What can i feed the fussiest eater in the world?

welshmaiden

thank you all for your very inspireing ideas i will give some of these a go. see how he reacts.
he is starting to show an interest in cooking as did my eldest boy 19 who has now left home and manages very well on his own in the cooking department. he had ocd about food and had to check that i followed certain rules that he enforced before he would eat the food.
so if i do involve him a bit in the process of makeing the food and helping with meal planning maybe he will be more prepared to try the things we make. i was making home made bread the other day and he joined me in the kitchen and weighed out the ingredients for me. had as right battle on my hands to stop him trying to eat the bread before it had cooled down( my mum always told me never to eat homemade bread untill it has cooled down something to do with the yeast being bad for you). when i did let him have some he eat half the loaf.
he wont drink milk in any form and never has the only milk i have ever known him to take willingly was breast milk. he even had to weaned at very early at just ten weeks old at the health visitors recommendation because my breast milk dried up and he refused formula and he was literally starveing himself. so gave up that battle a long time ago.
he will occassionally eat fromage fraise though and a large quantity of cheese so i know he is getting some calcium.
dont think he would try honey or jam on toast but i will give it a try. unfortunately he wont entertain bananas.
his fav fruit and veg are raw carrots, cooked broccoli green beans, raw celery raw mushrroms he loves apples pears, orranges and satsumas he goes mad over(i can still remember loseing him once hunted high and low for him found him hideing behind the sofa with a huge bag satsumas surrounded by peel his nappiies where a nightmare for days after he was only eight months old) and recently he dicovered he likes grapes. but he wont entertain tomatoes strawberries bananas raspberries or other wet fruits. however saying that he does sometimes like a bit of tomatoe ketchup with chips. but wont east pizza if it has got tomatoe sauce on it.

angelavdavis

He doesn't sound that fussy to me! He seems to eat a fairly rounded diet.

My younger brother wouldn't eat anything except Weetabix (with milk and sugar) and beans with bread (not toast - bread) until he was 11 when he decided he would eat spaghetti bolognaise with pasta shapes.

When my Mum went to the GP worried about his eating, the GP said "so he eats weetabix, milk, baked beans and bread - he's getting his vitamins and minerals, don't worry about it!"

QuirkyChemistry

How about making fajitas? If he likes bread, he will probably like tortilla wraps (recipe in the index) and you can put in chicken or beef and plenty of veg e.g. onions, pepper. Serve a salad and potato wedges with it. There are plenty of recipes on the net for spice mixes too.

Toonie

One of my favourite breakfasts when I was younger was bread, cheese and grapes. I still do it sometimes now and find it keeps me full for quite a while.

Would your son try a thick cut marmalade perhaps? That might be something to try on toast or bread for breakfast.

You could always try freezing bananas on lolly sticks...they're lovely.

Like others have said, he sounds like he has a good diet, so I wouldn't worry too much.

kirstyreanne

What about making a pizza without the tomato. I used to have this when I was younger because I didn't like tomatoes at all.

HTH

miss_corerupted

EssexHebridean wrote: »

It's a dislike of the texture of sauces by the sounds of it, rather than a dislike of the taste. I agree with the others above, it doesn't sound like his diet is particularly restricted, it does sound though that you're feeling worried by his reluctance to eat the sorts of foods that most kids go mad for.....

How about, when the rest of you are having pasta with sauce, serving his up with a little bowl of the sauce on the side, and another of grated cheese, and letting him help himself to as much of the sauce as he feels comfortable with? If he likes bread then how about Pitta bread cut into strips, raw veggies and dips - you could do two or three different dips and that's something the whole family clould join him in as well so it would make less of a focus on his issues with wet foods.

Prob texture. i really don't like minced meat, rice anything small like that because of the way it feels in my mouth. Nothing to do with taste at all. I will say don't force him as my parents tried to force me to eat things and it always ended in tears, me still sittng and table 9 at night by myself. Still have loads of weird food quirks now as well. My food can't touch different types on my plate, i will eat all of 1thing and then the next so they don't mix and i will not eat alone. if my boyfriend finishes before me which is everytime he has to stay with me or i will leave the rest and become quite stressed over it, god knows how he puts up with me. i am getting better chips and beans can touch each other now lol

welshmaiden

miss_corerupted wrote: »

Prob texture. i really don't like minced meat, rice anything small like that because of the way it feels in my mouth. Nothing to do with taste at all. I will say don't force him as my parents tried to force me to eat things and it always ended in tears, me still sittng and table 9 at night by myself. Still have loads of weird food quirks now as well. My food can't touch different types on my plate, i will eat all of 1thing and then the next so they don't mix and i will not eat alone. if my boyfriend finishes before me which is everytime he has to stay with me or i will leave the rest and become quite stressed over it, god knows how he puts up with me. i am getting better chips and beans can touch each other now lol

