Tell me this wont cause any serious issues? Fussy child/food

green1970

From the later things you've said, Aliasojo, it sounds like she's pretty adventurous and is just wanting to do her own thing a bit which, based on her age, sounds perfectly normal. I really would leave her to it for a few weeks and allow her to make those choices. Try not to worry and just enjoy mealtimes :-)

Poppy9

aliasojo wrote: »

We do have a lot of soup. I do leek and potato ('cos it's the only one I'm any good at ) and OH does carrot & coriander and butternut squash & something. We also make home made bread. She loves all of that.

We often have the likes of soup as a starter then salmon, salad and cous cous or a baked potato as a main. She'll happily eat all that, but she can't be having it every day.

Ooh leek and potato one of my favourites. I have soup and bread as a main meal not as a starter but as a starter followed by baked potato sounds fine. Have you tried baked sweet potatoes for a change.

I always make chilli/lasange/bolly sauce with veggie mince and my meat eating OH never complains.

aliasojo

Poppy9 wrote: »

Ooh leek and potato one of my favourites. I have soup and bread as a main meal not as a starter but as a starter followed by baked potato sounds fine. Have you tried baked sweet potatoes for a change.

I always make chilli/lasange/bolly sauce with veggie mince and my meat eating OH never complains.

We usually roast sweet potatoes. Cut then into large chunks and roast in the oven with peppers, onions, chunks of squash etc.

Never just baked one, will try that this week.

She will eat chilli made with Quorn mince and we usually have it with wild rice or brown rice. OH isn't fond of Quorn so I end up making a pan of Quorn chilli and a pan of meat based chilli.

Now, seeing all that written down in black and white...we're really pretty healthy eaters on the whole. If I could just stop at that and not eat the crap I do too, I'd be thin! But that's another thread entirely.

Bettie

Do you cook her something different from the rest of the family every day? ( most of the time?) That would be wasteful if she doesn't want it or like it and a bit upsetting after your time has been spent doing it. I like to have the same as the rest of the family minus the meat/fish. I don't very often get a "substitute" unless it's something made up previously and frozen. Roast dinners I always make a cauli cheese and I get an extra large portion and with everything else there is no need for meat sub. This week I made a chicken curry with a side of spinach and potato, then nan bread and chutneys and pappadoms. I took most of the spinach/potato curry and the rest of the family had some with their chicken, no waste then. if it's ham egg and chips I have an extra egg or beans.
It annoys me when I go out and all the family have a different meal with lots of selection and I have to have the one veggie option usually +salad and garlic bread. I look at their tomatoes, mushrooms onion rings chips and I want that but not the meat.
Do you know why she doesn't want to eat meat?

Poppy9

Lots of meals are easy to subsitute with veggie option like sausage and mash, burger etc. so you are not making two meals just cooking two types of sausage/burger!

Agree Bettie about lack of choice for veggies in restaurants. If I go to weddings I never request veggie. If it's chicken I'm fine if it's beef then I swap my meat for OH yorkshire pudding (if I am quick and get in before DD). That way I get all the lovely trimmings instead of an inspid looking cheese tart or tasteless vegetable lasange!

coolcait

Poppy9 wrote: »

...tasteless vegetable lasange!

Vegetable lasagne shouldn't be tasteless!!

Even my carnivores will hoover it up. Although they have been well-warned not to touch it until their vegetarian auntie has had her fill :eek:.

After all, it has been made for her - and they have umpteen other things to choose from.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've always had this problem with non-vegetarian friends and family. You make two or three dishes for them, and one dish for the vegetarian in the group. And the carnivores flock to the vegetarian dish...! :mad:

Aliasojo, your daughter's tastes in food may be more expensive (salmon), but she sounds pretty adventurous in other areas (couscous).

Could you try to pick up salmon fillets from the reduced section, cut them in half, and freeze them?

Serving a smaller amount of salmon with tabbouleh (sp?) and salad would be filling, healthy, and pescetarian (sp?).

Even if you stick to pasta dishes, there is a huge variety of ways to serve it vegetarian/pescetarian style - including pasta with beans (as a source of protein); pasta with tuna; pasta with shellfish; pasta with tomato and basil; pasta with oil, garlic and a touch of chilli....

