easy meat recipes to beef up underweight teen

blue-kat

any tips or easy recipes for getting fussy kids to eat more home cooked meat and veg?

I am planning to do more 'traditional' meat and 3 veg dinners. my teenage son is underweight, and has small appetite partly due to a severe chronic illness and also being incedibly fussy when younger.

Our younger 2 could do with more proper meals than constant snacks. I don't always feel well enough to cook, due to having the same illness myself...thus the need for easy food, & well stocked freezer....and just to complicate matters, I have allergy to wheat so need recipes that are easy to do variants off, otherwise I end up cooking several separate meals.

We do the usual stuff to build him up, big sarnies made with HM bread, banana milk shake made with ice cream, banana cake, biscuits....... but he's got to get used to eating more proper food too.

He's now trying to eat more wider range of foods, but don't think he'd eat stuff like stew or soup just yet, but simple non-mixed up food is going down nicely, albeit in small portions.

I am not an experienced meat cook, and don't know what to do with a lump of meat unless it comes on plastic tray with instructions

I've got an underused slow cooker, but thinking of trying to cook a pork/gammon joint in it.

is there a cook book with really plain simple meat recipes in?

any tips much apprecaited !
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blue-kat

squeaky

I've doner this as a casserole and in a slow cooker. Both work well.l


Ingredients:

leg of lamb (I buy mine frozen - but any way you can get them )

some pulses and lentils of your choice

potato

veggies of your choice

mixed herbs

meat stock cubes

salt

pepper from to taste to LOTS to make it spicy


Method:

Carve chunks of meat off the bone, any old way you like until the easy bits are all off and it's getting to be a pain to do any more. Just leave the rest on the bone.

In a four litre casserole dish (or the slow cooker) put the meat and the meaty bone into plenty (full) of water with about a coffee mug full of assorted lentils and things (I prefer red lentils, split peas, and barley because they all break down and help as a thickener) a good dose of mixed herbs, at least four stock cubes, a teaspoon of salt and a minimum of a teaspoon of pepper (your choice here).

Slow cook overnight on low, or set the pan (covered) almost full to the brim on the absolute minimum miserly setting your cooker will work at. Start it from cold just before you go to bed. (If you're not sure your cooker will not boil the pan dry then you'll have to do it during day one, and then do what follows on day two)

Next day - using a big spoon thingy with holes in, fish out the bones, take any meat off that hasn't already fallen off and set the bones aside to keep for stock another day if you wish.

Remove half the liquid and save as stock.

Peel and chop enough potatoes for the needful number of servings sort of an inch (2.5cm) ish.

Normally I use leeks, mushroom, carrots as my veg. Leeks and mushrooms can be in quite large bits - carrots rather smaller because they require more cooking.

Bung all your veggies into the pot, stir things round a bit and pour back in some of the stock you've saved so that everything is covered.

Slow cook all day.

What you can do, if there's room is float (some of) your veggies in a pudding basin or bowl (with hot stock) so that you can lift them at the end of cooking, whizz them, and then stir them back into the pan/pot before serving. Do that with the ones that are not so popular

Chipps

What about traditional roast dinners? They must be about the simplest things ever to cook. Just bung the meat into the oven & take out when done! (check any basic cookbook for timings)
Our youngest (14) was an incredibly fussy eater, too. Up until he was about 12 he was extremely skinny, but his appetite is now much better. He is still pretty fussy, veg-wise he will only really eat potatoes & carrots, but I do put a "token gesture" of another veg on his plate as well, which he will usually eat. But now he can eat more in the way of roast meat, roast potatoes & yorkshire puds than his 19yo brother, and has put on a reasonable amount of weight in the past 2 years. He's not fat, but you wouldn't accuse him of being skinny now!
He would also recommend steak & kidney pie & liver & bacon; but mainly because he really likes those & I don't often make them!!!

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi blue-kat

My daughter can be quite fussy so I tend to stick with the same or similar meals/recipes. Over a 10-14 day period we have a mixture of the following meals. All cooked from scratch and all very tasty and quite nutritious! Here we go:

Roast Chicken/Lamb-Roast Spuds, Mash, 2/3Veg,stuffing,yorkshires, gravy.
Shepards Pie & 2 veg
Toad In Hole, Mash & 2 Veg
Chilli & Rice
Chops, Pots & 2 veg
Sausage, Mash & beans/veg
Lamb/Sausage Cassarole & Dumplings
Fish Pie & Veg
Egg, Chips & beans/spagetti/peas
Jacket Spuds & beans, cheese, coleslaw etc
HM Curry & Rice (made with left over chicken or lamb from roast)
HM Spag Bol

I find all the above meals easy to make and I am no cook..lol! I find routine os good for me and generally eat the same meals on the same days each week.

It does seem very daunting at first trying to cook etc, but it will get easier and practice makes perfect..lol

Good Luck!

