What can i feed the fussiest eater in the world?

morganb

What about soup? Butternut squash soup with red pepper and red lentils (all pureed, of course!!) goes down a treat in this house, especially if served with marmite soldiers for some reason ...

Uniscots97

Thanks for the suggestions folks. My Thanks button isn't working at the moment but will thank everyone individually soon.

Well triumph last night I made a variation on the Rosemary Conelley Spaghetti Carbonara (it has spring onions in it! and I thought sorry no I'm going to make this properly). It went down a treat! Previously we would have got "what are the green things". I'm not sure if they weren't noticed or what, the plates were cleared before I had even eaten a third of mine!

Holly won't eat baked beans and her brother won't eat cheese (i.e. pizza etc) but he didn't notice I'd put a little grated cheese in the sauce last night. My OH has given up smoking and has developed a sweet tooth but had a traybake on hand (sliced that up and served with a little custard)) rather than lots of chocolate biscuits (I haven't bought any since the last lot disappeared!).

Uniscots97

beedeedee wrote: »

Well, if it's of any help I still can't stand fruit or salad and I'm well into my fifties! I don't mind the occasional grape or cherry, but apples, oranges, banana's etc are a no no. I can't stand lettuce or any of it's varieties although I'm a bit better with salad ingredients (toms and cucmbers with a nice dressing etc) than I was as a teenager. To me, veg was always about how it looked (and smelled) in the serving dish. If it was already dished onto my plate, I would hate it. I also disliked sliced carrots, but as soon as someone introduced me to "jullienne" carrots, with a glaze and just a sprig of parsley or something - well, a whole new world opened up. Just wondering if presenting the veg a bit trendily might help?

Might give this a go and see what she thinks. Thank you.

Uniscots97

duchy wrote: »

I have a picky eater-who also has aspergers so I do pick my battles.
Like your step daughter he'll eat all the junk food going-so I simply stopped buying it as part of a regular shop. Crisps, biscuits etc are now treats and we're all a lot healthier for it. Slip cheese in with mash, all the concealing stuff and if she wants pasta so long as she cooks it-AND clears up-well is it really the end of the world ?
Part of this is been a teenager anyway but some of it may be a testing the limits more so than the averasge teenager due to the changes in circumstance. Just be consistant and keep a united front as a couple -teenage girls can be really manipulative so just makes some reasonable mealtime rules and stick with them and only change with good reason, family discussion and good luck !!

Thanks, we're trying to make sure all meals (with the kids) are in the dining room away from the tv. It meant in the early days they got to know me faster too. She seems fascinated by some of the more exotic cooking ingredients I have in my kitchen so maybe its time to involve her a little more in cooking................though maybe not when I'm hiding the pureed veg! :rotfl:

sethsgran

Sounds like she is doing quite well. She will get used to a new menu. You could maybe let her plan the menu with you for their next time with you.
My sons when teenagers, still now actually and they are now married, always found my secret stash of goodies so rotate where you hide stuff and keep them on their toes:)

kazmeister

Hi, you sound like you're doing great as a step mum :T .

I think if you give her some responsibility and allow her to help, either with meal planning or cooking, or both it should work in the long run. One of the things I am sure which has helped my DD eat most things, is allowing her to get in the kitchen, and so what if it looks like a bomb site after, its the healthy attitude to food that will count. I refused to cook the other night for my two and DS 15yrs made himself a salad with rocket, tomato, cucumber, cheese and pasta, and DD 8yrs made herself a salad with oranges, pineapple, apple, pear, peach and quite happily ate that and nothing else.

To encourage kids to eat fruit I often make a fruit salad - they dont seem to want to take a piece of fruit out of a bowl and eat but turn it into a fruit salad and they eat loads. I get approx a cup of sugar (I know contradicts the healthy aspect of it!!) and add about 1 & 1/2 cups of water. micro stirring a couple of times until sugar dissolved to make a syrup. Add more cold water and a bit of lemon juice then just bung in any fruit chopped into bite size pieces and chill until ready to eat. I have had kids friends round who dont eat fruit then they manage 4 bowlfuls .

