Finding A Meal For The Whole Family

Does anyone else get excited when they find a new, easy and tasty recipe to get them out of their meal rut?! I found this minty lamb traybake in the current Woman And Home magazine by The Hairy Bikers and it was so delish I can’t tell you. https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/minty-lamb-steaks

‘MY CHILD WOULDN’T TOUCH THAT KIND OF MEAL’

I was advised to make sure there is at least 1 familiar food on your child’s plate, so that doesn’t have to mean everything has to be. If your child wouldn’t even contemplate eating anything from here, have a read of this and start slower: https://www.happylittleeaters.co.uk/recipes-1/2019/10/13/meatballs

‘BUT MY CHILD DOESN’T LIKE LAMB’

This meal is very easy to substitute for other ingredients – add fish or chicken instead! I didn’t have any broad beans so added peas and other veggies.

‘WHAT’S THE POINT IN SERVING ALL THOSE VEGGIES IF MY CHILD WON’T EAT THEM?’

Don’t just focus on the eating, don’t forget they will smell them being cooked, even just tolerating veggies on their plate is a big deal and the most important bit: they will see YOU eating them! Add some veg in there that your child does eat – I added peas for familiarity instead of broad beans. Start with ‘interactive’ veg....so ones you can pop or squish or that are naturally sweeter – sugar snap peas, corn on the cob or veg even chopped up smaller so less overwhelming.

‘WHAT ABOUT THE WASTE IF MY CHILD DOESN’T EAT MUCH?’

Unfortunately, there IS going to be a certain amount of food waste when kids are still learning to like new food, but it can be minimised by offering small portions to start with and freezing any leftovers or reheating the next day and taking to work!

‘ANY OTHER PARTING ADVICE?’

Go easy on yourself. Don’t expect miracles the first time, feeding kids new components to a meal is a bit of a numbers game; the more you offer and make it common place to see veggies/new food at as many meals as you can, the more likely they are to try it....eventually!