If you have young children and all eat together for dinner….

[Icmdiba]

what do you eat? Thanks (my two are 4 and 6)

We all eat the same meal, we sit down at five with the children and I plate up a small portion for me and DH to eat with the kids, then we have our proper portion at a more suitable dinner time when they're in bed at 8.30pm ish! The kids don't know that, as far as they are aware we eat with them only :)

@PippaF2 ah ok. Mine.goes to bed at 6.30 as he doesn't nap anymore so we get a lovely long evening. I was curious as to others timings as everyone always says they eat as a family but it just doesn't work for us!

Tonight for dinner we had home made steak pie with Savoy cabbage and gravy for dinner.
DD (18) reminded me that I made the same dinner on the day she started school and it was her favourite.
So: a square of homemade pie with green veg, cooked simply, with gravy if liked.

Whatever we are eating.

Dc always ate what we ate. Why wouldn't they?

Sausages and mash
Fajitas
Burgers
Chicken burgers
Quiche and salad
Steak
Stir fry
Spaghetti and meatballs
Spaghetti Bolognese
Jacket potatoes
Steak/chicken pie and veg
Chilli
Curry
Chicken kebabs
Roast
Pizza
Paella
Chicken fried rice
Fish and chips
Pulled pork
Gammon
Lamb shanks
Cauliflower curry
Shepherds pie
Lasagne
Beef casserole

It's exhausting here, various dietary requirements including ARFID and one (mainly) vegetarian. Most nights I cook 2-3 different meals night although we all eat at the same time. Its exhausting and expensive but that's life for us!

We eat the same meals most week on rotation and I'm so bored. Usual weeks meals are

Roast on a Sunday (pizza instead of meat for veggie)

Spaghetti and meatballs (spaghetti pesto for veggie)

Halloumi / chicken fajitas. So expensive as I'm buying halloumi and chicken.

Spaghetti carbonara/ spaghetti carbonara minus the bacon for veggie

That's about it.

Often I'll do something for DH, myself and one child. One for veggie child and one for ARFID child. So 3 meals 😱

Or we might do something like chicken chow mein. Minus the chicken for the veggie. Then plain noodles and chicken nuggets for ARFID. So I'm still buying raw chicken and also chicken nuggets. So expensive.

Not sure if this is a very helpful answer tbh!

The OP didn’t actually ask about whether people eat different things to their children, just what people eat together

i am a bit surprised (/impressed/jealous!) at the variety on here. There are only about 4 things (max) all 4 of us will eat. DH doesn’t want to eat eg pesto pasta, and the littlest won’t eat anything all mixed up. Has to be plain fish/meat/cheese then carb and veg separate. He’s recently dropped bolognese too, so we’re more or less down to the 4 things we’ll all eat. It’s really bloody tedious

Same here , I was always mindful of salt and curry nights became korma nights until they could handle more spice .

Generally only make one meal sometimes it is a beautifully crafter homemade meal other times it is a cheese toastie with some veggies and fruit on the side.

Normally do fish at least once a week (sometimes scampi and chips), fish pie, teriyaki salmon or kedgeree go down well. Sweet chilli squid one loves the other doesn't.

Jacket potatoes - beans, cheese, tuna and sweetcorn

Pasta - tuna bake, fajita pasta bake, lasagna, spaghetti bolognaise, pesto chicken pasta, bacon and cheese pasta, carbonara,

Majority of Japanese or Chinese goes down well.

Chicken Rojan Josh, balti, butter chicken etc all fine. I wouldn't cook a vindaloo or madras.

Pie and mash always goes down well.

Out of preference they wouldn't eat, cabbage, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, olives, avocado, hummus, peppers (little one), aubergine, courgette, plums (unless duck in plum sauce), stone fruit, stewed apple, edamame.

If I make food with stuff they do not prefer to eat I still serve it and up to them if they want to eat round it. I dish up food rather than self serve as it wouldn't occur to mine to get food they were unsure of. If I ask them to meal plan it would be pizza and chips every night.

It was the opposite for us, has to be mixed up. DS still won't eat veg separately in his teens, except for raw broccoli, raw carrot sticks, pepper, tomato, cucumber, and jerk cauliflower is the only cooked veg I can think of. So it's mostly one pot food like curries, chilli, bolognese, casserole. Sometimes what looks like variety is just a different restriction.

@Decafflatteplease thanks, no that makes me feel less alone!

