need help with meals!

[trixipaws]

iv just realised, that nearly every meal except breakfast melissa has veggie mash with chopped up cooked meat; and she's been on it since i weaned her and she turns one on tuesday. i think its time to move on!
the thing is i dont really eat proper meals myself and havent done since i was still living at home, plus i dont eat meat and im very fussy and picky.
so basically making proper meals just seems so daunting and overwhelming!

so i got some questions!

what does/did your 1-year-old eat?
do u have set days with set meals on those days or do u just cook random dishes?
and how regularly will u serve the same dish does ur baby eat a different meal every day or do they have the same thing for several days, then no more of that for a while?

what foods are freezable?
what foods & flavours go well together?

what other "staple" sauces can be made in bulk and used as home-made ready-made sauces as and when? apart from tomato?

 

[jennywren]

what does/did your 1-year-old eat? Anything, he is a ganit, Im surprised he is just under the 50th centile and not obeese!
do u have set days with set meals on those days or do u just cook random dishes? No we dont have set meals on sat days
and how regularly will u serve the same dish does ur baby eat a different meal every day or do they have the same thing for several days, then no more of that for a while? Im not a great cook either yet, well I kinda am but our apt kitchen was so small we didnt even have pots and pans so never adventorous so alot of his meals are/were repeated but usualy like every other or every 2nd day

what foods are freezable? all foods really
what foods & flavours go well together? TBH kids dont care put anything with anything lol or just get a cheap cook book (2nd hand ebay) not to follow the recipies but to see what goes with what

Trix the Annabell Karmel book has got lots of recipies in and are easy to follow, or any basic cook book hun (just dont add the salt!). Im not all that cracking with the cooking right now (although were in the new place from this weekend so proper kitchen so im looking forward to cooking properly!) anyway here are things I give oran for breakie, lunch & tea and snacks. I try to give him sandwhichy stuff for lunch or he doesnt eat a proper tea. Also do yo spoon feed her everything still trix? Oran eats most stuff himself, he sometimes gets a bit messy but he tries to use the fork, he eats more if he feeds himself, but if its like beans or hoops I do it or it would be EVERYWHERE (and I still have to let him hold the spoon handle or he wont have it )

Breakfasts : Cherios, Rice Crispies, Cornflakes, Porridge, Weetabix, Toast

Lunches : one of the small tins of spagetti shapes (like thomas the tank), Brown bread sandwhich with philly, dairylea, primula, jam, tuna, egg etc

Teas : spegetti Bol (this can be made with quorn or you could make a veggi one), fish fingers & Smiley potato Faces, potatoe Croquets, pizza, Veg (I use them froozen packs you just stick in the micro that are mixed Veg as HV told me to AGES ago) chicken & rice, waffels, pasta with tomatoe/cheese sauce, boiled potaoes, carrots (easy to boil) broccoli (easy to steam in micro), Fresh Fish (from the monger at the supermarket get one piece of fillet - so no bones - then ask them to cut it in 2 3 and wrap seperate then you can freeze and just get out the 3rd you need as and when - leave it out from the AM to defrost then microwave it), lasangne (if you want a really simple recipie easy to follow PM me - it will impress ya BF and millie lol)

Snacks & Puddings : (just lumped these together) : Banana, yoghurts, organix crisps, rasins, apple, orange segments, Jaffa Cakes, jelly, rice pudding, custard

HTH!

 

[kellie80]

Nathan eats quite a lot of pasta, spag bol is his favorate but he love macaroni cheese, tuna pasta and pretty much anything else I put in it. He does eat a lot of fish too, he loves cod in mash potato. Fish fingers too, he will eat 4 of them He just usually eats what we do now, casseroles, stews, roast dinners. I always make extraand freeze 2 or 3 dinners for him so if we are having something he doesn't like he has a frozen one.

 

[trixipaws]

thanku ladies!

JW im gonna pm u now bout that recipe! yes i do still spoon-feed should i be stopping now? i didnt realise! lol

 

[mum2A&L]

for me it would be easier to list what alice doesn't eat

she eats what ever we are eating. tonight is soup and bread, so i will spoon out some of the 'soup' before i blitz it. i also have some chicken from last nights dinner left, so she will have some of that with it. for afters, she will no doubt have an orange, or a different piece of fruit.

brekky = bran flakes with some dried fruit/toast/scrambled egg/any other cereals.

lunch = sandwich (cheese, ham, jam something like that)/ chunks of cheese/ always try and offer something salady/ yogs/ sometimes cereals (if she didn't have it for brekky)/

dinner = what ever we eat! minus extra salts etc... i always offer something 'green' ive always got a bag of frozen mixed veg in the freezer, so if what we are eating doesnt have anything green in it, i give her some of that as well. Pesto on pasta with salad is great!!! Ive always got a tub for alice! she adores it!!

most things are freezable.

as for set meals - i work out at the end of each week what im going to cook for dinners the following week. We stick to a planner, but im flexable. I make sure we have 8 dinners for a week, and we can almost swap days around if we fancy it.


you could always just try and introduce new things to her mash - or even leave the veg seprate to her mash to get her used to different things. how about giving her the spoon and seeing how she handles it (alice has always been a bit slow with a spoon - prefers her hands ).

 

[Dinski]

I think babies are very tactile and like to touch their food if they feed themselves so why not try something with a different texture. I find that when I give my LO something with a very different texture he is more keen on eating it as it is new and a novely.

 

[tuck]

i use the annabel karmel recipe book, it is really good.
Matilda still isnt very good with dryish food or big lumps as she still chokes.
i usually put some chopped ham, cheese, fruit etc on her highchair tray for her to eat herself and spoonfed as well, she likes picking up peas, sweetcorn, bits of potato etc as well.

 

[Magic Monkey]

I can't speak from experience, but I have the Annabel Karmel complete toddler meal planner book and it has loads of really simple recipes in it. Can prob get one cheap 2nd hand on Amazon.

 

[jennywren]

thanku ladies!

JW im gonna pm u now bout that recipe! yes i do still spoon-feed should i be stopping now? i didnt realise! lol

You shouldnt be ''stopping'' as such, as far as I know there are no timescales on when they should ''feed'' themselves etc but if you give her things to eat herself she will start to learn. Like sandwhich at lunch, cut it in to triangles and put it on her tray to eat it for herself. If I do oran boiled potatoes, veg and fishfingers, I will cut it in to chunks put it on a (kiddie friendly) plate and let him go for it, sometimes about half way through if he is messing I will put it on a fork and he will take the fork and put it in his mouth and pass it back to me - like I said for messy food, soup, yoghurts, beans etc I still mostly feed him. He has recently showed and interest in forks so he has 22 baby forks and he has a bit of food on one to eat, while he eats that I put food on the other, then he gives me the empty on back and takes the full one and he goes on like that, he can get his mouth with the food on the fork/spoon just cant get he food on the fork/spoon!

PM replied

 

[rusks]

I can't speak from experience, but I have the Annabel Karmel complete toddler meal planner book and it has loads of really simple recipes in it. Can prob get one cheap 2nd hand on Amazon.

i agree this book is great easy to make and freeze recipes, great tips in there too.

luke eats what we do now, finger foods great for independent children.

he loves fish fingers, sausages, part boiled veg and fruit. rice cakes, toast.

loves pasta, macoroni cheese, spag bol. lasagne.chicken in a white sauce with veg. potato waffles/smiles. cod in butter sauce with veg, a personal fave. roast chicken and stuffing. anything really.