Your best family meals - designed to entice little fingers to dig in!

[forshelby]

I'm really struggling with DS's food fussiness. He only wants to eat crunchy things like crackers, occasionally toast and fruit. He loves almost any kind of fruit, yoghurt, custard etc. Try to give him pureed veggies though and it's tantrum time. There are only a handful of meals we have that he also enjoys with us. Fish and salad is a favourite, however the salad ends up thrown on the floor... lol.

I'm tired of giving him fruit and toast etc for dinner.... that's not dinner! At the same time I don't want to resort to feeding him unhealthy foods, so I figure if he's full of fruit at bedtime, at least he's full.

Things he doesn't want a bar of include - red meat, (except mince.. strangely), any type of chicken, basically anything with 'texture'. He likes crunch, or smoosh only. Nothing chewy. I struggle to get him to try pasta, but then he'll chomp on a piece of sushi if I offer it.

Can't quite work out what his caper is!

So please, hit me with your best family friendly meals. Something we can all enjoy together, and I can prepare quickly after work.

Tonight I'm attempting tacos, in the hopes he'll enjoy the tortilla, and maybe some mince and cheese.

[Babyluv]

All you can do is keep offering a variety like you are and eventually he will eat it. Are you all eating together as a family? Eating with him will encourage him to eat what you eat. I can't see how old he is as I'm on tapatalk.
My daughters faves are spaghetti and other pastas, crumbed fish, any type of steamed veg, lamb chops on the bone.

[forshelby]

He's 21 months. It's not always possible to eat together as I don't get home from work until 5-5.30 some nights, and by that time he's pretty unruly and it's dinner/bath/bedtime for him by 6.30. It'd really help if DP would organize dinner while I spend some time with DS of an evening...... but yeah. He's always too tired or whatever.

Perhaps with some quick meal ideas up my sleeve I can walk in and start cooking right away. Or prep them each night ready for the next day.

[Babyluv]

Mmm that's a tough one. I've heard that around 2 weight gain slows so they don't need as much food and also developmentally they can't sit for long so graze throughout the day. Does he go to daycare? Maybe chat to them, they usually provide good meals in centres and if his friends are eating then he probably will too. Could you give him snacks like cucumber, tomato, capsicum through the day with hummus and mountain bread or crackers. Steamed veggie sticks etc? My daughter loves to dip and loves lots of little things to nibble. You could do fruit sticks and yoghurt to dip fruit into. All you can do is to continue to offer healthy options, if he's hungry he will eat. So long as he is getting enough during the day he will be ok. It's hard of there's pressure from others to have your child sit and eat a meal but it really could just be a developmental phase.

[Olive]

Raw veggies.....broccoli. Carrots, beans, capsicum etc??

[turtleschell]

Agree with the dipping idea, DD loves pumpkin soup or lentil soup coz she loves dipping bread into it.
Corn on the cob?
Does he eat rice? Coz if you cook meals that have stuff that dissolves like eggplant, you can mix it into the rice and they don't tend to notice there's a veg in there.
DD loves eggs, hard boiled and also scrambled eggs.
Sausages?

[onthefly]

anything with noodles/pasta
rissoles
frittas
stuff mixed in rice - curry, stew, whatever
hommus

Sounds like he'd probably prefer raw or whole pieces of cooked veg rather than puree?

[chody47]

If he likes fish, what about a tuna mornay (or other tuna dish)? Will he eat quiche or similar? Does he like stronger flavours? DD dominates anything with a strong flavour like Asian or Indian curries with rice.....