Please help me with my family's diet, its terrible

[xxxJess123xxx]

Hi all, I have a 2 year old and a 5 year old. Both typically fussy. No allergies.
Our diets are absolutely terrible as I seriously can't cook. I'm the type of person who can't make an omelette or burn pasta for christ sake.
We eat shit basically. Ready meals, nuggets and chips, pizza. Lunches are sarnies crisps and some grapes etc.
I'm feeling like an absolute rubbish mum and I want to change but I seriously can't cook.
Does anyone have any stupidly easy, cheap to make, fool proof recipes for dinners for my family.
I am slightly overweight. Kids are good weights and take a multi vitamin each day. Eat far too much chocolate etc
I feel so ashamed 😞
Thanks x

You are not a shit mum - you are feeding your kids.

There is another thread running on picky eaters - lots of ideas on there!

Well maybe start by changing one meal a week to something that you cook instead of what you currently have. Then you can build up from that. I believe that anyone can cook you just need to practice and get your confidence up, something like Cottage Pie is really easy.

Or making your own pizzas, it’s really simple to make a basic dough and the dc would love to make their own.

Everyone can cook, you just need to learn! Get a copy of Jamie's ministry of food - simple instructions for family dinners, follow the instructions and you can't go wrong. Good luck!

Nothings wrong with your diet! Nuggets and chips are fine, just add some sweetcorn etc. Sandwiches, crisps and grapes are normal foods! You don't have to be delia to cook nutritious food. Not all prepackaged food are crap. Give yourself a break lovely

I agree that anyone can learn to cook! I didn't really grow up with parents who cooked but since having children I was determined to feed mine reasonably well.

A couple of favourites:

Cottage pie - I add peas/carrots/Sweetcorn to the mince so it's all in one dish for ease and don't need to cook extra veg

Lasagne - easy way to hide some veggies!

Pitta Pizzas - Pitta bread, some passata spread on, top with veg/cheese and pop under the grill. Could add some cucumber or carrot sticks too.

If you're not sure how to do a cottage pie or lasagne I'd be happy to write you an 'idiots guide' (which someone done for me the first time I done them.)

A really useful one to start with would be a bolognese-that could become a chilli, lasagne, cottage pie, keema etc.

The bbc good food website is a great place to start.

Marcus Rashford and Tom Kerridge are starting a new project to get families cooking simple meals that aren’t difficult or expensive.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-56825700.amp

But a toddler/baby recipe book and start there. I have an Annabel karmel one and the recipes are good and easy!

I second the BBC Good Food site.

I can give you my fish pie recipie. I love it as it's freezer bits and pieces so I can have it on standby.
700g ish of potatoes - boil these and mash with a butter
3-4 white fish fillets (depending what fits in your dish)
Handfuls of frozen peas
Make up some white sauce (I use the granules so just add water)
Get the fish, peas and white sauce ready while the potatoes are cooking. Once they are soft and mashed, add to the top of the dish. I then add grated cheese on top which makes it so crispy and tasty.
Cook for about 35-40mins at 180C. I place the white dish on a baking sheet to cook as it sometimes bubbles over.
You can add other veggies in there to hide or even add carrot to the mash to help up the amount eaten.

It is tough though if you're not naturally a cook. My meals from mum were mainly nuggets and beans in the 80s but I'm trying to improve on this with my son.

I’d just start going traditional English food. Meat and 2 veg type meals.

Convenience food lulls us away, makes it sound so easy and cooking so hard.....cooking isn’t hard. It’s just reading instructions. Same as a convenience meal.

In saying that, homemade pizza is harder than roast chicken or roast pork. Go English traditional, get your confidence up.

Roast chicken, mash / jackets and veg
Roast pork, mash / jackets and veg
Pork chops
Lamp chops
Sausage and mash

You get the idea, try those for a week, get your confidence then maybe branch out to cottage pie, spag Bol, whatever

Just start simple

P.s. omelettes require the right pan. No one can cook a good omelette in a shit pan

Invest in a slow cooker. They are great, chuck the ingredients in and turn it on, hardly any chance of burning anything. Just follow the recipe and the slow cooker does the rest! X

A healthy no cook meal is rotisserie chicken and salad. You can microwave some new potatoes to serve with it.
If you eat white bread swap to brown, have shreddies or weetabix instead of cornflakes to get more fibre in.

Lifebeginsnow excellent thank you for that I'll try my best
Horehound never thought of a toddler book! Thanks
ELCS I'd love an idiots guide please

Pasta with Pesto. Save a bit of pasta water to make the pesto mix in to the pasta better. Veg sticks on the side.

Quesadillas - basically a cheese sandwich made with tortilla wraps and fried in a dry pan until toasty on both sides - ketchup or bbq sauce for dipping and more veg sticks.

I cut up tons of veg sticks in one go and keep the in a box in the fridge.

