Hi, I need some new ideas for meals/ snacks for my 18 month old girl she loves her food but I feel I'm cooking the same things over and over to 'keep' her eating meals
Thanks for any help in advance 

Rayneysdad: what are you cooking for her just now?

When my daughter was little I had a fairly small range of things I'd make for lunch, which included:

- cheesy rice (rice cooked with stock and vegetables, with an egg stirred in at the end and cheese on top)
- mini pizzas (halved English muffins topped with a mix of tomato puree and ketchup, grated cheese, other toppings like diced peppers and sliced sausages and grilled)
- scrambled egg and toast
- mashed boiled egg with noodles (I don't know why this combination, but it's become traditional!)
- sausages or hot dogs and beans
- nibbly plate of oatcakes, crackers, toast, bits of cheese, sliced peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, grapes raisins etc. etc. This is one of her favourite lunches. I let her have ketchup to dip things in.
- tomato soup (I just use passata with a pinch of salt and sugar, sometimes crushed garlic; it's cheaper than tinned soup and healthier too!)

Now, when it comes to tea time (evening meal), we made a policy of just cooking what I and Mr. Hippytea wants to eat and putting a little plate of the same thing in front of Mini Hippytea, along with some bread and butter. I tried my hardest not to make a deal about whether she ate it or not, or whether she just ate the bread and butter, making it her time to get familiar with a bigger range of food. I felt it was important to do this, and not to get too worried if she did not eat what was put in front of her - if she didn't eat enough, she could make it up the next day.

She has just turned four. I still stick with a fairly limited range at lunch time, as these are things I can cook quickly and I know she likes; and we still have the same policy at tea time, although now it is a rule that she must try a bite of anything new. Different approaches for different stages.

I hope that helps, maybe might give you some ideas.

Last edited by hippytea (Fri 04 Jan 13 8:27pm)

Now Jamie...

you have no idea how much I learned from the youtube cooking videos from you and the other well known chef in the UK...I was always useless in getting the sauce done for lasagne but finally learned it instantly due to such videos from you awesome chefs out there...BUT there is no recipe from either of you regarding doing basic cabbage soup....you know....some of us work on our lifelong mission to avoid the chocolate and eat more of the healthy stuff...and their is just no instruction from either of you two...and I am pretty confident that this would be helpful for more than just for me...

So I hope that one day you might be able to cook for us a delicious healthy cabbage soup....a basic one...not with bread and massive leaves in it...

Beside that...all the best for you and your family for 2013   

I am working my way through 15MM - wow! was there life before this book! I have now bought 30MM but not yet tried anything from it.
My question is more a request - please please would you consider making a dvd of the tv shows of each of these books. I for one could not put a price on how valuable this would be to me.
Some recipes seem intimidating, but if I watch you cook it before I begin, it feels like a doddle!
Thank you

Hi
I am part of the clipper world yacht race and would  like to be able to make biscuits and cakes on a limited budget and ingredients  ideally it is used as a pick me up to get the crew motivated when the going gets tough on cold wet windy nights


Bob