I’m so bored too. If I cooked say a lasagne well my husband couldn’t eat it as it has meat in, my autistic daughter couldn’t eat it as it is mixed up and saucy and my 4 year old wouldn’t try it. She might try it one day if we had it every week but what’s the point making a lasagne for just me!

plus what with the additional needs in the house and the fact they are so young I don’t actually have the time to make a lasagne!

I haven’t found the answer on this thread but it has made me realise that lots of people adapt what they eat for their children.

@Time4achangeagain this is pretty much where I am now and it is so tedious.

it is so complicated here because even if I actually bothered to make a curry or anything with a strong smell it would distress my autistic daughter. I can’t do that to her on a school day as just going to school is enough for her to cope with (and she does have an EHCP before anyone asks!)

To be honest we eat quite boring things on repeat!

Spag bol/lasagne
Sausages & mash, tray bake, chips
Tacos or burritos with pork and beans or fish
Chicken or veg curry
Meatballs
Macaroni cheese

There are still a few nights that one child or another has bread and butter instead.

We've gone through phases of getting adventurous Hello Fresh or Gousto for the adults and feeding the kids pizza or freezer food, but at the moment we are all eating the same thing.

For those saying 'why wouldn't you all eat the same thing?'
Well, DP and I like trying new foods and Indian/Asian cuisine.
One child is really fussy and doesn't like vegetables
One child loves veg but is funny about dairy products and doesn't like anything new
Two children don't like rice!
So there aren't that many things that everyone eats happily.

Mine are adults now but they had what we had minus the salt. When tiny I’d purée it with the hand thing.

As for timings, we eat around 6/6.15 which is the earliest we could manage and what we've done since eldest started nursery age 1 as DH picked up and they were home by 6, I was home by 6.15 so nursery nights were reheating batch cooked meals or something quick like pasta. On the other nights (I'm part time), I make something bigger and aim to eat at 6. Now have another baby to factor in but I've just adjusted timings so that bedtime is 7.30+ so we have time for dinner until around 6.45, bath, feed and bedtime routine (story, songs, etc.) whilst eldest goes to bed closer to 8. If DC have a really early bedtime, I can see why it would be an issue, but if you want to change it, try to adjust all sleep times by about 10 minutes every 2 or 3 days until you get to later sleep and wake times.

we eat at 5.30-6pm depending on whether it’s a work/nursery/school day or not. Sometimes my husband or I will be later home from work and he or I will eat separately later (whoever is home will eat with the children). Sometimes my nursery aged children don’t want much to eat because they have had lunch and tea at nursery.

Earlier bedtimes are often dictated by the time children need to be up in the morning. We have to be out of the door by 7.30am. My children are asleep by 7.30pm so not really an issue in terms of eating together, but people are unlikely to mess with bedtimes in order to be able to eat together if that creates more problems than it solves.

Identical situation to yours @Icmdiba but just one DC who is older primary now (same issues with mixed up / saucy food though).

Here's a list of the types of things I do in a normal week:

Baked potato with chilli (DC will have plain butter or cheese, but will now tolerate the pot of chilli on the table)

Noodles with tofu knots and stir fried veg (DC will have plain noodles, if encouraged may have a bit of veg)

Rice bowl - rice with "toppings" and a jug of sauce. DC will have the rice, greens and sweetcorn.

Richmond meat-free sausage and mash

Pasta and whatever we like (DC will have pesto)

Tacos with refried beans, lettuce, grated cheese, sweetcorn, avocado (DC will opt for just the tacos with salad and maybe cheese)

If I make something like a curry or tagine, I will separate out some of the veg as I chop it and then DC can have the rice / couscous / bread with plain veg.

We eat together. One toddler. Eat around 6.30pm. He’s never gone to bed before 8/8.30pm, even now that he doesn’t nap.

He doesn’t eat great, but we make one meal and adjust/ give him extras if needed. He doesn’t eat any meal great, even it’s it’s one he liked before, and won’t eat ‘kids’ stuff like nuggets anyway ( refuses all meat except sausages)

We are just starting hello fresh again for variety ( haven’t used for years, so pre child)

How did I know this thread was going to be full of "my child will eat everything I eat, aren't they/I great"

I'm in a similar boat OP albeit no ARFID. I don't eat meat, husband doesn't eat carbs and toddler eats... well, like a toddler. She eats things from all food groups and will try things before she declares she doesn't like them, so at the moment I'm just thanking my lucky stars for that and making sure there is always at least one protein and one veg available that she will eat.

