Food rut ... mince, chicken, chicken, mince, mince, chicken ... help!

[Millie1]

The title says it all ... we seem to spend our weeknights alternating mince and chicken. I'm sooooooooo sick of bolognese, lasagne, shepherd's pie, mince with pots & veg, chicken casserole and more chicken casserole. Yes, I'll throw in the odd stew, roast pork and roast chicken but I'm in such a food rut. Please help!

Here are my problems: ... 4 children (8,6 and almost 2). The 8 year old would win an award for the world's fussiest eater (and has nut allergy), the 6 year old has T1 Diabetes so every meal must include potato, pasta or rice (which he doesn't really eat so that's kinda out - most of the time), the 2 year olds - one would eat us out of house and home and the other is more particular but she's young enough for me to persevere with.

Older children don't like curry, chilli or spices in general. Older children don't like vegetables (I generally hide them). Okay ... older children don't like much

That's it, got it off my chest & now look forward to lots of inspiring suggestions!

Thanks!

could you alternate noodles with the potato, pasta or rice. You can make some nice oriental meals which have pork or prawns in, or stir frys.

tuna steaks? They are really meaty.

Meatballs and spaghetti - a la Ikea?

pizza and salad goes down well in our house - the kids have their salad cut into crudites.

macaroni cheese is a big favourite here too.

ummmmm, I'll keep thinking.....

oh sausages:-
sausage and mash
toad in the hole - my kids LOVE yorkshire puddings!
sausage casserole

When I do my weekly meal plan I try and make sure we have 1 pasta, 1 rice, 1 potato dish etc with 1 mince, 1 chicken, 1 fish

do you get the idea? That way we are sure to have a variety of stuff.

Thanks Sweetheart ... did forget to mention that I do make fish pies (but two children eat only under duress), macaroni (3 children under duress). Haven't made meatballs in ages (used to do a nice Nigella recipe) so shall put those back on my menu list, thanks. Yes, I used to be organised like you with my menus but over the last few months I've dumped menu planning and just bought standard veg (onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, celery, potatoes) and then used some or all as a base for everything. Time for a fresh start. Oh, and none of them eat salad stuff. I'm cursed, aren't I

Cous cous? Iv presently got chick tagine/stew wit carrots, parsnip, celery nd pots all cookin away n a veg stock (i fryd onion & garlic then added chick fryd a bit added spices, cumin nd 2 oxo cubes & filled/covered wit boilin water) will throw n some chick peas later & serve it on cous cous tonight its lovely very messy wit my almost 2yo ds2 getin bout da same amount of cous cous n his belly as all over himself & da floor other then da fact ds1 3.6 wont touch da veg other den da odd parsnip, its a winner... also got a lovely recipe from here put apple sauce & soy sauce on top chick thighs roast covered wit tin foil remove foil half hr b4 finish serve wit stir fry veg yum. i do a lot of sea food cause my boys love prawns i do a creamy tom sauce (onion, garlic, tin tom, wat ever veg ya wana hide, spn pesto blitz, add a couple triangles of laughin cow or da likes stir thru for a low cal creamy sauce) wit prawns & pasta and a seafood stir fry wit rice or noodles,.. Also hav ya ever tried a Goulash & dumplings yum, chicken veg skewers, lamb chops brown on pan stick n roastin tin wit italian herbs tin tom bita stock & olives oven for 15min-30min til lamb cooked. salmon fish cakes. mexican beef mince wraps or chicken strips wraps. Frittatas... Omlettes... Baked pots wit a mill diff fillings. Sloppy joe bake using basic bol mince recipe then when bol cookd spn n2 ovenproof dish put garlic baguette slices on top oven bake ti bread done, yum.

hmm fishcakes? homemade fish fingers and chips - likewise home made chicken nuggets or burgers? we have potato dauphinoise quite a lot cos its actually easy to make and the dcs eat it - we have that with roast chicken drumsticks or sausages.

We also have dinners that are make your own so either pizzas, wraps or jacket potatoes and loads of different fillings - avocado, cream cheese, cheese, salmon and sald cream, mixed veg - you get the idea.

Cheese and potato pie?

poohbearsmum- not being horrible but would you mind posting your recipes in normal language? some of them look lovely but I couldn't follow them for the life of me.

Would they eat leeks and peas with pasta and cheese? It's one of my staples. I saw that you buy leeks, and thought it worth offering.

Or Jamie Oliver's Pasta Bianco - which is basically pasta in garlic butter and parmesan. That's very easy, really yummy, and we had it with rocket the other day - so easy to make more interesting for the less fussy eaters.

