S/O meal planning - cooking for picky 3yo and single parent

[Anonymous]

So I don't mind cooking and will make anything healthy if my child would eat it. My problem, besides her ultra pickiness, are her food allergies (peanuts, walnuts, soybeans, eggs all make her throw up) and the fact that I am the only other person eating. So the challenge is cooking a variety of meals but in small quantities, since she never eats more than a few bites of anything except the starch, and I struggle to eat much at all due to depression.

Any meal planning ideas for tiny meals? I do frequent stir fries, fish w veggie and rice, chicken w veggie and potatoes, but it all starts to feel bland and boring after a while. Leftovers for more than 2-3 days do not help whet our appetites.

[Anonymous]

Try the book 1 2 3 Cook for Me by Karin Knight. It has toddler and adult recipes. Most of the recipes only have a few ingredients but they are healthy and may appeal to your three year old. My son has a nut allergy and I used to cook from this book a lot.

Another suggestion is to make fresh fruit and veg smoothies for dinner. I've got a Ninja mixer and it does a really good job - wasn't too expensive either.

[Anonymous]

Soups. My three year old LOVES soup.

[Anonymous]

make things that have larger quantities but freeze well. Freeze in meal-sized containers - that way there's less waste, less time (yay! just pull dinner from the freezer!) and you get some variety from day to day.
Soups, stews, marinara/bolognese come to mind and are easily customizable to fit taste and allergies.

[Anonymous]

I do freeze things, like PP. Great for lunches or quick dinners a few weeks/months down the road. Just stock up on tupperware, and keep pen and tape handy to make sure you label what you freeze to avoid mystery meals.

And I also will do a more boring meat (steak, roast chicken) for DS, supplemented with some fruit for him and then a couple veggies on the side for me. Then I can have the leftover veggie later in the week in another incarnation (on top of pizza, as bruschetta, a side to another dish, etc.)

[Anonymous]

I keep tortillas on hand because it is so easy to customize different people's burritos and quesadillas, and an easy way to use up leftovers. And the kids love them.

[Anonymous]

You can buy ground beef and either make a whole bunch of meatballs and freeze them individual meal packages. Same with turkey meatballs if you want to go healthier. These came out pretty good, but I left out the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes and just used regular and not spicy tomato sauce:

http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2012/08/turkey-meatballs-in-spicy-tomato-basil-sauce-with-burrata/

[Anonymous]

Tacos are another option that my four year old likes. You can mix it up with soft or hard shells and different fillings.

DS also likes mini pizzas. I make them with English muffins. They take about five minutes and again you can vary the toppings so that you don't get bored. You can also do mini burgers. I usually make my own bean burgers or salmon burgers, or sometimes just grilled chicken. I serve them with salsa, avocado, tomato, pickles, fresh spinach, or whatever I have on hand.

Stews are another favorite of ours. If you have a small crockpot you can make small amounts and freeze the leftovers.

[Anonymous]

You actually have hit on one advantage of being a single parent of a toddler -- you don't have to deal with a "family" meal. I found it liberating to be able to feed us what we wanted to eat that was healthy, but wasn't a "dinner". So my son would get something from his preferred food groups (carrots and hummus, meatballs, pasta with vegetables) and I could eat yogurt and fruit or whatever I felt like. In general, I used to wait to make my dinner after he was done, because if he wasn't going to eat dinner tonight (and I didn't make big battles out of it), I could eat what he had and not have eaten two meals or thrown away perfectly good food.

[Anonymous]

not op, but a single dad with a picky 4.5 y.o. - a million thanks to all the PPs for your incredible advice!

don't mean to hijack the thread, but any recommendations for cooking lessons - my dd's biggest complaint about food is that "daddy's food doesn't taste yummy" - and she is right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:not op, but a single dad with a picky 4.5 y.o. - a million thanks to all the PPs for your incredible advice!

don't mean to hijack the thread, but any recommendations for cooking lessons - my dd's biggest complaint about food is that "daddy's food doesn't taste yummy" - and she is right.

Find some simple recipes and follow them to the tee the first time. Then if you like the recipe in general, you can make some changes the next time around if you think doing so will make it better (eg, more salt, less garlic, etc etc). If you 4.5 year old is still ok with sesame street, then I recommend this cook book:

http://www.amazon.com/Sesame-Street-Cooking-Anniversary-Edition/dp/0470523077#_

It has big, color pictures for everything so your DD can look through it and see what looks good to her. Then the instructions are simple and geared towards having your kids help you. Entrees include things like spaghetti pie, mini meatloaves, bow tie pasta, home made chicken nuggets, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Single mom of an 8 yr old ...

for the OP and other single parents with young kids, don't bother with recipes or trying to cook for both of you. I struggled with the same for a few years and finally just realized it was silly. It's just the two of us most nights and I prefer a salad for dinner. So I cook what my daughter wants, make a very small portion, maybe nibble a few bites from hers and eat my salad. Everyone is happy and I feel far more relaxed.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the ideas, so helpful!

I know it would be easier to serve DD what I know she'll eat and eat whatever I want, but DD is insanely picky and my instinct is that my best chance of getting her to expand her palate is by seeing me eat a variety of things and sharing meals with me. So I make my life harder and cook because (maybe naively) I believe it's important to her upbringing.

[Anonymous]

OP again. But then again DD is only 3, and maybe I need to learn the hard way, so that by the time she's 8 I'll have learned that influencing her eating habits is beyond my control. I tend to learn things the hard way oh well