Scrummy Mash

Keep things basic for Picky Pickers and gradually add in extra flavours as they become more adventurous. Before long you’ll have them enjoying ‘Grown-Up Mash’ – the ultimate mashed potato in my opinion!

Serves 4 children

Ingredients:

3 medium seized potatoes

Butter

Milk

Salt

Optional: Cheddar chesse and grainy mustard. You could also add some cooked sweetorn, peas or spinach after mashing.

Method:

1: Peel and cut up the potatoes into small pieces.

2: Boil gently in plenty of salted water until the potatoes are cooked through. This will depend on the size of your potato pices, but 20 minutes should do it.

3: Drain the potatoes.

4: Add a big knob of butter and mash up the potatoes using a potato masher or fork. Slowly add milk until the mash is creamyin texture (about 4 tablespoons should be enough).

5: Continue mashing until the potatoes are completely smooth – Picky Pickers can be VERY unforgiving of lumps! Add more milk and butter if necessary.

6: If making ‘Grown-Up Mash’ add a handful of grated cheddar (you might want to start with mild and build up to mature) and some grainy mustard and mix through.

7: Serve with sausages, fish fingers or steaks and plenty of veg. The mustard and cheese version goes particularly well with sausages and onion gravy!

Roasted Oven Chips

Serves 4 little peeps.
Super yummy and much easier (and healthier) than frying.
Ingredients
2-3 large potatoes
olive oil
sea salt

1: Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
2: Peel potatoes and cut into large chip shapes or bigger wedges if you prefer.
3: Dry chips as much as possible with a clean tea towel – the drier the chip, the crisper they’ll be!
4: Pop a large baking tray in the oven to heat up.
5: Put the chips in a large bowl and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add a little sea salt. Mix with your hands to make sure all the chips are nicely coated with oil and salt.
6: Put the chips, as spaced apart as possible, on the hot oven tray and put it back in the oven.
7: Cook for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the chips until chips are golden brown. I usually check the chips halfway through and wiggle them about a bit in the tray to make sure none stick!
8: Delicious served with roasted chicken pieces, fish fingers or burgers and veggies or salad.

Howdy!

If anyone knows about dealing with picky or fussy eaters it’s me! I was one myself, and still am in many ways.

Until about the age of 8, my diet mainly consistedof marmite toast or marmite sandwiches, with the occasional pack of ready salted Hula Hoops, apple, smooth apricot yogurt or McDonalds burger and chips thrown in. When I hit my teens, and finally started enjoying such delicacies as roast chicken and lasagne, I decided to become vegetarian! My poor parents must have despaired!

Now, I eat a varied, interesting diet and absolutely love cooking. I’m no longer vegetarian (the lure of bacon was too strong to resist!), but I am careful about the welfare of the animals I eat, and will only buy free-range or organic meat. An outsider would never believe I still have problems with certain foods (‘slimy’ ones in particular).

When I had my children, I saw fussy eating from a whole new perspective! Part of  one of my children’s autism meant that he was extremely finicky about what he’d eat. He would tolerate pasta with either tomato sauce or pesto, but the only hot food he really enjoyed was a margherita pizza. The child wouldn’t even eat chips! It took a long time, and a lot of hard work, to help him to accept the foods in the far more interesting, and balanced, diet he now enjoys.

With another son we faced further difficulties. He may not have loved everything we put on his plate, but he ate it all and had quite broad tastes for a little chap. However, when he was 5 he became ill and was diagnosed with a form of Irritable Bowel Disease. This meant a complete overhaul of his diet until medication could get his symptoms under control: no raw vegetables, no fruit or vegetable skins, no brown bread, very little dairy, and no chocolate or sweet! Add a nut allergy which he developed at the same time, and a trial with him gluten-free, and it was a bit of a nightmare!

As you can see, I really do know first hand how hard it is to help a child accept a new food, especially when unhealthy habits have already been formed, and how tough it can be to be inventive when certain foods have to be restricted or stopped completely. What I hope to do on this blog is provide a wide variety of recipes, which I hope will appeal to children, and which progressively allow for the introduction of new foods into their diet. Often the methods I suggest will involve introducing a taste very gradually, perhaps by adding more ingredients and flavours into a simple recipe over time (plain mashed potato can have cheddar cheese – first mild, building up to mature – grainy mustard and spring onions added to make what I call ‘grown-up mash’ for example). But most of all, the blog is about having fun with food, getting a bit messy and trying out new tastes and cooking styles to find what appeals to your child.

I hope that my recipes, tips and advice will help you to encourage your child, and maybe even yourself, to try cooking and eating lots of lovely new foods together.

Happy munching!!

p.s. Look out at the bottom of my recipes for printable pdf versions of those I think are particularly fun to make with little hands helping!