sounds like you have developed a touch of ocd relateing to food. my eldest son was a nightmare that way. even though he ate very well from about the age of twelve as soon as i whent into the kitchen to cook he would come in with me. every item of food i made he had to check the use by date on it. he would insist on me freshly washing all cooking utensils pans and he would have to wash his own plate knife and fork himself. i wasnt allowed to leave any food unattended not even for a second. when id served the food up i wasnt allowed to leave the kitchen at all i had to guard his food till he came to get it. it used to drive me mad sometimes. if id forgotten and left it unattended then nothing on earth could persuade him to eat it. this was all because his older sister had played a joke on him oneday and had said she had spat in his food.
he then became convinced that she would poison his food or something. things have however got better . he came to mine for a visit last week and left with a huge piece of home made bara brith and a loaf of home made bread. i guess at the end of the day theres nothing quite beats mums cooking. lol

oystercatcher

I'm desperately trying to become more oldstyle and cook more from scratch , however , my mob are so fussy it's really difficult. I usually end up producing at least two variations of whatever I make although there are a few meals everybody will eat but only a few !! I thought maybe people could come up with some ideas if I outline the family tastes and dislikes.
We're not desperatly skint but I like to save money.

Me, brought up vegetarian, love pulses and cheesy dishes, love fish but still a bit scared of cooking 'wet fish' will now eat chicken and bacon but don't like the taste of beef or lamb. Still learning to cook meat and find it quite scary. Very happy to eat pasta, rice, cous cous, noodles spuds etc. Likes chilli but not keen on curry.Need to lose (a lot of ) weight !

DH, brought up meat and two veg, loves curry and pies, will eat fish (sometimes), will eat small quantities of potato or rice, hates pasta/noodles and cous cous, allergic to tomatos, has IBS so not keen on too many pulses but can cope with baked beans or occaisional small quantities of quorn
Needs to lose LOADS of weight !

3 teenage DS's, since DH only arrived a few years ago they are used to my mainly veggie/pasta/rice cooking. None of them likes potatoes much. Two hate fish, One loves meat the other two can only cope with smaller amounts . They all like curry, pasta, salad, pizza. One won't eat cooked cheese except for pizza. They won't eat traditional stuff like shepherds pie as I never gave them it as children (it looks revolting to me I'm afraid) They are quite happy to eat lentils

When it was just the boys and me we ate loads of pasta, noodles, cous cous, veggie curries, quorn dishes, pizza. Then DH arrived and can't/won't eat most of our favourite dishes, apart from his eating habits he is lovely and fits in very well .....

I've learned to cook chicken breasts which most people will eat (some rather reluctantly) recently started experimenting and found out that turkey casserole goes down quite well. Jacket spuds, beans and cheese or tuna always goes down well. DH makes a BIG pot of veggie or chicken and veggie soup with HM bread which goes down well some weekends. I cook low fat sausages about once a week although DS2 doesn't like them much.
If DH and I have fish the boys have something else (usually shop veggie burgers).

I don't enjoy cooking and am often tired and short of time I still struggle buying and cooking meat and would be quite happy being veggie again. When I'm working the boys or DH have to cook as I do 12 hour shifts. They often end up getting a takeaway which infuriates me as it seems such a waste of money as well as unhealthy. DH says it doesn't matter as it's his money but to my mind his money is OUR money !! There is a slow cooker in the loft !

So has anyone got any recipes which might fit in with our weird and varied tastes? I'd be really grateful for ideas. I spend ages browsing but get quite lost going round in circles.

Thank you

Oystercatcher

pretz_2

omg you sound like my best friend although she is slightly more picky shes a vegetarian that only likes about 5 vegetables and will only eats chicken breast so these are the things she will eat so i hope its on the right track but maybe some off these will help you out even if it just a little bit

stews - these can be done in a slowcooker so you wouldn't have to worry about it.

stir frys - these are nice and quick you could serve with rice obviously just a bit for oh

chicken and mushroom pies with plenty of veg - you could serve potatos but most of your family dont eat them.

bacon and parsnip soup you can do this in the slowcooker too

glamoran sausages serve them with jackets and beans for when you cant be bothered and if your really organised make in advance and freeze

quiches with salad - we still have salad in the winter lol

vegetable puff pie this is sooo filling you wont really need to serve it with anything else but i like a slice of bread to mop up the juices

if you need any recipes just pm me

hth
pretz

whatatwit

Oystercatcher, do you have a freezer?
If so, then you could start to make more and freeze some in portion size quantities, those foil freezer trays are good often found in the pound shops.

Then, when you are working, they could all take their pick from the 'ready meals' in the freezer. They may end up with takeaway, but you have given them a choice.

To start with, why not get them all to write down a list of main meals that they would like and see where they overlap, also include what takeaway they have to give you a few new suggestions.

Or, cook from fresh for some of you one night, but making more to freeze and give the odd one out something from the freezer.

I see they all like curry, I think Curry Queen did a recipe thread where she gave a base recipe from which you could then do some veggie and some meaty and some chicken.

You might need to get the slow cooker down that would help with batch cooking so you could get in front.

Final suggestion, how old are the boys. Could you suggest 1 night a week where one of them cooks, they might all be a bit more flexible if they have to start cooking individual meals. Pizza using ready made bases could be a start, whilst DH can't eat tomatoes, I'm sure he could find something.