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Meal ideas for a tricky eater!

toomuchlaundry August 10, 2013 20:56
Hi all,Just wanting to pick people''s brains for what would be good, quick to prepare meals for my little tricky eater!He''s not good with sauces, not keen on veg, although will eat carrots. Doesn''t like anything spicy, and doesn''t like unusual textures. He''s also allergic to dairy....Current mainstays are sausages and plain pasta. Ham''s good too, and bread without anything on it.... he doesn''t like any kind of batter or breadcrumbs...I''m just getting a bit food bored round here, he has a lot of anxiety over trying new things too...Would love to hear ideas from people who understand. Annabel Karmel''s book just made me laugh!Thank you!
Edited 17/02/2021
Monkeysmum August 10, 2013 21:16
I will pass on my sisters experience. She has two miniature foodies and one VERY fussy eater. What is working for her is to offer a snack plate of accepted foods each meal - say bread, ham, a little pasta and few carrots for each meal. She then adds a very small serving of something else, a cherry tomato cut in half maybe or slice of chicken, anything not too radical and it's always non-Processed so in plain form. She uses two new foods a fortnight and alternates a very small serving each night with the accepted foods. It is taking a while but progress has been made (actually unknowingly to LO).
Edited 17/02/2021
Tokoloshe August 14, 2013 18:32
A beef burger? Minced beef with finely chopped onions? Served with a slice of tomato and a slice of cucumber or some shredded lettuce.Pizza with various things chopped under the grated cheese?I often do a roast chicken - it takes about an hour and a half to cook, but very little preparation and I put in potatoes as well without peeling them, or butternut or sweet potato.My two like peas, if your LO can cope with peas, onions and carrots then a stir fry with strips of chicken or beef? You can add a sauce to yours for taste, or see if he will cope with a little soy sauce.
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roojets August 14, 2013 19:12
Hiya,Two things spring to mind:Sliced chicken is a lot like sliced ham so may be ok?Also plain rice any good?
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squeak August 14, 2013 20:28
I have cursed Annabel Carmel! I got some super tips recently when I posted under 'food...'If you do a search. Don't know how old your LO is?If Sausages - meatballs (pork?) - you can add stuff into them yourself? Carrot purée as pasta sauce? Gradually adding more things in to make into sauce? (We've been digging up carrots and watching them go round in the food processor!) toad in the hole? Eggy bread? Tortilla wraps with ham? Add cheese and carrots? Egg noodles if he likes pasta? Gnocchi?It's really boring isn't it, cooking the same thing repeatedly.....Squeak
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Sivier August 14, 2013 20:45
Making a face or stick figure on the plate with the food.Sounds silly and not really what you are looking for! But I find with my LO, who can be very fussy and contrary about food, that if I make a 'face' on the plate she loves it and will start eating almost straight away. It's been a good way to try new things - a blob of humous for the nose, slices of avocado for the ears etc...
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Sockthing August 14, 2013 20:52
HiYou have my sympathy, he sounds a lot like my little terror! Drives me NUTS!!! It might be worth experimenting with food temperature - I recently discovered Kipper won't eat beefburgers warm but he will eat them stone cold. He also loves cold porridge but will not touch it if its warmed up!Winners for us are:scrambled eggs.Chicken Kiev ready mealgarlic breadPizza - plain cheese and tom but I add ham when cooked, (served stone cold!)Chicken stew - yes he hates veg but I cut it really small, stew it so soft it can kind of be mashed into the juices"Little Dish" Fish Pie ready Meal (won't eat white fish if I cook it though!)He likes HoumusI do sympathise as he will never eat a roast, chips, potato in any form, rice in any form, the only veg he likes is mushroom. Everything has to be the brand he knows.We have to 'peel' sausages because he won't eat the skin...I was getting very stressed, but recently decided that the best thing to do was:1. Buy him multi-vitamins2. Make sure he has something from each of the food groups, and not stress if the actual food is repetitive3. Keep presenting him with small amounts of the stuff he won't eat alongside the stuff he will - that way he will eat SOME of each meal (not always: sometimes he protests by not eating anything)4. Not commenting AT ALL. I don't even praise him now because I think he sees it as pressure.My only rule for him is not to moan about whats on his plate and to say thank you.good luck!
