Help yourself food for children

[BlackeyedSusan]

Thanks to someone on thread nine for raising this. What are you getting that your children can help themselves to?

Mine can help themselves to cereal and milk, can do toast.

... But what about when we have run out of bread and milk?

We have:
Crackers
Cereal and soya milk for DD
Baked beans
Ds has curry in tins he can heat up.
Lots of biscuits.
Wraps for DD.
Dried fruit for DD.

Long term things require an adult/ knife/ heat/ recipe.

Oops.

They don't eat rice pudding or custard.

Ho hum. Need a rethink. And to teach Ds to use the oven.

Bugger.

If you can turn the oven on and get them to use oven gloves-

Fish fingers
chicken nuggets
baked potato
Potato waffles?

I got some super noodle type things, savoury rice, pasta and sauce, cuppa soups type stuff that we would not normally have, but would be fine for a few days if the DC needed to make their own food. Oldest is 10 and can do risotto, eggy bread, scrambled egg, pancakes for all of them without supervision.

Cold pasta salads last a couple of days in the fridge.
Sandwiches can be either in the fridge for next day or frozen & taken out.
It's easy for a kid to take a sandwich out of the freezer & leave to defrost.
Junk food e.g. sausage rolls, pasties, precooked cocktail sausages (most of the stuff in the party food/picnic section) can often be frozen then taken out to defrost in fridge if you are feeling too ill.

Individually wrapped brioche or pain au chocolat usually have a few weeks bb date.
Alpro soya desserts have a shelf life of many months.

Fruit smoothies from supermarket usually have a month plus for brands like Innocent or Naked.
Cheeses like Philadelphia or Dairylea have months on them as do most pates in pots e.g. granovita pates (not recommending meat pates as they are too rich for young children) or potted meats (remember sardine & tomato?) & can go on crackers or crispbreads etc...

Those weird little packets of breadsticks & dips/cheese/ham they sell for kids packed lunches have months on them.
Cheese strings, frubes etc... have a long shelf life.
Pepperami, mini babybell etc.. have months on them.

Pots of fromage frais, jelly etc... usually have at least a few weeks if not months for the jelly.

Carrots, apples etc... store really well & last longer than things like bananas.
Beans, tinned fish etc... can be eaten cold if a child can use a tin opener & things are that bad (which I don't think they would be)

All of these require you to either be able to open a packet or the fridge/freezer so are suitable for children not old enough to use kettle or cooker.

I taught my (slightly older) son to pour water from the bigger kettle into a plastic jug then from the jug into things like cup a soup.
The jug is smaller & easier for him to handle.
My kettle now is a water dispenser type though so doesn't have to be lifted - you just stick a container under the spout & press go.
He still uses the jug as for some things the kettle makes too much hot water (dispenses 300ml)
If you have one don't forget to teach them to fill the kettle after using so it doesn't boil dry.

Not ideal food, but better than going hungry surrounded by the makings of a hundred dinners.

Teaching your child to take things out of the freezer to defrost the evening before means you can bag up bread a few slices at a time for them to get out if needed while knowing how to spread stuff on bread/crackers & how to open packets gives you masses of options.

If they can open tins too, you have things like mandarin segments, ratatouille etc... as well (you might have a powered tin opener which are easier for kids to use)

Don't forget drinks.
Long life fruit juices in lunchbox sizes, things like Yazoo milkshakes have about 3 months shelf life.

In the unlikely event you need this sort of thing, there are plenty of options.

Thanks. I had a complete mental block last night. Ds is autistic and restricted with what he will eat but physically capable.
Teach him to cook pasta and veg. And how to pour water for dd's couscous.

DD is autistic, vegetarian, allergic, and very dyspraxic like. She is capable of breakfast and lunch already. ( It is messy though) Just thinking what lunches she can help herself to when we run out of the fresher stuff.

We have some of those things so am feeling better.

They do tin openers, so more fruit to go on the list I think.

I think I will write them some recipes. ( Tin of curry is here add tin of carrots from there, rice sachets are under the table etc. ) Heat in microwave for X minutes....