Penny-Pincher!!
xxx

blue-kat

thanks Penny-Pincher and Chipps

good to hear what's worked with your son Chipps. My eldest is nearly 17, nearly 6 foot and stick thin Our daughter is slim, just right,and 9 yr old son is bit on the chunky side, so got a bit of a balancing act to get diets right for them all !

The routine + planning thing doesn't come naturally to me, which is why things go chaotic at times of course !

P-P: thanks, your post has helped me to draw up a list of fussy-teen-friendly quick standards, some more labour-saving than money saving.

protein:
fried turkey thigh pieces (cheap, quick and v tasty!)
roast chicken/lamb (will try to get him to eat roast pork + beef as trad roast dinner is all nutritous stuff and not mixed up so good for picky eaters)
sausages (good ones)
tesco froz organic beefburgers ( @ 25p , on special offer extra points ATM)
HM chicken nuggets
ready made fish in crumbs + oven chips
keep stocked up sliced ham and cheese

carb staples:
chinese noodles
egg fried rice
pasta
froz yshire puds
HM bread
jacket spuds

veg staples:
froz corn on cob ( tesco mini cobs on BOGOF now)
peas, sweetcorn, carrots...

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blue-kat

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi blue-kat

I totally agree with you about the routine/schedule and even now I struggle with it. This time last year everything was take-aways and ready meals, costing me a small fortune and most of all making us a very unhealthy family :eek:

My health has deteriated badly these past 18 months and struggle with day to day normal duties(need putting down..lol)If nothing else, I make sure we eat well and have our 5 portions of fruit & veg daily. If I am unable to do it-I crack the whip with hubby as he would live on anything & chips forever if he had his choice!

Below are a couple of the simplest recipes I use. I use lamb as I have an intolerence to beef. You can make double/triple etc and freeze for other days:

Shepards Pie (feeds 4 hungry adults)

500g Minced Lamb/Beef
Tin of baked beans
Tin of chopped Toms
Onion
Potatoes for mashing

Put spuds on to boil and mash. Brown onions, add mince till cooked, add baked beans and tinned toms, add splash of Worcester sauce or HP sauce. Place in some kind of oven proof dish (not too deep)then mash spuds with butter and little milk and spoon over the top and push out with a fork. I grate a little cheddar on the top too, but up to you. Cook till top is browned and serve with peas/sweetcorn or any other veg. Takes about 40 mins from start to eating.

Toad In Hole, Mash, Veg & Lovely Gravy-Daughters Fav (Serves 4 hungry adults)

8-10 Good quality sausages
Batter mix (eggs, milk & flour)
Onion
Mushrooms
Peppers (any I have left, green or red normally)
Potatoes to mash
Cabbage (our fav is savoy or greens with this)

Gently fry sausages till cooked, fry onions, peppers and mushrooms in sausage fat juices :eek: , knock up the batter in a jug, get a good sized deepish baking tray and add some oil and preheat on high in oven for 5-10 mins. Take out and add the sausages to the tray (they should sizzle with the high temp oil) then quickly add the batter mix and stick back in hot oven 200c, this takes between 20-25 mins to cook and rise, so in the meantime get spuds on for mash and cut up cabbage to stick on 5 mins before toad in the hole is ready. The same time you put the cabbage on go back to your fried onions,peppers and mushrooms put them back on the heat and make up a jug of normal gravy and add this to the veg and leave to simmer for 2 mins. Mash your spuds with butter and milk.
Serve your toad in hole with the mash, cabbage & onion, mushroom and pepper gravy....divine
I havent froze this before as it gets eaten very quickly.

Hope this helps. You will get there its down to good time keeping and being slightly organised. If i can do it-you can!

Good Luck

Penny-Pincher!!
XXX

Mumstheword

wow, penny pincher, I'm starving now....got any of that tith left over? My fav!! (hm, of course, but your gravy sounds better than mine!!)

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi Mumstheword

LOL. Your welcome you come round anytime sweety! Its all about living and learning, trial and error etc. I love experimenting and have had many disasters...lol. My fav meals are Toad In Hole, Full Proper Roasts, HM Chillis and HM curries....yummy!!

We've been having lamb chops, new potatoes, brocolli and cauliflower and butter of course the last few weeks and this has been a lovely change from the normal roast pots, mash pots and oven chips. I dont really like boiled spuds (bad childhood experiance)but will eat them with mint boiled with them. Would love to grow mint-how hard is it-anyone know?

Penny-Pincher!!
XXX

Mumstheword

There's some in my garden - help yourself! and rosemary, and coriander.
I cheated and bought plants from the garden centre, and they've survived!

squeaky

It's a good idea to grow mint in a pot. Certain varieties can spread all over the place.

culpepper

cant think of any specific recipes but the gladiators used to bulk up on barley and corn .My brother was thin as a rake for years but once he got past 18 ,he started to fill out a bit,he had done all his growing ,upwards