What did your child have for tea today?

[Mulefa]

My dd1 is 3 and a half and tonight she had sausages, couscous, carrots and broccoli (all half eaten!) then a Munch Bunch fromage frais for pudding. She drank diluted apple juice.

I would love to know what other children of any age have for their tea - just out of nosiness and also to get some more ideas!

Thanks!

BTW, why do people think chips are so bad? I make DD chips myself and see them as being no different to having any othe potato dish. I simply chop some potatoes, a drizzle of olive oil and pop them in the oven. Even oven chips aren't that bad - it's only the proper deep fried ones that are.

I really wish meal times could be a nice set time evry night but it just isn't possible in our case, what with work and everything. Howeverm at weekends we alsways eat together at the table for all our meals, even breakfast. However, lunch and dinner are normally whilst we are out. DD eats at the same meal times at nursery 2 days a week, but fortunately is very flexible andwill just eat whenever on the other 5 days.

My late Mum was a Headteacher at a village primary school. The pupils were a real mix of very middle class and kids from a local council estate (not mentioning lots of kids with special needs...her school was one of the very first in the country to integrate special needs kids...at her own instigation) When the production of school dinners was privatised she was upset and gradually as she saw the gradual deterioration of the service they were providing (at very high cost) she grew VERY angry. For some kids this school dinner was their main sustenance of the day. Children who were getting free school meals because of their parents financial situation were getting these miniscule portions of crap. One day she lost it and took a plate of this meagre muck up to the Local Education Authority. They had strict (patheticly inadequate) guidelines about how much protien etc. should be in a school meal. I think the plate had about 25 baked beans on it. They got scales out and everything. They had to admit it was NOY good enough. I still don't think it made too much difference though. The private contractors were in it for profit. OBVIOUSLY!

Can you tell I'm very proud of her though?

My ds, 20 months has just wolfed down a bowl of mashed potato and chickpeas with mashed frozen veg (sweetcorn, peas, beans) with cheese, followed by some granary bread with butter and Marmite - tasted the marmite, grinned and said "Marmite!' - he's never said it before and I didn't even tell him it was Marmite. Very, very proud!!

BTW I also don't offer alternatives. BUT - I make food out of things he likes, never push food on him or force him to eat, and never withhold pudding as a punishment for not eating main course either (yoghurt and fruit are equal foods to savoury food IMO, so why withhold nourishment?). We have very happy mealtimes (so far!) and he's a fat little thing.

I don't think even deep fried chips are that bad if you use a potato that's not too absorbant and don't leave it in too long - for an occasional treat of course.

I'm with Toddler Taming here - the occasional trip to MacDonalds does no harm, and makes you feel better as a parent when you see there's worse behaved kids out there than your own

ds gets a mix of meals. I don't force him to eat them, he still gets a dessert as long as he's at least tried his meal. Overall he gets a balanced diet.

I remember as a child spending hours and hours (well it seemed like hours, I was only about 4 at the time) at the dinner table all by myself as the others had finished and left, chewing the meat I desperately didn't want to eat. It's one of my earliest memories, and one of the worst...

So of course I don't force my dd to eat anything she doesn't like. She still gets stuff she doesn't like on her plate though, like brocoli, and if she eats some, then great, if not, well, it's no big deal. She generally eats very well, but if she doesn't want to eat what I've cooked (it happens), that's tough, coz that's all there is... She'll still get pudding though, as it is generally fruit. Sometimes she'll eat her fruit and then go back to the main course.

We eat all our meals together (it's only the two of us), dinner is at 6-6.30 (Can't cope with having my dinner earlier, and need a snack at about 9) and the only processed stuff we eat is fish fingers (unless you count tinned fish as processed food, we eat quite a lot of tinned sardines, mackerell and salmon)

Oh another thing... I read somewhere that it can take up to 20 exposures of a new food for it to become familiar and likeable to a young child.

Now I'm sure it's not quite as simplistic as that as there's things that I've given to ds (2) more than that and he's still not terribly keen, but there's many other things that are now amongst his favourite foods that took many weeks before he'd even try them (again, no fuss - if he didn't eat it that was fine - just no alternatives). So don't give up hope, and don't feel you have to always just give them stuff you know they like

If I do give something new then I tend to make sure it's lunchtime and something "favourite" is for teatime so he at least gets one good meal.