Another veg trick I discovered (only yesterday) was to add mashed up swede into a casserole. I love it and kids both hate it and wont touch it so I bunged the leftovers into the casserole and they didnt have a clue :rotfl:

PS try getting her to help with the good stuff like cakes and muffins before moving onto the savories. Easycook magazine is very good for beginners.

odds-n-sods

kaz, leave out the sugar, that's why the kids are eating it. defeats the purpose of healthy OS eating to douse fruit in syrup. Just use a little OJ/apple juice instead, they won't notice.

JillD_2

... actually he's not fussyt at all compared to a coulpe of years ago ..... but my son starts full time school on Tuesday (been mornings only last term) and wil start to take a lunchbox.

I'm ok on the sandwich-type thing front and fruit, and he eats some veggies (carrot, cucumber, sweetcorn) as well. Was also thinking of a snack portion of cheese for days when his sandwich is meaty, and little cocktail sasuages when his sandwich is cheese. And maybe a little pot of some crisps, and a carton of juice.

I wanted to include an OS homemade sweet treat. He loves helping me do baking but then won't eat the end result (hence I have several stone to lose but thats another story).

He refuses point blank to eat flapjacks.
He sort of eats choc chip muffins but only if they are like totally dark dark chocolatey ones like the ones you buy in the shops and I donlt know how to make those. Today I made some banana ones (he didn't see the banana go in) with choc chips and he just ferrets about in them for the chocolate.
We also made choc chip cookies and I let him decorate eah one with a smartie. Again he eats the smartie and eats the resy under duress. There's no way he'll eat it if I'm not there!
Cereal bars are out, he won't touch anything with "bits" in it (unless the bits are chocloate of course).
He won't eat shortbread whether its homemade or shop bought.
If he had his way it would be a mini roll or similar every day but I refuse to buy them.

So anyone got any ideas ?
Any suggestions welcomed.

Cheers and sorry it was a bit waffley.
Jill

margot_ledbetter

Whatever you make he'll want what his pals have.

Lets hope pals' mums are into raisins...

Don't give him fiddly stuff - it's unlikely that the other mums at school will be into OS. Even at this age they soon don't want to be marked out from their peers!

Margot
(teacher)

PS - However - it IS worth noting that most children will be amenable to new ideas in school that they wouldn't countenance at home. A school I know had a parental meeting where all the parents agreed to standard snack guidelines. The kids couldn't do "but Amy (or whoever) gets... "

lil_me

:rotfl: another one who ferrets the chocolate out then :rotfl: my oldest was in a right mess finding chocolate chips today.

I'll be honest, this is what my son has - cheese piece, 6 slices of cucumber, 1 bag of fruit nuggets/fruit flakes (dried fruit pieces) 1 box of raisins (I refil the kids boxes or put them in a pot) and skips then a bottle of fruit juice. He's 9 and that is what he has EVERY day, thanks Autism for making my kids love routine. He's refused any meats or bread products in his packed lunch for a while now. He's a sweet toothed kid and I know from the past when I have given him something sweet that's all he's eaten from his lunch box, because I'm not there to make him eat the rest first most likely. I don't buy or make him any sweet or chocolatey stuff any more for his lunches after that. Sugar rush on an afternoon for my son would probably spell disaster for the teachers anyway, made that mistake and had the phonecall home :rotfl:

As far as ideas go if you want to include a sweet treat.

You can make a swiss roll, those are quite easy, with buttercream icing in the middle then make it into slices for him to take. Cutting it into 'wheels' sometimes appeals to boys. Brownies keep well. Would he eat a currant/raisin muffin?

Some links from my kids cookery faves

http://www.bigeyedowl.co.uk/favourite_recipes.htm
http://www.teaching-resource.co.uk/teachers/cookery.htm
http://www.netmums.com/h/n/FOOD/HOME/ALL/419//
http://www.childrensrecipes.com/