To give toddler oven meals from Tesco/M&S?

[rubbishmum33]

I’ve tried to batch cook from scratch for my now 18 month old toddler since he was weaned. The issue is I find cooking difficult and time consuming (I’m not very experienced and am slow) and I worry my DS is not getting enough variety with his meals.

Would it be OK to buy him something like a shepherds pie from the supermarket for dinner, which I could serve with fresh veg? Or do these sorts of meals contain too much salt for a toddler?

What do you eat? Why are you making special meals for your toddler? If you tell us a bit more maybe we can come up with some ideas for you.

Ready meals are not great, you’d be better feeding him some thing much simpler. Or, you can get baby friendly versions.

Fish fingers aren’t a bad option, or other breaded things, but it’s good to stretch their tastes a bit. So maybe try things like pasta with a bit of pesto stirred through it, with some chicken added to it.

Also, hot meals are no more nutritious than cold. It’s absolutely fine to have some dinners that are breadsticks, hummus, salad etc.

His diet currently looks like this:

Breakfast options:

• Brown toast with butter or peanut butter
• 20g porridge oats made with whole milk and mixed with fruit purée
• Scrambled eggs with brown toast

All followed by fruit and sometimes a Petit Filous yoghurt

Lunch options:

• Mashed avocado on brown toast
• Cheese and tomato omelette
• Cheese toastie
• Scrambled egg on brown toast (assuming he hasn’t had this for breakfast!)

Again with fruit/yoghurt for afters

Dinner options:

• Beef stew with potatoes and veg
• Spaghetti bolognese
• Tomato and veg sauce with pasta
• Veggie curry with rice
• Chilli con carne (meat or veg) with rice

Fruit and/or yoghurt for dessert

He sometimes has fish fingers, chips and peas for dinner too

Nothing wrong with it at all. We do it occasionally- usually on a Friday or Saturday when we're having a take away or I'm cooking something the toddler can't/won't eat. The M&S little pots are perfect and he loves them

You may as well keep cooking. You can learn new meals, speed up and save lots of money.
What are you eating? Can't you eat the same?
Ready meals are very salt heavy and not much veg.

At 18 months isn't he just having smaller portions of whatever you eat in the evening?

You will save a lot of time by not cooking 2 meals a day.

Ready meals would be ok as an occasional thing (1/2 a month), but I wouldn't make them a regular part of a young child's diet due to salt, sugar and fat contents.

Looks good. I would check the salt content on the pack as could be too salty. But you can get toddler ready meals if you need them sometimes.

I had some ready meals from m&s and salt was quite high, no way would I give it to a toddler. Can't you make him what you have?

They are salty and the regular ones contain additives and preservatives. What are you trying to cook? Lots of meals have the same core ingredients and method. Shepherds pie is really just fried mince and onion in gravy with mash potatoes. Spag bol mince, onion and tinned tomatoes/puree with water. Meatballs, add breadcrumbs and beaten egg to mince, form small balls and fry or bake. Make more than you need and freeze. Using frozen prepared veg is fine to add alongside or cook in sauce and probably more economical.

@PieMistee

You may as well keep cooking. You can learn new meals, speed up and save lots of money. What are you eating? Can't you eat the same? Ready meals are very salt heavy and not much veg.

I imagine the toddler ready meals have limited salt. Worth checking.

It will cost you a fortune longer term and the salt content is too high. Could you cook a normal size cottage pie for (or even 2 at once) and eat it with your toddler, any leftovers are frozen into small portions for his dinner?

Simple things work too, have you ever had cooked pasta with some Philadelphia and sweetcorn?

If he eats the same as you it will save you so much time and you will get quicker at cooking x

What you’re cooking sounds fine! There’s a nice mix. You could also try sausage and mash (good quality sausages), pasta with some pesto, peas and pre cooked chicken mixed through, stirfry (go through the cooked noodles with a pair of scissors just before serving so there aren’t any long bits), fish pie (Jamie Oliver box grater fish pie is insanely easy and I just use pre made fresh mash on top if I am doing it mid week). Hummus is a good lunch option too, with pitta and carrot sticks. You can buy toddler ready meals and ours did have them occasionally but it sounds like you are doing a great job cooking from scratch so you should probably just congratulate yourself and carry on!

Try stirring tinned salmon or tuna into cooked pasta, with sweetcorn or mixed veg, add Philadelphia, mayo or creme fraiche if it looks a bit dry. Can be served warm or cold.

I would avoid the adult ready meals, but there are ranges for children like Little Dish. Will he eat things like crudités? Crudites with hummus, potato wedges with beans, broccoli with cheese and a piece of toast. A piece of salmon with some mash (I used to put frozen mash in the microwave with frozen spinach and peas and my kids loved that). It doesn't have to be a full meal every night. As toddlers, my kids were eating way before my DH got home so we never did the eat the same thing thing. By the way, petit filous are quite high in sugar (unless they've changed the recipe), so you might want to give him a different brand with less sugar if he is eating yoghurt a lot.

His diet looks pretty decent.
I wouldn't worry too much about constant variety. He's eating a good range of flavours and textures already.
I'd bump some of your lunch options to the evening and offer a simpler uncooked lunch.

Thanks @AndThenInTheEnd, some really good suggestions there. I just want to mix things up a bit as I worry his diet is getting a bit samey!

Cross-posted with AndThenintheEnd and LIZS with similar ideas. There are lots of hacks to try with toddler food.

I’m sure some places do kids ready meals you could check the salt content for him.
Do you not eat chicken - chicken mash and veg is easy enough with a bit of gravy. Mince and Mash potato I add peas carrots etc and they have broccoli with it. It’s a fave. We also do meatballs, fish (youngest loves salmon) just wrapped in foil in oven with lemon and a little butter. I’m not much of a cook either but the more you do it the better you’ll get. Just make more of whatever is for dinner to potion it for him and freeze so you have some in for nights you’re not cooking or having something he doesn’t eat you don’t have to make loads just a little extra there’s 5 of us so meals are big anyway so I don’t do extra as it’s too much faff for me.

If you go on Instagram, there are lots of accounts which have recipes for meals for the whole family so you’re only cooking once. Obviously they all have books/apps which I do recommend but equally they often showcase some of their recipes so you can try before you buy. Try ‘what mummy makes/ Rebecca Wilson food’ or ‘Baby Led Weaning’ by Natalie Peall on Instagram. Yummy meals for the whole family and they include batch cooking recipes so on some days you can just whip out the freezer and defrost.
I agree that kids ready meals have a time and place - I would suggest Morrison’s own as good value. I’m 37 weeks pregnant ans have some in the freezer in anticipation of not wanting to cook as well as some meals like bolognese and Mac and cheese for my 4 year old.

Do you not eat chicken - chicken mash and veg is easy enough with a bit of gravy.

How do you make gravy - is Bisto OK or too salty?

We batch cook and freeze small portions for the kids - things like bolognaise - which works well. My kids really love cous cous, vegetables and natural yoghurt for some reason and it's super easy.

Maybe get the kids ones- m&s do a kids ready meal range which has less salt and Little Dish do toddler ready meals you can get In most supermarkets

Absolutely fine but stick to the ones aimed at children because they have strict rules on sugar and salt content so they are much healthier than the adult ones.

I'm genuinely confused by this thread, your DS's diet and what you're cooking looks fine, really varied and healthy.

When I’m really stuck for time I use the ellas kitchen frozen ones with some easy vegetables