Help, need quick easy children's recipes

[Rocklover]

Hi,

I am 8+4 pg and feel vile and as a result I am neglecting my poor 5yo dd as I don't feel like cooking. DP cooks for us , but he gets in late and as a consequence dd has her dinner far too late.

Sooo, I need simple (as in I am a crap cook), quick (so that my nausea doesn't go mental) and healthy meal ideas that I can cook for her at a decent hour.

She is slightly picky and will not eat mashed potato or rice. In fact the only potato products she will eat are roasties and chips which is a bit of a pain. She loves pasta, but I worry that she has it too often.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Omlette and salad/veg.

Savory pancakes - homemade not findus crispy!

Cod baked with a little olive oil with tortellini pasta and peas/other veg she likes

beef burger in a roll with crunchy salad

sautee new pots (boil the pots the night before and just bang them in the pan with a bit of olive oil and blast for 10 mins with fish fingers and cherry tomatoes

shepherds pie - make when you feel ok- and put mashed sweet potato/carrots if she'll eat that on top.

Thanks lucie, great ideas. She has just started eating burgers actually so I can cook those now. I was going to do a salad tomorrow, so think I will do burgers for us all (grilled natch).

I need to try and get her eating fish, she eats fish fingers, but will only eat other types of fish if they are part of someone elses meal even though she likes it (I have no idea why).

Will the cottage pie too, she does like that despite her hatred of mash.

A good Nigella recipe, to try to get her to like fish, is to use Smash and tuna to make fish cakes and add peas/sweetcorn to the mix. If you google, I'm sure you'll find the recipe. Will link if I find it.

Kebabs: cube chicken, turkey or pork, or cut the meat into strips. Marinade in a mix of olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary or herbs of your choice. Thread onto bbq skewers with button mushrooms, peppers, veg of choice. Bung in oven. My 2 DCs can't get enough of these.

Alternatively you can make a quick bbq marinade from ketchup, branston/honey and a splash of vinegar.

Would she eat couscous? That's very quick.

DP has just tried to do that and it went horribly wrong, so I will google the recipe for future reference. We now have nothing we can cook quickly, so DP is going to get a take-away. I feel hideously guilty like I am scarring her for life .

She had roast on Sunday though and pasta yesterday, so she is not always having junk, but just feel like a shite mummy. She is NOT eating anymore crap this week!!!

By "that" I mean the fishcakes.

Not sure about the couscous, but I can but try. DP is a very good cook and is keen on curry, so I am going to try and get dd into rice as he really wants to make a mild curry for her.

hmmm - I used to hate curry but that's only because I ahd really hot ones to start with as a teenager. I can't get enough of homemade curry now. You can always serve the curry just with veg/bread/naan/pasta as she doesn't eat rice.

That's a good idea lucie, thanks. Will try that.

I have a dd(8) who is picky and a DS(5) who is bordering food phobic so I'm constantly stressed as to what to give them. They just had the tortellini with baked cod tonight.

Have you got a freezer? You could make up a big batch of veg bolognaise sauce. Blend up the veg to hide them if necessary. I bung in onions, tomatoes, red peppers, sweet potato, whatever we've got. Freeze in smaller amounts then use for pasta, pizza topping (English muffins make good quick bases), mixed into couscous, soup bases etc.

If she likes pasta, she might like gnocchi - found with the stuffed and fresh pasta in supermarket.

I just saw a Nigella recipe that used nann bread as pizza bases too - then put some of knotty locks sauce on it with her fave topping and grill for 5 mins until cheese melted.
Get yourself the nigella express book - it's really easy to swap ingredients for most recipes in there to suit your dd and they're fast to do and don't take much doing.