New month = new start

tiptoes

I agree what with summer behind me an DD and DS back to school I need to get organised. As I fell of the money saving and OS wagon about a year ago and have been struggling to get back on. So here's to september and a fresh start. I'm Going to:

1) Reassesss my buget (as I 've changed jobs and am now paid monthly)
2) Meal plan and organise groceries needed before I shop.
3)Stick to my buget, no more spending willy nilly.
4) Batch cook and make meals from scratch.
5) Plan my cleaning and stick to it!!

Sorry I've been no help P71 with your dilemma but maybe when I start meal planning I'll come across some stuff.

Spendless

pipkin- how old is she? Also is she trying the stuff first and then saying she doesn't like it or saying she doesn't like it without trying it?

My eldest was faddy up till going to f-time school but he ate tomato soup and enjoyed it, cos I called it Special soup, and tuna fishcakes cos they were snowcakes and people ate them to celebrate the snow. I know my friend in despair at her 2, introduced a 5p extra pocket money reward for each new taste they tried, which had some success. What about her growing vegetables, do you think that might help her try them?

As to recipes I'm a bit stuck for ideas other than soup and maybe stew blending the veg into the gravy.

Ches

My GS3 won't eat any veg including potatoes unless they are roasted very crispy and with the exception of corn on the cob. Occasionally licks a carrot to prove he still hates the taste. Won't eat any gravy or sauces so we can't put veg in that. Complete nightmare to cook for. Every time he comes here to dinner I cook him toad in the hole which he eats dry and on its own. Eats some fruit though.

studentsaver166

Hi Pipkin71,
I came up with a great and easy meal that has couscous and a sauce that you can hide vegetables in! I'm afraid I'm not really one for measuring stuff out though, so make up the amounts as you go along! It's a kind of quick stew that uses sausages (I usually find 6 is enough for 2 hungry people with a little left over).
Firstly I take the skins off the sausages and separate each one into little meatball shapes. I fry off some onions and garlic in a little olive oil (these can always be liquidised in the ragout if they need to be hidden!) and add the sausage balls and lower the heat. While they're cooking I blend together in a food processor lots of plump vine tomatoes, with some fresh garlic, fresh basil, lots of worcester sauce and some tomatoe puree mixed into a thin paste with water, to top up the ragout. I also add plenty of fajita spice mix but it depends whether your kids like it! I usually then cut up chunks of veg that can be fried off, such as courgettes, mushrooms, peppers etc (whatever is in the fridge really!) and add them to the pan for a bit before adding the ragout. You could fry them briefly then whizz them into the ragout in the blender. Pour the whole lot onto the sausages, turn the heat down to simmer to a nice thick consistency and a few minutes before serving, dissolve half a chicken stock cube in the right amount of boiled water for the couscous, add the couscous, cover and then serve the whole lot when the couscous is fluffy! Hope that helps.

the_other_mce

Hiya - my two can be very fussy too. I found out that my youngest would eat yorkshire puddings and the meat if we made the gravy with potato, carrot and brocolli blended up into it. She had no idea for years that there was so much veg in it!
I also chuck as many carrots and onions into bolognaise sauce as I can get away with.
Another thing I did was gave them bread based meals - (pitta's, wraps and rolls) to make a change from pasta - and on the odd occassion I found [STRIKE]lying[/STRIKE] calling potatoes something else like rosti or frittata helped!:j

HTH - good luck anyway...

pipkin71

Spendless wrote: »

pipkin- how old is she? Also is she trying the stuff first and then saying she doesn't like it or saying she doesn't like it without trying it?

Hi Spendless. DD1 is 10 years old. She wont even try stuff and decides she doesn't like it. I wouldn't mind if she did try it, but by insisting, I would be making an issue out of food, so I cook the things I know she will eat and it's all pretty healthy, as we cook from scratch 90% of the time. It's just that it's the same food all the time.

Ches - good that your gs eats some fruit at least. My DD wont eat it. I make sure she has apple or orange juice every day and occassionally, she will have a peach smoothie, otherwise no joy.

She is going to try the cous cous, so that's a start, although she may change her mind once it's in front of her.

We haven't tried risotto yet either, so I've been looking at some risotto recipes to see what I can come up with.

Pipkin xxxx

pipkin71

Studentsaver, thankyou for your idea with the sausages - that sounds interesting. We make meatballs, and the sauce will have several different veg blended into it.

I will certainly give the sausage meatballs a go this month.

the other mce - yes, I will sometimes give DD a bread based meal rather than pasta/rice all the time.

No good calling potatoes other things, as she's 10, so it wouldn't work.

I love it when she says that she doesn't eat veg;)

jcr16

i was gonna have september as a fresh start. but i only had a budget of £150 for month and i spent £135 in morrisons as out of so much and having a new kitchen put in so it all a nightmare. i was planning to have a shopping day on tuesday's . as hubby out monday evening so thought then i could go through cupboard write meal plans and do shopping list.

my little girl is 4 in oct and she has only just ( well last 6 month) trying everything we give her. i think it because i got fed up with cokking 2 different meals each evening and she soon learnt that if she didn't like what was for dinner then there was no alternative.( mean mummy) but it is a joy now to cook and know we will all eat it. although i do have to do spag bol once a week as it is the kids fav meal.

but i did find i would introduce a different type of food each meal time . ie peas or rice etc. and hubby would play games and say who can eat 5 spoons first or does it tickle when t goes into your tummy. or what noise does it make when u chew. all little games which got our daughter interested in trying it for herself to see. pasta twists are the best tho. as tori wiggles in her seat laughing. saying oh thats tickles me. it so sweet. my litle boy eats anythign put in front of hime , thank good ness.

odds-n-sods

that'a good idea, JCR, to make a game out of the new food.

Pipkin, at 10, that's a lot harder to change her habits - I think you may have to do the 'tough love' thing and give her new stuff to try, if she doesn't eat it, tough, that's all there is. No getting something else out of the fridge, or giving in. Dont' make a fuss, tho, just be matter-of-fact. 'This is what's for dinner, if you don't eat it, you don't get anything else'. And let her decide. She wont' starve herself!

FBThree

Perfectly timed thread! Have been "trying" to get round to organising and meal planning etc for a few months and failing. Going away in 6 weeks, so this will be perfect time to get started - then house might not look like a bombsite when catsitter comes in!
1. meal plan
2. flylady!
3. Neaten up body - pull in waist and tone up, hopefully losing weight at the same time.
4. Get to the Outstanding to-do list - only somewhere over 270 items on it