Plan of action:
Write instructions for simple meals and location of ingredients.
Buy more rice sachets and tins of curry etc.
Buy more tinned pineapple for the boy.
Teach Ds how to make squash. ( Autistic remember!)
DD does juice from large boxes. It has taken a while to teach her not to lie them down opened in the fridge. I may get some more small cartons. I expect though that the fridge will be getting emptier and easier to manage as time goes on.

Last night I tried teaching DD to cook from scratch some stuff with work around for dyspraxia. ( Always have the knife down hill from fingers on onions, pour cold water on spaghetti and heat from cold. Fish out with tongs where the frozen onion is where the tinned carrots are. Where stuff is stored generally.

Ds will end up eating baked beans and tinned pineapple with tinned curry I think. Possibly pasta and stir in sauce at a push.

Grr. So much to think about.

At least they are old enough to survive on tinned stuff.

Tinned hot dogs. ( Nicked from another thread)

I think one gets into the habit of providing healthy stuff and needs to rethink for emergencies.

For children who can use a microwave, Iceland had pizza pockets on offer earlier

If anyone is seriously concerned that they may be too unwell to supervise their young child to the point that they are concerned about them needing food, the best thing you can do is to make sure the first couple of numbers in your phone are for friends they could phone if you were unwell then teach them how to call those numbers.

Most people who have nobody who could come round & help them do have at least one person who their kids could phone if you really were unwell.
That adult could then decide if an ambulance needed to be called so you don't have to scare your child.

Obviously if you are just feeling so dreadful you'd rather they grab something easy while you lie there feeling like shit on the sofa that's different.

I am a single parent & my phone is always set up like this because you never know what will happen (nothing to do with Coronavirus).
The people I have on those numbers know that there is a (very slim) chance they'll get a call from my son one day if I'm incapacitated.

Such an excellent subject for a thread. Real food for thought (pardon pun) for me because we have a tiny kitchen and all our food stores including the freezer are either in the garage or in an inaccessible-to-youngsters cupboard of doom.
Dd is 12 and while I'd rather we had some sort of back up support for her, it might not be immediately possible . She may well have to look after herself while support is somehow sorted - I have MS, dh has mild asthma so it's not an impossible scenario.
I need to make a range of stuff she likes and can manage to cook accessible to her.

..make a range of stuff available... I mean. Like pot noodles or similar.

My children are not old enough to make their own food, I love the idea of having friends on stand by.

I have:
Crisps
Chocolates
Cheese dippers
Cereal (they will eat with milk or without)
I dry my own fruit
Tinned fruit
Cured meats
Sweets like haribo, vegan sweets

All of which they can grab themselves. Then I've got super simple meals like pasta, noodles, soup etc for quick easy dinners if I feel unwell

Your first thought should be calling someone who can look after them

Can they microwave?
We always have half a dozen of those little Chicago town mini micro pizzas in our freezer from emergencies.
Would they eat tuna and sweet corn mayo wraps?
Cured meats like salami/chorizo etc?
Cans of beans?
Instant noodles?
Lots of long life milk?
I also make up a dozen sandwiches/pittas/bagels every few weeks and chuck them in the freezer where they can either be taken out the night before or put straight into the toasty maker.

"Your first thought should be calling someone who can look after them"
That rather the point. It's not like my MIL, or my neighbour or DD's pal's mum can just pop in and bail you out as per normal. Fingers crossed it would either never be a problem or there would be some obvious solution that presents itself.
But if it is, and given any kind of wipespread local shutdown, it might be, and there's a couple of hours /overnight/longer between the problem arising and the problem being resolved, it's not remiss to mull over ideas like this.

One of mine lets himself in after school. Capable of being alone. Just not very capable of sorting himself out. Just shouts for the slave to do it.

Canned stuff: the obvious things like tuna, beans and ravioli (if they're able to use a microwave), but also consider things like pate (many Polish shops carry the Argeta brand) and hummus (California Garden makes one).