Dddflower I have tried a slow cooker and can't even do that! Everything comes out bland and watery

PM me if you want any other ideas 😉

Someone gave me Annabel karmel's finger food book and it made me want to hide under the covers and cry. Haute cuisine for toddlers!

I'm sure there are easier ones out there.

An easy way to gradually improve your diets is swapping something at each meal and also adding vegetables & fruit to your daily diet.

So get chicken nuggets made from real chicken (eg chicken breast) and instead of chips have roasted new potatoes or a wholemeal pitta bread sliced up. Kids love snacky type meals but you can make them pretty healthy.

Home made potato wedges are also really easy, and you can get frozen breaded fish that is better than fish fingers but similar.

Add sweetcorn, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, peas or broccoli to each meal, at least 2 veg per meal. Make a plate of nice chopped up fruit and sometimes have some Nutella to dip it in as a treat for pudding.

Things like Greek yoghurt are also really healthy, so having some yoghurt for pudding with some fruit & sugar free granola etc is a great option.

You don’t have to make huge changes, and you’re definitely not a bad mum. Just add more healthy things to their plates and swap in a few healthier options and this will make a big difference overall.

You don’t have to make their diet perfect; you can make lots of small simple changes. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, it’s hard work parenting small children.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sweetpotatochipswith_84745

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/roasted-ratatouille-chicken

www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/carrot-cheddar-bites/

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/oven-baked-risotto

(Allow twice as long as stated to cook this one but once you figure out how long it takes in your dish/oven it’s really easy)

Don’t do toddler cookbooks. They’re unnecessary.

I second the recommendation for Jamie’s Ministry of Food. Really good, straightforward basics in there, clearly explained.

I would concentrate on healthier ready made choices to start with. More fruit and veg, offer them a small amount of a variety rather than lots of something they will usually eat. Always have frozen veg in the freezer, peas and sweet corn both cook so quickly and so I put them with most hot foods. If they will eat chicken nuggets, then try Kiev's, fish fingers or fish goujons, or fish cakes. If they like bread, then try some Naan bread, rolls, wraps, go brown or wholegrain sometimes. You could have a microwave rice pouch instead of chips, or have a look in the veg section they often have prepared veg everything from root veg mash to seasoned potato wedges. Experiment and broaden all your horizons. You could try doing baked potatoes, or the prepared freezer version. Add some bagged salad and deli filler, beans, grated cheese, you've got a lot of options there with no cooking. If you can time when to get the nuggets out the oven, why not try a ready to roast chicken in a bag and some aunt Bessie's bits and have a roast dinner (with bisto gravy). Or you could brown some mince, stir through some dolmio (or shop beans) tomato lasagne sauce, layer with lasagne sheets and white lasagne sauce (Dolmio or shop brand), top with grated cheese. Eat with peas or salad. Nobody goes from not cooking to cooking complicated recipes from scratch so build up form where you are.

OK start with this simple pasta recipe.

Tagliatelle
Hot water
Cream chees (Philadelphia or similar)
large pan
frying pan
1 deserts poon
1 wooden spoon

Put the tagliatelle in the big pan with hot water. Tagliatelle comes rolled into things I think look like nests, you want 1 or 2 per person depending on how hungry you are.

Put the pan on the hob and set a timer for 10 mins.

After 10 mins put a frying pan on a different ring. and turn on.

Use the desert spoon to put 2 spoonfuls per person of the cream cheese in the frying pan.

Add 2 desert spoons of the water the pasta is cooking in.

Move the cream cheese around the frying pan with the wooden spoon, it will look like a creamy sauce.

Drain the pasta and then put it in a bowl with the 'cooked' cream cheese.

Eat. You can add salt and pepper if you want.

OK that's the starting recipe.

The second time you make this put some smoked salmon trimmings in with the cream.

The time after that fry some sliced mushroom in the frying pan in a little butter before you add the cream cheese.

One thing you can do to better your family's diet is to add fruit or fruit juice to breakfast.

Get a children's cook book and cook with your children, learn at the same time.

www.amazon.co.uk/First-Time-Cook-Sophie-Grigson/dp/0007191863?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This is really good.

No one knows how to cook until they've learnt, and we've all burnt omelettes, made inedible pasta and had disasters. Last night I produced a bland and sloppy curry that my DH couldn't finish (he made himself a sandwich). No harm done.

I'd second buying a simple book. Jamie Oliver is good, it's a relaxed style where you aren't measuring everything precisely and juggling 20 ingredients.

I also really rate the Quick Roasting Tin. It's simple food, quick to prepare and cook and all in one pot/roasting tin. www.waterstones.com/book/the-quick-roasting-tin/rukmini-iyer/9781529110067

The diet your have doesn't sound too bad. Everyone has nuggets sometimes. Nuggets is just breaded chicken, add some veg and it's a decent meal.

Try one new dish a week perhaps so it's not overwhelming.