What age is to old for jars?

Kayalana99

My DS has just turned 1, and is still on jars atm.

Thing is, I have been brought up on oven food and takeaways/pub food (or mcdonalds better word) untill I was 16 I had never even tried pizza..or cottage pie...or well alot of things!!!!

So far my DS eats cottage pie with us but as I have been told the gravy is bad for him...idk. Fish pie he eats with us but again we use powdered cheese sauce so thats probally not ideal for him either although we don't have this to often, roast dinner he has most of this as well.

Other then these meals we generally eat things he cant eat(or wouldnt be good for him)...like steak and chips..spicy chicken and chips...frozen pizza...

Sometimes give him potato waffles and fish fingers...again have no idea if this is good or bad !! The only thing I really look out for is salt content as I have been told its bad for kidneys.

I have a baby annabel cook book but I find all the recipes comlicated, and for say one meal you have 10 differernt items and I can't afford for one meal to buy all these things, and when it comes to freezing things I am clueless, people say oh make cottage pie and freeze it...well if you put cottage pie into little meals are you still supposed to cook it for 40min or so? or do you pre cook it till its ready and use a mircowave when its frozen?

Thing is I am worried now he is getting abit to old for jars etc and I want to give him healthy meals but since I have never had anyone to guide me I am just absoutly clueless..................

Sorry bit of a rant but I need help. :eek:

Ed: I should just add now cottage pie is home made + Roast + Fish pie.

skylight

Cottage pie and stuff - use fresh ingredients and cheese etc. Skip the salt. You can make them as full or as basic as you chose, I would add in veg to these like chopped carrot etc.

Cook the whole thing as you would normally, then put into smaller pots and freeze those. You can get plastic containers from most supermarkets and the small ones are quite cheap. Then just re-heat a dinner as you want to.

Its not always what you cook, but how. So putting in lots of salt/oil etc is not a good idea. I don't put any salt in anything and I put everything like sausages/burgers etc onto a grill pan when I put them in the oven, the fat drips down and the food does not end up swimming in them.

There are some great websites that have simple recipies too. Easy biscuits that your toddler can help make.

Huge kudos too - I cooked nothing when I had my first and she now reflects my eating habits. All my fault. By the time the second came along, I had learned the error or my ways and started to eat more varied stuff myself too.

sedment

Maybe If you have a library near you, go and have a look if there are some other recipe books there?? Rice dishes went down well and easy to tidy up after as well!!Think cottage pie would be ok if you dont add salt to the mash, and use reduced salt gravy granules. Thinking back to when my two were one , I gave them whatever veg we were having and baked chicken without sauce or whatever we were having without salt and sauces. How about your health visitor? Or do you have the red book, they have ideas in there.

Heffi1

Don't worry about not knowing what to cook and how to cook it, your child should be able to eat anything you eat, I stopped adding salt to my cooking when mine were little as I was told that it was bad for them, so I just add it to my plate. Everything I cook they had, chips, stew, soup, casseroles.

If you cook a shepherds pie, let it cool down and then put some portions big enough for the little one into the freezer, then once defrosted they can be warmed up in the microwave. The same with chilli and spag bol. he will be a lot healthier if you cook home made food, but take one dish at a time until you are really sure of how to cook it and get the flavours right.

also go over to the old style board as they are brilliant at giving good ideas on food and will know exactly the sort of things you need to have in your store cupboard. It is expensive, but if you gradually build it up over time, then all you need to do is replace the one item that runs out each time. It is an investment worth making.

Janepig

I'm not a brilliant cook, although I can cook and did so for the kids when they were babies, I did find Annabel Karmel recipes ridiculously complicated with hundreds of ingredients, so OP you might want to look for some other baby cook books that aren't quite so difficult to follow.

Jx

MrsAtobe

Check out Jack Monroe's site for ideas for feeding a little one cheaply

http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/below-the-line-budget-recipes/

HTH

FatVonD

The pound shop sell good small portion pots.

As well as freezing portions of stuff, as long as you check the salt content, there are ready made things you can feed your little one, when mine was young he loved houmous and pitta bread. I would also buy quiches and cut them into slices and freeze them, I'd get the softer ones like broccoli so they didn't have, say, big chunks of ham in them and if you heat them in the microwave the pastry is quite soft too.

sedment

Remember them loving baked potatoes with beans and cheese as well!! Doesnt have to be fancy stuff, spag bol made with minced beef and a tomato sauce made with a tin of chopped tomatoes and as much veg as you can get into it. Liquidise onions into it and carrots, peppers and courgettes, it will be sweet and less likely to be rejected. But good for you wanting to try different things for your little man

Janepig

sedment wrote: »

Maybe If you have a library near you, go and have a look if there are some other recipe books there?? Rice dishes went down well and easy to tidy up after as well!!Think cottage pie would be ok if you dont add salt to the mash, and use reduced salt gravy granules. Thinking back to when my two were one , I gave them whatever veg we were having and baked chicken without sauce or whatever we were having without salt and sauces. How about your health visitor? Or do you have the red book, they have ideas in there.

That was one of the easiest things we used to make when ours were little, they used to love vegetable korma! And you can use a jar of sauce, checking the label, and frozen veg. Pasta with a simple tomato sauce is good too.

Jx

double_mummy

1st a little bit of gravy and some packet mixes are not going to kill him
second fish fingers and waffles every now again wont either

what ever you are having give to him you will be surprised at what they will happily eat

make up a couple of big dishes eg lasagne, casserole, shepards pie cook them all as you normally would and allow them to cool and then freeze them in his portion size take them out of the freezer the night before and nuke in microwave for 3 mins if not piping hot then do another 2 mins he can have one of these if you are having steak etc

pasta is brilliant for kids of this age the little shapes with some cut up sausage or chicken (that you have pre cooked) with a simple tomato and basil sauce buy passata 30p at most supermarkets or chopped tinned tomatos and some dried basil cook the pasta then return to the saucepan add the tomatos and the basil and the meat stir til hot and serve

start making meals for the whole family so have a curry fry some chicken add in a jar of sauce then some frozen veggies simmer for 10 mins microwave or boil in the bag rice and serve - always make extra and freeze some of the portions but not the rice!

have a look at things you can throw together and let sit in the over those packets with the bags that you put the chicken in are amazing add mash potatos or rice and veg and you have a meal

once you have a 5 core meals you can make hen you can just play with the flavours to make them different add different herbs and some mince to the tomato sauce to make a bolognaise cook different shapes of pasta try out different jars i love the asda own brand sasauge casserole one!

with meal planning and freezing the extra you will be able to give your son something healthy almost every night (a non healthy night is absolutely fine he is a child)

Kayalana99

Thanks, so many replys so fast. So grateful for advice am taking this on board. No idea how to make lasagne...don't think ive ever had a cassarole -.- (Had my first curry last week actally...)

Alot of people say give what your eating but its just not suitable...maybe once in a while its ok for him to have chips etc but it would be constant. Breakfast is the one thing I don't struggle with *to* much, generally its wheatabix, mashed bananna or porriage.

I did think of Pasta and looked round supermaket for sauces but they are so full of salt its ridulous...will have alook at the tinned tomatoes think we have some in cuboard actally...