Meat pie - I buy them from time to time.

Will they eat non spicy fajitas? My DD doesn't like spicy fajitas but if I stir fry plain chicken with veg, or just veg she will eat it with tortilla 'wraps' and everyone who wants to can add salsa etc to make more spicy. I know you say they won't eat veg but my DD is a veg refusenik and will eat this- it must be the novelty factor.

Would flour tortillas provide necessary carbs for your 6 year old? If not you could always serve some form of potato as a side dish?

Other ideas which come to mind are

baked salmon and new potatoes

few fillets of white fish bunged in a baking dish, covered with a mixture of finely chopped onion, celery, peppers, olives, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, chopped tomatoes, add whatever you have in really. You can even scatter some cheese on top but I don't think it needs it. Bake for about 15 mins. I serve this with crusty bread but you could do it with homemade wedges or anything really, mash, pasta.

And I know it is mince, but i sometimes do a really nice pasta bake which is basically mince, chopped onions, carrots and feta cheese, spiced with cumin and ground coriander. Cover with foil when baking it though or it will go very dry.

Chick/tuna/veg Quiche, pasties dead easy wit ready made pastry, potato cakes (a big hit wit my boys) marinated tofu fryed served wit stir fry chinese style veg noodles stir n a handful of roasted peanuts for grown ups & big kids. Smoked fish pan fryd wit mash mixd wit spring onion. Tortillas. Meat loaf. Home made soup & home made bread. I did a scrummy layer layer thing wit spinach mixd wit cream cheese nd eggs layered wit really thinly sliced pots twas vesy yum... i find da bbc good food guide website really good... hope ya like some of my ideas xxx

Mine like pasta with bacon and cream. Chopped bacon fried till crisp, tip cream into frying pan with a little bit of lemon juice and scrape all the crispy bits off the bottom then stir through pasta. I try and put some frozen peas in with the pasta to boil but this is very controversial as they both dislike them so have to be really starving to eat them up!Garlic bread on the side if you need more carbs

Thank you ... loads of great ideas and some we do already but which I had fogotten about/didn't mention. I'm off to re-read thread now and do my shopping list for the weekend ... my post probably made their diet sound much worse than it is ... they actually get a fairly healthy diet with veg sneaked in but I get oh so sick of cooking the same things over and over and then hearing 'yuck. I hate this' - it's so disheartening. Thanks again all, you're brilliant and I am going to introduce some new things.

pita breads to go with the chicken kebabs.
dumplings.
bit concerned about your ds2 with the type 1(being type 1 myself for 35 years) not eating carbs - what is going on there ?????

What about soups? Ones that you blend completely so no lumps, but plenty for veg in. My dd really likes carrot soup and leek and potato soup(recipes on here) and they're so quick to make. She likes them with crusty bread and Philly.

Also big savoury pancakes with fillings like chicken in white sauce, peas in cheese sauce, that kind of thing? you can use the same sauce for pasta/baked potatoes. etc the next day...

Millie - glad you have found some inspiration I know exactly what you mean. My ds isn't keen on meat, espeically mince so yesterday I made lasagna for us and a special vef lasagna for him - he still spat it out and told me it was horrible - sigh!

Other things I thought of were savory rice - my kids love it as a change to plain old boring rice

Another thing that goes down well is chicken in a lemon, cream and grape sauce - I serve it with rice.

Chicken chasseur with mash?

What about spegetti or taglietelli (can't spell either of those as an alternative to normal pasta - maybe carbonara or something.

Oblomov ... don't worry, he does eat carbs - I didn't word that very well. He's brilliant with potatoes, pasta, breads etc etc but just isn't a big rice eater. Or couscous for that matter but he does get his carbs ... sometimes it feels like carbs rule our lives but you know what that's like .

Petisa ... pancakes with savoury fillings are a super idea. I think I'll give that a go at the weekend when I've more time. And I saw a lovely recipe last week on This Morning for a lamb stew with dumplings which I'm going to do when I can find some fresh mint in this backwater in which I live! Soups - no, DH wouldn't count soup as a main meal.

I am a working mum so I try to be organised and rotate on a 14 day cycle from these kinds of dishes. Chicken and sausage stew, stir fry (chicken or beef), bacon and leek pasta, thai green curry (without the curry for my 10 year old, chicken risotto, sphag bol, chilli (without the chilli for the 10 yr old), beef and prune stew, homemade burgers, aromatic chicken, pork stroganoff, sunday roast, meatballs, lamb tagine.
I'm a fairly slummy mummy - don't mind if ds goes to bed grubby but I do try to give him a home-cooked meal every night which I can cook in less than 45 minutes without putting down the wine glass

Stir fry? - we recently were delighted that our 4yo wanted a chinese dinner so he could practise with his chopsticks... works a treat, getting him to eat all his veg & meat (not just noodles).