I'd agree with the suggestion that you involve your daughter in chossing menus, and preparation. If she has that level of engagement in what she's eating, that might make her more inclined to eat it... (it worked with my DD anyway)

She sounds like a good kid, with the courage to follow her own beliefs. All she needs now is a good collection of recipes...

P.S. Although I'm not a vegetarian myself, I agree with the comments about lacklustre/unimaginative vegetarian options in restaurants, for weddings etc. If a wee wifie - cooking for family and friends - can come up with something different for veggie friends and families, surely the professionals can too?

Brighton_belle

Another way to get some excellent vitmains and minerals in to her(and yourself) is to try green smoothies.
If you have a blender, add a handful of spinach and some fruit and say 100ml of water and blend. You'll have to experiment a bit to get the right balance - newbies need to have more fruit than green leaves to make it a bit sweeter. Honestly, these are so delicious and very good for you, most epecially the raw greens.
I personally try to vary the green leaves, but I have an extremely expensive blender that can turn raw carrots in to liquid. But a bog standard blender should cope well with leaves like spinage, or pak choi with no problems.If you can stretch to it, add 1/2 an avocado (healthy fats) makes the smoothies sooo creamy you wouldn't believe.
I aim to drink a pint a day, but half of that would be a great start. You can always google green smoothies - there is loads out there on them.

jenniewb

aliasojo wrote: »

No, not at all tbh. I'm just fed up of the narrow menu and the waste of something new if she doesn't eat what's put in front of her.

What she does eat is healthy, I just don't feel it's varied enough.

I can hand on heart say that an eating disorder is not even in the running for consideration.

Thank you though.

Glad its not an ED- I've witnessed enough of those to last a lifetime, the're not good! I would add though that variety makes a diet healthy and sadly just because its a diet which is low fat or made from complex over refined carbs, it doesn't automaticly make it healthy, what makes a diet healthy is getting in all the required vitamins and nutrients as well as getting these things from a variety of sources.

Good luck with it though and am relieved its nothing more sinister!

aliasojo

coolcait wrote: »

Could you try to pick up salmon fillets from the reduced section, cut them in half, and freeze them?

Serving a smaller amount of salmon with tabbouleh (sp?) and salad would be filling, healthy, and pescetarian (sp?).

We do stock up when it's on offer. Morrisons often have large sides of salmon reduced so we freeze that and it does 2 0r 3 meals for us all.

I have no idea what tabbouleh is, never heard of it....goes of to google.

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Another way to get some excellent vitmains and minerals in to her(and yourself) is to try green smoothies.
If you have a blender, add a handful of spinach and some fruit and say 100ml of water and blend. You'll have to experiment a bit to get the right balance - newbies need to have more fruit than green leaves to make it a bit sweeter. Honestly, these are so delicious and very good for you, most epecially the raw greens.
I personally try to vary the green leaves, but I have an extremely expensive blender that can turn raw carrots in to liquid. But a bog standard blender should cope well with leaves like spinage, or pak choi with no problems.If you can stretch to it, add 1/2 an avocado (healthy fats) makes the smoothies sooo creamy you wouldn't believe.
I aim to drink a pint a day, but half of that would be a great start. You can always google green smoothies - there is loads out there on them.

Lovely. _pale_ Thanks. :undecided

:rotfl:

Just kidding.

We do have a blender and a juicer but we stopped using the juicer because people were only liking the fruit smoothies and wouldn't entertain ones with veg etc in them.

We were finding it expensive as we only had the usual supermarkets to buy the fruit from and although people on here speak of getting a hundred apples for 10p (ok exaggeration but you get my drift ) we could never access deals like that.

Might haul it out and try again though.

Brighton_belle

aliasojo wrote: »

We do have a blender and a juicer but we stopped using the juicer because people were only liking the fruit smoothies and wouldn't entertain ones with veg etc in them.

But the veg onesare soooo delicious, honest guv! I appreciate it can be expensive though. Don't give the option of only fruit ones: overload of sugars albeit 'natural' ones. I wouldn't ever have just a fruit smoothie any more and as you say, gets expensive. I'm suggesting a banana and maybe a pear and a handful of spinach/green leaves.