables

crackers with cheese spread

ravioli/macaroni cheese

also he has butties (cheese/cheese spread) with cherry tomatoes on the side - he had chorizo and cherry toms last night

Good luck!

Vegetables that can be dipped into a dip of some description would be good. You could give her vegetables and an avocado dip for main and then fruit with a chocolate dip for dessert. That's if you feed her chocolate. Otherwise you could make a slightly healthier dessert dip out of mascarpone cheese with some icing sugar and maybe a touch of lemon juice for flavouring.

Anything too bland in colour can be changed by food colouring which may convince her to eat it.

Can she handle little meatballs that either go on a spoon or a fork. I'm already letting ds use a baby fork which is obviously not sharp but allows him to pick food up. He still hasn't figured out why it sticks to the fork but is happy when it does.

Coloured pasta spirals are good as they attract and Asda do a great range of frozen baby vegetables which I use in everything. They have a bag with baby corn, carrots and sugar snap peas in it which we all love and are easy to manage.

There are also some good little organic puffs (little wotsits but a hell of a lot better!0, My 16 month old loves them, and little organic bread sticks and rice cakes, and there are also museli bars for toddlers, again all organic you can buy, all from Sainsbury's.

Other than that I do the same all all the other mums on this thread. Lottie doesn't like me using a spoon with her and i have to constantly think about what i can cook that she can feed herself with her hands, and as she is looked after my my best mate and mum between them, most of the week I have to think about food they wouldn't have anightmare getting off the floor.
Nigella Lawson has that What to eat cook book or something that has a fab receipe in the back with mince, and bertolli beans and macaroni pasta. I've made it for loads of adults who were bringoing their kids over for tes and we all lved it. Let me know and I'll dig out the receipe if you want it.
Other than that how about home-made chicken gougons?

Yes please Thomcat!! that recipee sounds great! Always looking for something yummy (and new more to the point!) I'm off to read the posts about new dinner ideas now.....

Ds loves boiled eggs and soldiers, although to make it easier for him I spread the egg over the toast. Both ds and dd love either plain or lemon and raisin pancakes, they also eat lots of different things with toast, such as cheese spread, jam, marmalade, marmite. They will both eat sandwiches, but sometimes will have finger food such as bits of cold chicken/ham, along with a slice of bread separately. They have their main meals at lunchtime, so tea is more of a snack. Also agree with ThomCat about the organic breadsticks and ricecakes, which I use for dd (16 months) to keep her happy whilst I'm getting the food ready.

Another slightly more snack-y type thing that always went down well with mine is French toast/eggy bread with marmite spread on it before frying in butter. I think it's from Annabel Karmel.

Thanks very much for the ideas, will try them out and see how we get on.

Right Hana, it'll be here for you by Monday. Don't work Fridays and can't figure out how to use Dom's computer at home!

hana, haven't forgotton all together, just forgot to bring receipe in but have written it out ready to type up, I'm nearly there!

I'm really struggling with getting DS 22 months to eat, he's given up on finger food and refuses anything unless it is a mush! Help. Getting desperate to entice him back into finger food and feeding himself.

Cocococo: a friend's little girl was like that -- almost 3yo and her mother was still pureeing food for that child.

Does it matter that much? Even my friend's little girl outgrew it eventually, especially as she went to nursery where how she ate never got her any attention, anyway.