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Patanya August 16, 2013 19:40
Hi!Just a few ideas:Tortilla wraps - plain but fun to eat - could do thin strips of ham in it with grated carrotTry humous too - with carrot to dip in it and cucumberTry nutella on breadTry marmite on toastAgain try hot dog sausages maybe with some of the dreaded tommie sauce!Tomato soup with breadThing I find useful us to make it look fun, a special plate with a character on they like, or add sth funny to the plate, make food into face shape etcFruit saad with ice cream get the good and the bad togetherBeef burgers - my little one lives them, so does his dad!Good luck x
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Flosskirk August 18, 2013 21:38
I sympathise. My daughter went a whole week on holiday in Madeira once eating nothing but plain pasta.She doesn't like food which touches - so she hates sauces for example (with the exception of cauliflower cheese, so just goes to show you...)Anyway, we do have pasta with tomato sauce - I put a bit of sauce on the side of her pasta and she does sometimes eat it. But it has to be on her terms - she would go berserk if I plopped the sauce on top or mixed it in.Her favourite meals are baked potato with tuna (just a bit of mayonnaise) and fish and chips.She also likes steak and burgers and chicken in breadcrumbs.But the main thing is to keep everything from touching. Good luck working out what will work
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FIM August 19, 2013 08:24
Do you have a pick your own farm nearby? If so can you get him to go with you, but just ask him to pick stuff. You can try eating it, but work out in advance your strategy of just tasting, tasting and describing taste or tasting and praising taste enthusiastically. Tastebuds change and I used the strategy that our sons tastebuds were not developed and so he wasn't old enough to eat x or y. He is also dairy intolerant and I found going round vegetarian shops quite helpful though supermarkets now have products like Swedish glacé and del monte pure fruit ice lollies.
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kstar August 19, 2013 22:08
Mine won't touch bread but loves wraps - go figure. I was struggling to get her to eat veg but it turns out she loves raw pepper, cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks so we have lots of raw veg as snacks. Sweet corn? Another good standby here. Tbf she is mostly a good eater, but interestingly won't touch any of the things the FCs assured me were her favourite foods!A friend with little ACs who were very unadventurous tried Quorn and found they would eat any Quorn products because they are softer. My LO also loves slow cooked meat because it doesn't require much effort! Works for me - not much effort to cook either!
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Flosskirk August 20, 2013 20:35
kstar, I don't like bread but like wraps. It's a texture thing. Wraps are much denser. I don't like plain white bread but can cope with ciabatta and fancy white loafs which are harder. Does that make sense?Often food preferences turn out to be about the texture, not the item itself.I love chips and well cooked roast potatoes and sauteed potatoes but I detest boiled potatoes and mash and am kind of funny about baked potatoes (there has to be a lot of butter or other flavouring).I can eat the yolk of a fried egg (never the white) but hate eggs in every other way.I like cooked tomatoes but can't bear them otherwise.
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Donatella August 20, 2013 20:55
Omg flosskirk. You are my son! Well, other than the tomatoes.
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Imp August 23, 2013 00:38
My 'homegrown' grandchild is the most difficult child to feed---sibs no problem. Even looked terrified when I tried to encourage her to try the tiniest bit od home made blackcurrant ice-cream---that she had helped to make. The reason? She said that she was scared that she wouldn't like it!! Where do we go from here?
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aquarius August 25, 2013 20:10
I have a dairy allergic fussy one too.I make an awful lot of scones and put all sorts in. Some sweet some savoury with things like cougette and ham. I just switch the dairy butter for a soya variety.Vitalite works best in baking. I don't use the soya cheese at all,it is seriously foul.White fish can be easy and not too weird for my sensory problem fussy one. I have found bread sticks quite good especially with some dairy free choc spread to dip, this seems to have helped with trying a sauce or 2.Will he eat soup? Strangely mine will eat tons of lentil soup in particular but can't tolerate tomato soup or similar.I too make up a plate with all little bits of food that she will eat and an odd new one every so often.
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REM August 27, 2013 12:15
Just an idea, we sometimes serve cous cous or rice or pasta completely plain with lots of little bowls of things to add yourself.We originally did it to begin helping the children chose appropriate portion sizes, but they also started trying a wider variety of foods. Maybe it would have the same effect for you.I serve tacos and cheese and crackers buffet style too. You can just put out a few things he already eats plus a few things he doesn't.
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