Don't know whether it will help at all, but some of the current favourites in our house (DC are 4, 5 and 7):

Morroccan Chicken with couscous
Thai green curry with rice
Steamed salmon and veg with noodles
Pizza and salad
Pasta with steak, mushrooms, cream and garlic
Pasta with tuna and a tomato sauce
Spaghetti and meatballs
Risotto
Sweet and sour chicken with rice
Stir Fry with noodles
Baked potatoes with sausage and bean casserole

I know some of them sound spicy, but you don't have to put that much spice in (my 7 year old loves spicy food but the other two don't).

We are in a similar rut (I think it is inevitable with small children and their general unadventurousness with food)
but with chicken mince salmon chicken mince salmon-they will have salmon as fishcakes as home made 'nuggets' or just wrapped in foil and baked. They also love it stirfried with carrots and peppers soy/mirin/sesame oil and a little honey-I chop the veg quite small and serve with rice/noodles
Chicken curry quite easy just do a basic korma or thai green curry, make my own paste (you can freeze it) so leave out the chillies and then add chopped chilli for DH and I.
Lamb stew good mine not keen on mash so I will shred it and serve over pasta/rice-Nigellas 'Greek' lamb stew the one I most often use.Oh also they love chicken 'kebabs'-chicken breast chunks marinade in yoghurt and garlic over night bung on skewers and grill with homemade 'chips'.
And we have a roast practically every Sunday-means there is one meal I don't have to think about.

We are enjoying the following recipes -

Pork with honey and tomato (cubes of pork, tablespoon of honey, tins of tomatos, seasoning and veg - spuds, sweet potato, carrots, or peas, anuthing we have in really....) slow cooker or in oven. Serve with rice or noodles or baked spuds

Corn beef patties - my 2 years old favourite:

Chop up carrots, spuds, pepper, onion.... what you have in fridge etc in food processor so small bits.
Mix in chunc of corned beef, cheese and some bread crumbs (slices of bread in food processor) and mix with egg.

Pop into patties and roll in bread crumbs.

Baked for 15 mins....

Sounds a faff but I make about 20 in 30 mins... you can freeze mixture for another day too.

Eggs? Spanish omlette with spuds for 6 year old?

Pasta...

Baked spuds (do loads in micro) then do different fillings (left overs?)

Will be looking out for more ideas....

It's on days like these that I love Mumsnet. Thank you ... now I'm going to start asking for some recipes - starting from the bottom up.

Before I do ... tonight I did sausage balls in a tomato based sauce with pasta ... both DS's ate reluctantly. It wasn't too bad so don't know what they were complaining about!

Mumblecrumble - thanks shall try the pork definitely. We do Omlette's at lunchtime but a Spanish one is a great idea.

HelyG - how do you do your Moroccan chicken?

Sweetheart - your chicken in lemon, cream and grape sauce sounds gorgeous. Can you give me some details please?!

mogmog - what's your aromatic chicken?

Thanks again for all the ideas ladies ... I've got a really long list now apart from the dishes above which I'd love recipes for.

How about if you cut out meat altogether for a couple of nights?

You could do:

• Pasta with a creamy/ garlicky/ cheesey sauce - takes 15 mins to make (add pulses to increase protein, and herbs for flavour). Serve with salad.

• a Frittata - fry onions, add sliced peppers, frozen peas, beat eggs (add db cream for impressive lift!) Sprinkle with cheese and herbes de provence, cook for a few mins on hob then under grill. Serve with nice bread and a quick salad. Again v quick.

It's also much cheaper to use less meat, AND you can tick your ethical boxes as well!

Amazingly impressive soda bread recipe here. It takes 10 minutes to mix (actually, no - 5 mins); requires no kneading whatsover. You virtually slap it on a baking tray and in 35 mins you have beautiful, hot, healthy, delicious loaf which costs less than buying soda bread and has far fewer additives. Plus, bizarrely, I find that mine lasts much longer than the shop-bought stuff.

So if you already have a soup made in bulk, or you're making something quick like an omelette, you can serve up this lovely loaf alongside it, with a selection of spreads - houmous, cream cheese, or just luvverly, luvverly butter...