It's often easiest to do "separates" e.g. roast dinner (chicken for husband/child and nut roast for me (pre made at weekend)) with potatoes for me and child, plus veg for everyone. Substitute the chicken/nut roast for fish (which we all eat) one day and then veggie sausages another, and rotate the veg round a bit, and you've got three meals for your week right there 😆

Another easy one is fajitas because everyone can just choose what they want.

Otherwise I'll do things like veggie chilli, veggie Bolognese, halloumi skewers, omelettes, soup etc. Sometimes I will also cook marinated meat separately for DH.

And when I can't be bothered....picnic tea!

In terms of the lasagne (if you ever get chance!) what I do is buy the small takeaway foil trays, make up the meat/veggie ragu and bechemel sauce, make the lasagne in the foil tray, top with cheese and freeze before cooking - my own ready meal!

In terms of food, I have one quite good eater, a veggie and a really fussy 4 year old that I need to stop pandering too, he won't eat sauce or much meat.

Meals tend to be things like:

Lamb meatballs with hummus and flatbread, with veggie meatballs from the freezer for the veggie
Lasagne - veggie for the veggie, I find a pot of lentil ragu can make 5 lasagne portions for him so it's a faff to make but once it's done they're in the freezer
Burgers and raw veggies, again bean burger for the veggie
Pasta pesto - this is my four year olds main staple.....
Creamy pesto spaghetti
Meatballs and chips,
Risotto
Prawn taco bowls
Sushi bowls - with chicken nuggets/veggie nuggets for the kids and with either cooked salmon or salmon sashimi for me and my husband. Works well as it's picky food, covers the food groups and is easy to tailor. I don't add the sushi vinegar to the kids rice, then they have cucumber, carrot, mango, nuggets, sweet corn and rice
Pizza
Egg and chips

My four year old is definitely my worst eater and I have gotten in the habit of just giving him what he will eat which is a rod for my own back, I try to make sure he has a plate that has protein, veg, fruit and carbs on so he will have plain or pesto pasta, cucumber and carrot, cashew nuts and berries. His problem is he would snack on crackers all day long if I let him!

@TheodoreMortlock thanks. Chilli plus jacket potatoes is a great idea as jackets are one thing we all eat. Sensory wise the smell might be tricky but I’ll see.

we do similar here - fish and noodles and rice. 6 yr old ears the noodles, 4 year old may nibble something.

sausage and mash with veggie sausage for DH except my
4 yr old doesn’t eat mash

my 6 year old eats a good range of plain food (mash, noodles, jackets) but the 4 year old doesn’t which really makes it feel shit. But the 4 year old will eat chicken at least. Although the 6 year old won’t.

I serve everything with tomatoes and cucumbers and roasted carrots as they both eat those but it’s the repetition that is slowly driving me crazy!

Meals that I know my child (5) will actually eat and love, I serve up together but there are some dishes that I know he won't eat after multiple trials, unfortunately they're meals that we love, so I make those on nights where I'm giving my kid fish fingers or nuggets and chips lol.

My kid is good though, he loves pasta, chili, curry, roasts and many other things but if we are doing a salad night or something cheese sauce based (carbonara for eg.) that's when I'll give him a separate meal.

The smell thing must be a real pain to factor in, I really feel for you

We go round and round with the same seven meals until we get bored of one and then swap that out. My son has autism and a very restricted diet so meals are planned so there’s something in them he can eat.

current rotation is

• baked potatoes, cream cheese, chives, vegan bacon and baked tomatoes (DS will eat potato)
• Cheesy Italian beans, garlic bread and broccoli (DS eats garlic bread and broccoli )
• Macaroni cheese, salad and garlic bread (DS eats plain macaroni, salad bits (avocado and cucumber) and garlic bread)
• Caerphilly potato and onion pie, salad and bread. (Save DS some plain potatoes, and he’ll have salad bits and bread. Worst case he gets a peanut butter sandwich instead)
• Bolognese or Lasagne made with lentils, salad and garlic bread (DS eats pasta, salad bits and garlic bread)
• Creamy sausage gnocchi, salad and garlic bread (I’m trying to convince DS on plain Gnocchi but he’ll eat salad bits and garlic bread)
• veg casserole with dumplings, new potatoes and sugarsnap peas and baby corn. (DS eats baby corn and new potatoes and might try a dumpling)

our menu ends up a little repetitive and restrictive because of DS but with enough variety it’s not unbearable and he is beginning to try the other food on offer, we eat a lot of salad and bread alongside meals to make them accessible.