Tried and tested toddler and family meals

[Eva's Mummy]

My DD is a terrible eater, so i am looking for some tried and tested favourites that your 12 month old loves and that will be nice for me and DH to eat with her.

[Mattsmummy]

The one thing that my DS will ALWAYS eat is Sheppard's pie...

[cath~]

We like most things in our house but here are a few favourites:

spaghetti bolognese
beef/lamb/chicken casserole
chicken curry
lamb tagine with cous cous
roast dinner (if we have time on the weekend)
these turkey 'meat loaves' (bit like meat balls) http://mamacook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/turkey-mini-meatloaves-for-babies-and.html with a tomato and vegetable sauce and pasta/cous cous
fish pie
mousaka

[michaeljacknnugg]

Shepard's pie here too!
Sausage, mash, veg and mini Yorkshire pudding
Fish fingers. DS absolutely loved it when I served some with steamed veggies recently in the shape of a sun - the centre was a pot of cheese sauce for dipping!
Cauliflower cheese
Lasagne
Pasta and sauce
Only recent - stir fry. He loves the noodles and makes the sauce, loves being in control!

[clazzat]

Shepherds pie is a good go-to here as well, and we also do cowboy pie which is the same but with baked beans and Worcestershire sauce instead of carrots. I always make my mash topping with potato and sweet potato too, to get a few more vitamins in!

Others are spaghetti bolognese (I put it through the food processor which makes the texture better for the little ones), sausages with pasta and sauce (chopped tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, basil, garlic and oregano - put it through the food processor before serving), chicken curry (annabel karmel), homemade fish cakes.

We are dairy-free these days, but good standbys used to be lasagne and chicken and butternut squash pie (cooked chicken, cooked butternut squash, cheese sauce, topped with mashed potato).

[Eva's Mummy]

So do you put the sausage through the food processor for the sausage pasta and the mince for the spag bols. I have been trying to give her it the way we eat it and it is always refused.

Also does anyone have a good recipe for shepherds pie, as you can see i'm not great at this cooking thing but i must try as DD needs to eat much better.

[clazzat]

I don't put the sausage through (I have 3 sausage fiends, 4 if you count dh, lol!) so we have no problem with that, but I do put the mince through for spag Bol.

My recipe for shepherds pie is very simple - fry some onion, brown the mince, add stock, simmer until the stock has boiled away adding carrot about 10 minutes before it is ready, put in a dish and top with mashed potato, 180C for about half an hour. Sometimes I put cheese on the top.

[cath~]

chicken and butternut squash pie (cooked chicken, cooked butternut squash, cheese sauce, topped with mashed potato).

Mmm - that sounds yummy. I think I will try that this weekend!

We have never put these meals through the blender/processor.  We don't buy too much meat but when we do we don't buy the cheapest iyswim so the mince we get is really tender/soft which I think helps.

Cooking meat slowly eg in a casserole or tagine also makes it v tender and it just falls appart. You can use quite cheap cuts of meat for this and it still works well.

A few other ideas:
- lentil and veg (eg carrots and courgettes) curry with coconut milk - this is pretty smooth
- sausage or chorizo and bean (eg haricot or flageolet) casserole (with tomatoes, pepper, onions, garlic..)

[anna*]

Fish pie is always gobbled up here.
Stir fry (fish/pork/chicken) with stir fry veggies served over rice or noodles
Shepherds pie
Sausage/broccoli/tomato pasta
'Morrocan' chicken with butternut squash and chick peas
Lentil, carrot, and butternut squash soup
Roasted tomato soup with breadsticks
Home made chicken dippers with home made chips (and veggies)
Risotto

[Buntybear]

We don't really do anything like stews or pies here, Olly won't eat them 

We have a lot of meat, starch and veg ie roasts. Or even roast chicken thighs, pork chops etc
Pasta based dishes.
Baked potato.
Quinoa with peas and sweetcorn mixed through as a side is hugely popular. Yesterday he had this with leftover meatballs from a pasta dish the night before.
Rice based things, he will eat curry and chilli. I have a couple of recipes for chickeny dishes too.
Stir fried rice with left over roast chicken.

If Olly didn't have allergies and fussiness we would be having mac n cheese, cauliflower cheese, pastry pies, beef stews, omelettes. All sots of lovely things 

[Eva's Mummy]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Tomorrow we try shepherds pie then the plan is to work through all of your suggestions 

I have never used Quinoa what do i do with it and it never ever crossed my mind to give couc cous, would i try to spoon feed that?

[cath~]

Cous cous can be quite messy cos it seems to get everywhere! and I find it best (esp at 1 yo) to serve with a sauce (eg Tom and veg, or casserole or tagine or whatever your making) to kind of stick and hold it together or it got everywhere!  Then yes, L ate it with a spoon (or I fed her can't remember exactly at 12 months but some time around then we started encouraging her to feed herself, letting her practice).

Now she sometimes has a cous cous salad but that's drier and so makes more mess if your LO is younger and feeding it to themselves.  Depends on how much mess you can stand really!

Cous cous is really easy and quick to prepare though which is a big plus and can be served with so many things - even bologneae if you run out of pasta or for a change!

I have just placed my online shopping order and going to make the chicken and butternut squash pie you suggested Claire on the weekend.

Anna - how do you make your morroccan chicken? Sounds very nice.

[Eva's Mummy]

Oh right got you, i'm just so used to having cous cous as a salad that i didn't even think of having a sauce with it. Might try tagine  i also have the chicken and butternut squash pie on the menu in the next couple of days x

[anna*]

Catherine, here's the recipe

Chicken thighs (2 each for grown ups, 1 each for littles)
Medium onion, small dice
three garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
2cups chicken stock
ground cumin
ground cinnamon
black pepper
1 smallish butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
Can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Can of chopped tomatoes
Pinch of saffron (optional)
about 20 green olives

To serve:
Couscous or warm pita bread
Plain yoghurt or sour cream (for those not allergic)
Hot sauce (for the grownups)

Fry off the onion to soften, brown the chicken thighs, then add everything else except the olives. Simmer for maybe like 20 mins, until the thighs are cooked through. Add the olives at the end. Yummers. Stan picks out the olives but the rest of us love them!

[cath~]

Thanks Anna - that sounds great

Def gonna give that one a try

L and DH are big olive fans!