Things in pouches: rice, those Merchant Gourmet packets of grains, couscous (if they can use a kettle). Tesco has shelf-stable pouches of heat & eat long life curry in the world foods section. Instant noodles/mash. Steam bags of veg and rice. Wraps, crackers, rolls, bread.

To be honest, eating sandwiches and crackers for a few days, while not the most balanced diet, isn't really that bad.

I think a lot of these, as well as being good for children to manage, also conveniently double as nice easy foods that can potentially be managed while feeling ill; depending on the severity.

There are ready cooked rice sachets that you heat up in the microwave so no kettle. I will get more of those I think.

Look out for Rio Mare ready made salad tubs, with beans or cous-cous and tuna. You don't need a tin opener as the lid just peels back, and they can be eaten from the tub (no sharp edges) and no washing up. There are several flavours. Will be with tinned sardines in supermarket aisle, John West also do something similar.
Hard boiled eggs have a fridge shelf life of seven days, so they could be useful too.
Pots of ready made jelly with or without fruit, easy to open and would get some fluid into the child.

Mine is 4. I've taught him to feed the cat, and told him about the cold air escaping from the fridge and needing to be careful to close the door properly so things don't go off.

He doesn't have the strength in his fingers to make a hole in the plastic carrots bag, and couldn't get into a Del Monte fruit pot even with a pair of scissors.

Going to try him with the small tins of tuna with peelable foil lids soon, but tearable pouches like the cat food have definitely been easiest so far.

Everyone who could possibly help me with him is particularly vulnerable to COVID for various reasons so I really will have to keep him here with me no matter how ill I get. I'm planning to set up speed dial and let him practice calling his dad, grandparents and neighbours just for a chat sometimes so he knows how to speak to another adult if he wants/needs to.

I'll also teach him how to recharge my phone, how to switch it on if it's powered down (e.g. completely out of battery), and my screen unlock pattern.

We have an air fryer which is so easy. Brother in law is 9 and can make food no bother

The individually wrapped croissants/waffles with filling usually 4 for a £1 in Asda.

Same idea but crepes with filling/brioche usually sold as a multipack

Fruit roll ups/yo-yos

Crisps/popcorn/pretzels

Jelly tubs with fruit/custard/angel delight/fruit tubs

Pepperami/baby bel/cheese strings

Crackers with cheese filling/breadsticks

Ok none of that is massively nutritious but it would keep someone going for a while. We tend to have most of this stuff for lunch box's and DDs snack box which she can help herself to 1 thing a day from at weekends.

@BlackeyedSusan I think we are family twins! I have two with HF asd, DD has multiple intolerances (but a broad palate) DS barely eats anything due to textures or tastes.
"Prepping" is a nightmare!

I have:
GF pasta
Normal pasta
Rice
Kidney/haricot/butter/pinto beans
Chick peas
Passata/tomato puree
Green/red/yellow dried lentils
Tea, lots of tea
UHT lactose-free milk
Oats
Corn flakes/rice Krispies/oatibix
Custard powder
Bake at home rolls
GF bake at home rolls
GF flour
Tuna/sardines/mackerel
Rich tea biscuits
Paracetamol/Calpol/brufen

And that's where I begin to struggle.
We cook from scratch/batch cook every meal. They don't eat the majority of convenience foods listed on these threads. We only have a tiny fridge freezer and it's filled with things we eat day-to-day (e.g. blueberries, broccoli, peas, corn) and home cooked stuff (DD has to take lunch every day to school, so I freeze individual portions for ease).

I'm going to look at the ingredients in the pouch rices and get some of those in I think. DD can manage to cook rice/pasta and defrost/heat sauce from the freezer. I think it's time to teach DS too.

This thread has been so helpful, thank you.

I've told 4 year old "if it has a picture of a cat on it, don't eat it" (it's cat food).

"Yes, Paw Patrol is ok"

You can get different types of rice in sachets ( white wholemeal) Aldi are cheaper.

I think the idea of small pots of home cooked food sounds a good idea.

I need to clear some more of the crap out of the freezer. There is a chicken that could be cooked, stripped down and refrozen in 1/4 space.