Easy meals for grandparents to give to toddlers?

[MrsBP]

Hello - help needed please!

I work full time and my 18month old is at nursery during the week with one day off which she spends with my mother and father in law. Up until now i have been sending her with her lunch, dinner and snacks for the day as MIL is not very confident childcare wise (despite having raised 2 of her own...) I batch cook shepherds pies etc at the weekends which i can defrost and send over. Last sunday i spent a good part of my day making an 9 mini portions of an annable karmel veggi shepherds pie recipes as i am out of frozen meals (i'm 12 weeks pregnant so this felt very arduous!). Apparently my DD took one mouthful of said meal this week at grandmas -spat it out and refused another morsel of it.

She eats everything that is put in front of her at nursery and i doubt the cooking can be that much better than mine but still - there you have it.

My question is has anyone any ideas for simple meals that MIL can give to DD that i don't need to make in advance? I was thinking fishfingers and waffles but is the salt content too high? This is only one day a week so things don't have to be perfect nutritionally but the guilt kicks in so very easily if I consider anything less than the organic homemade numbers i've been slaving over so far!

You can also get healthier versions if it makes you happier, eg lower salt baked beans. But agree with letting your mil get on with it and your dc will get used to eating whatever she serves up. My dc rarely eat soup at home but will happily do so at gps house.

What do they eat?

What does she eat with you at home? Ours have always just had what we're having since we started weaning them.

No wonder your MIL is having the wobbles about food if you are insisting on homemade organic!

Personally I think Annabel Karmel is the work of the devil because it perpetrates the idea that children need special food that is hard work. They don't.

This may not sit well with you but Heinz do little tins of "mini meals" which are fine for occasional use. They're mostly pasta or beans based but they're quick and easy to prepare, which may be ideal if your pils aren't really cooks. We have them at home if what we're having isn't suitable. If you don't like the idea of that, then places like M&S do pretty good children's ready meals.

I agree with pps - you sound like you're overthinking all this. Your dcs will be fine with normal food that everyone else is eating. They won't be damaged by eating a bit of non-organic or processed food!

I disagree that you're overthinking this-my 15mo just won't eat grown up food (wants it quite wet and "saucy" so it tends to be either a baby ready meal or a homeade baby meal that he has. Not terribly healthy but we've recently had success with spagetti hoops!