ace way to get kids eating

bizzy_lizzie

I think they'll grow in to the meats more, its is quite hard to chew the tougher ones when you are little. Mince things & chicken things are easier to get through.
My two teenage boys will eat pretty much anything though (except cooked cheese & wine wine sauce in a tin) & I wonder if its the fashion at school from time to time. They happily tried goat, horse & bunny on holiday. Friends of theirs from school seem equally enthusiastic. Peer pressure is a wonderful thing but you have to get it rolling the right way.

BL

henhog

This thread really made me laugh - I've been doing this for years!
Bubble and squeak is Shrek's Sick (lovely)
Calpol is 'Noddy Medicine' - I told them Big Ears gives it to Noddy when he is poorly.
Anything remotely ethnic is the fave food of a sports man / woman from that country.
I also make things up about family members that he thinks are cool i.e, "Broccoli was Uncle Tom's favourite veg when he was a boy..." or "When I rang Uncle Pete up he was just tucking into a huge bowl of carrots.."
Works every time!!!!

tallulah_beaulah

Thank you, thank you for this thread. :T

I have a 2 year old ds who drives me round the bend by refusing to eat. Anything with lots of cheese is fine, but most other things are a nightmare.

Today though, he had "Postman Pat's Bolognaise" (tuna, tomato and pasta) without any fuss! He's always refused tuna before! Can't believe it's never occured to me to blend vegetables and add to meals. ds likes bolognaise, but eats round the veg! After reading this thread, I'm getting my blender out...

I HM our bread and biscuits and fill them with wheatgerm, linseeds, oats and wholemeal flour, so if ds has a bite of a snack at least I know he's getting some goodness into him, it's exhausting and miserable making things from scratch and having them rejected, but at least i know that what he's eating is good for him, and there aren't any "rubbishy" alternatives in the house.

Please keep posting these ideas, I've got my pen and paper out... Thanks!

katie_jane_2

ive found that anything grated is well hidden and always eaten i stick everything in spag bol. carrots leeks pepper anything.
i also do what henhog does and involves family members grandad normans scrambled eggs are big in our house!
katex

HopeElizzy

tallulah_beaulah wrote:

it's exhausting and miserable making things from scratch and having them rejected, but at least i know that what he's eating is good for him, and there aren't any "rubbishy" alternatives in the house.

This gets me down as well, because it does take longer to cook a proper meal than to zap a meal in the microwave (unless you've been a fab OSer and frozen HM meals). Some days it feels like the longer I cook the quicker they reject it I have found that my slow cooker helps as I put a meal in there in the morning then not worry about it - more time to play with the little ones :j

full-time-mum

Rachie_B wrote:

:rotfl:

fulltime mum thats a fab idea and my eldest would eat that

now if only i could get my youngest to eat veg :rolleyes:

he'd eat the chopped toms and baked beans in the "pile up" but wont eat any other veg ,well i do manage sneak in some spinach into pasta sauce sometimes but thats it ! he wont even eat potatoes mashed,boiled,nothing !!

will try the grating / blending into bolognese / pasta sauce and see if he goes for it ,but i doubt it lol

Don't know if this would work but, what about using food colouring to dye the rice when cooking. Maybe if you add yellow rice for a while, you could sneak in some sweetcorn unnoticed. Try green and add peas or small bits of green bean. I've only ever dyed rice for sticking onto collages but it might work. Maybe use green for Dipsy's rissotto and red for Po's etc. I don't know whether you could get mixed coloured rice into the dish but you would have to cook each colour separately and mix together at the last minute.
As an adult, it sounds gross but kids are different..... I guess it depends on how desparate you are.

full-time-mum

Rachie_B wrote:

t oh and of course sausages !!

A fiddle, I know, but what about making your own sausages and grating veg into them. At least you would know exactly what they were eating. Good quality meat and no additives etc.

My local butcher does a range of sausages such as wheat-free, fat-free. If your's is similar perhaps you could get him to produce a "child-friendly, trick them into eating veg" version.

Shez

full-time-mum wrote:

A fiddle, I know, but what about making your own sausages and grating veg into them. At least you would know exactly what they were eating. Good quality meat and no additives etc.

My local butcher does a range of sausages such as wheat-free, fat-free. If your's is similar perhaps you could get him to produce a "child-friendly, trick them into eating veg" version.

How do you make your own sausages? do you have to buy one of those sausage machines - and what about the sausage skin where do you get that?
I was looking at the Anthony WorrellThompson one in argos, but though I probably wouldnt use it -another gadget! my kids like the skinless walls sausages.

Do people blend down their bolognaise sauce so the mince is not too lumpy for their kids? mine will only eat plain tomatoe sauce without the mince, but would like to get them to eat it with.

full-time-mum

Shez wrote:

How do you make your own sausages?

Good question and one I started to look into a while ago but didn't actually get very far. Typed "Sausage Making" into search engine and got completely bambozzled!

Shez wrote:

Do people blend down their bolognaise sauce so the mince is not too lumpy for their kids? mine will only eat plain tomatoe sauce without the mince, but would like to get them to eat it with.

Haven't needed to resort to this but suggest you go for the "weaning approach" and start with a tomato sauce with a little bit of meat pureed into it and gradually increase the amount. You could then try gradually increasing the lumpiness and see if you can end up with them eating without the fuss of pureeing.

Good Luck!

astep70uk

Shez wrote:

How do you make your own sausages? do you have to buy one of those sausage machines - and what about the sausage skin where do you get that?

I got a sausage making/mincer attachment for my Kenwood Chef and it's fab!! So far I have made a batch of pork sausages and a batch of pork, tomato and basil. I get my casings from https://www.sausagemaking.org, where you can also buy the ready blended herb mixes.
My local butcher also makes me up a batch of pork mince especially for sausage making - you have to make sure the fat content is right otherwise the sausages are really dry.
If you don't have a mincer/sausage maker, why not just use pork/beef mince mixed with herbs and breadcrumbs and roll into sausage shapes.
I make up a pork/beef mix with lots of seasoning and shape around a wooden skewer so it looks like a kebab. My 4 yr old DS loves these served with a dip.