Pupuce. I really like the idea of getting my son to help with food preparation - he's really beginning to take an interest and buttered/marmited (!) his own toast today (he's nearly 3 so I can't believe we haven't done it before ...). Hopefully it will help him try new things.

I'm also interested by the people who have early and bad memories of being forced to eat things they hated. I do think most of ds's dislikes are personal taste (or smell and texture often in his case)so I'll continue to respect them - and subtly chivvy.

Good thread.

Nobby - my DS loves to make pancakes, he mixes all the ingredients or we make muffins, soups, quiches. I pre-weigh all the ingredients and I get him to put them in big bowl, mix, sift,....I even let him cut some stuff or mic in hot pans... I am NEXT to him of course. It can't take more than 5 to 10 minutes tough he has sat through much longer... I certainly let him go when he is bored.
DD is now queing up to do it too.

He made biscuits with his dad once - made a massive mess and refused to eat them once they were cooked. So, stupidly, that put me off. I'll make it a regular thing.

claireandrich, I feel better about my addiction to microchips as a child! Have to admit that I love homemade chips, maris piper spuds and groundnut oil, such a treat!

As for DD helping, mmm, not sure, too many memories of helping nursery children bake (am I the only parent that slyly chucks that stuff in the bin?) and I cook by eye so I don't own any weighing scales.

Anyway, DD will no doubt be suffering an MSG hangover this morning as we had Chinese take-away last night as DH is away. That's the other problem, I really like some junk food (take-aways) and don't see why I should stop DD joining in, she's particularly fond of poppadoms and dhal. Luckily our Indian is a cut-above the usual one-pot curry shops (or maybe that should be unluckily as i'm getting a bit heavier since we moved!)

Egg on toast, yawn

I make the whole dinner with my children when time allows and we bake/cook together trying out new and healthy foods/shakes regularly but they eat what they want and don't eat what they don't want as and when they want. We always eat together and eat out together - but oh for an ideal child and ideal parent in an ideal world........................................................

Thought I'd resurect this one! As dd1 has been to a few barbecues lately and has decided she likes burgers! I don't want to give her crap ones. So, anyone got any good recipies for home made burgers? TIA.

I just use organic minced beef and pat it into burger shape then fry in olive oil. Tastes good.

Batey, Annabel Karmel has a good recipe which uses minced beef and grated apple (binds the mince together and keeps the burger moist). They were easy to make and very yummy.

While we're asking for burger recipes, has anyone got a nice veggie burger recipe? Made one recently with kidney beans and onions and it was disgusting. Even I didn't eat it.

Can definitely add a thumbs up to the AK recipe - my ds loves 'em and so do we!

Veggie burger
1 onion chopped up and fried gently
grated carrot
fresh coriander
tin of borlotti beans (or butter beans)
grated parmesan
1 egg
mash the beans. Add other ingredients . shape and fry.

How about merguez ?
Minced lamb
lots of ground cumin
egg to bind

mmm, that veggie recipe sounds nice. Think I will try it this week.

Baby Organix pasta with some homemade tomatoey-mushroom sauce. Always a winner! And some greek yoghurt with maple syprup for dessert.

Very very very lazy veggie burger recipe

frozen mixed veg - cooked until tender
instant mased potato (use the flakes NOT the powder!) made up to be slightly more sloppy than for eating mash
any seasoning you like (I use salt, pepper and a bit of chilli powder)
egg white or milk and breadcrumbs

mash the veggies a bit add seasoning and instant mash. shape into burger shapes and coat with egg white or milk and roll in breadcrumbs and fry.

You can add some bean to to ensure that you have protein, carbs and vitamins and fibre!

Mushroom pizzas (stuffed mushrooms).

Philadelphia cheese, chopped spring onions, chopped fresh tomato, grated cheese (cheddar and mozzerella) mixed in a bowl.

Use to fill large mushrooms and put in oven for about 15-20 mins until cheese bubbles and browns lightly. Or put in a bun like a burger.

Thanks so much for Mulefa for starting this thread. I printed it out a while ago and mealtimes for DS (10.5 months) has been much more interesting ever since

Thanks for the burger recipies.

Enid, tried your homemade chicken nuggets on the dds tonight and they loved them. Even got a spontaneous "thankyou for making this for my dinner!" from dd1 !!! Cheers, they'll be much mincing in my kitchen from now on!!