The Best Family Meals for Picky Eaters: Guaranteed to Please

Do you crave happy family meals? Where the children don’t complain? Everyone clears their plate? And they are as homemade and nutritious as you can stretch to this week?

Let me share with you my favorite, quick and easy meals, suitable for the whole family and which have proved a hit with my rather picky 3 and 1-year-olds.

As a busy Mum of two, I try my very best to make sure I cook the ‘right things’. I do understand how important it is to give my children a balanced diet full of fresh produce and spanning the food groups.

I also understand that being a busy parent is hard and times are tough financially.

We have the occasional McDonalds, we have chocolate in the house and my kids go to parties where they eat their body weight in Wotsits and sausage rolls.

So when it comes to meal times and I’ve worked really hard to create something healthy and delicious, and they say ‘I don’t like it!’ before picking up a fork, it does make me very frustrated. These are not the family meal times that I see on TV. I always said ‘I doubt my children would be picky eaters’, how wrong I was!

I am, however, reassured that it’s not just me. When I worked as a restaurant manager, I would see plenty of families ordering their children the most lovely meals, perfectly presented. They would sometimes bring their most Instagram-worthy cutlery and bamboo plates. Nothing was consumed, unless the food was familiar, or a chicken nugget.

So here are a few of my now ‘go-to’ favorite family meals. Mixing a bit of the familiar, with a bit of the ‘what you should eat’ to make your mealtimes a breeze.

Understanding Picky Eaters

According to an article by Great Ormand Street Hospital, Up to a third of children around the age of two could be described as fussy eaters. Most grow out of it and begin to accept a wider range of food in time.

The NHS also says that ‘fussy eating’ can be caused by a whole range of factors including early feeding difficulties, late introduction of lumpy foods at weaning, pressure to eat, and early choosiness.

Tips for Dealing with ‘Picky or Fussy Eaters’

When our eldest (now almost 4) went from being a very content baby through the weaning process to a picky toddler who said ‘no!’ to a lot of foods, I was really confused. I had ‘done’ the weaning process and loved it (links here to my blogs on weaning, which I feel went well!)

I asked at her nursery and they were fantastic and reassured me. They explained that when toddlers hit a certain age there are few things they can control, one of which being when they sleep, and one being what they eat. It all started making a bit of sense.

From then on, I tried to reframe how I did family meals.

If choice and control were the issue, it was over to her.

Here are my favorite tips to involve your toddler in family meals after a tricky few months

• Cook together, learning how to stir, bake, and chop. Show them it’s a process and a joy to cook.

• Shopping together and picking the vegetables, meat, etc. Tesco has the ‘scan as you shop’ devices at our local store and Charlotte loves doing ‘the beeps’. Although she still refuses to eat them, she is confident in finding a pepper and a pack of runner beans!

• Even better, grow your own! We set up strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries at the top of the garden and a few pots with tomatoes and potatoes. I know she’s also been helping with apple trees at school and pumpkins at the nursery. Linking the idea that the sun feeds the food and then we eat the food is a great message for toddlers.

• Giving choice at meal times. Our best family meals are always where she can pick herself. Meals like fajitas or a big dish of something where she can choose her portion size helps with her independence and that feeling of ‘choice’

• Plan together and ask her what she wants to eat. Pizza? Fine! Sometimes it’s homemade or sometimes it’s frozen. But it’s that communal effort that she is now part of the family and we eat family meals.

• Relaxing! Using our meal times to relax and eat, taking the pressure off, and not treating sitting down together as pressure. We went through a long time of getting this wrong. I would say ‘Dinner’s ready!’ and my daughter would find every excuse under the sun to sit down; the loo, needing a book, wanting to change clothes, anything! Without really thinking, we started to play a dinnertime ‘game’, where we think of a character and then all have to guess (no spoilers, it usually from Cbeebies!) but that distraction and not ‘talking about our day’ has been such a game changer. This is only in the last few weeks but has made such a change.

• Mix up your locations. We use a little table in the living room, mainly for their lunch. We sometimes have the TV on, sometimes their Yoto Player (find out why I love it so much here!) but it’s about taking that pressure off!

• Eating well ourselves. And eating the same. I can’t tell you how often Charlotte has asked me what I’m eating, and when I say it’s the same, she looks back at her plate and pokes it again. Same for lunch and tea. If it’s different, I’ll tell her why. Maybe mine is a bit more spicy, but would she like a bit?

• Food is fun. Nutritious food is fun and Happy Meals are fun. I try not to weigh it too much in either direction. At lunch, I also put the ‘dessert’ on her main plate. I’m trying to give the message that everything is all equal, it’s not ‘a treat’, I might be wrong. But it’s just what works for us. So if she has a little sandwich, carrot sticks, some raspberries, and a little biscuit, sometimes she’ll eat the biscuit first, but she’ll circle back around and usually these days, she does eat it all. Using fun cutters, fun plates, worthy of Instagram! Try it all and see what works for you.

• Watching our snacks. Is a huge one for us. I feel my children could snack all day long given the choice. I really try and keep snacks to a minimum but also try not to wait for meals if they are over-hungry. I have noticed a real change in Charlotte eating better at lunchtime now she goes to school and is only allowed a fruit snack in the morning at a set time. She is also better at eating her breakfast as she now knows it’s not a ‘snacks galore’ sort of day.

Kid-Approved Family Meal Recipes

To get you started on your journey from picky eating to harmonious family meal times, I’ve popped links and descriptions to my current favorite recipes. There is a brilliant selection of family recipes and cookbooks out there at the moment, as well as some great new accounts on Instagram and Pinterest. I also love adapting my favorite chef recipes (who doesn’t love a bit of Jamie Oliver or the Hairy Bikers?)

These recipes are easy to prepare and require simple ingredients.

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

I love Sarah Rossi and have followed her ever since she had a YouTube channel when her twins were small. Anything that involves a slow cooker is ideal when you’re a busy parent and this one is delicious. Pop it all on the table. Get all the bowls out with all the avocado, sour cream, cheese, and wraps. It’s such a fun family meal.

https://www.tamingtwins.com/slow-cooker-chicken-fajitas/

Cauliflower Cheese Gnocchi Bake

I reviewed this recipe years ago on my blog and is found on p118 of the What Mummy Makes original cookbook, which I think most households have now if you went through any sort of baby lead weaning! We still love it but now happily serve it with some garlic bread, peas, and crispy bacon bits to serve at the table. Aw, look how small she was!

https://theverybusyisy.com/what-mummy-makes-my-top-5-must-try/

Sausage and Leek Lasagne

I’m linking you straight to the video on this one, but please follow Charlotte Louise Taylor on Instagram for all-around family goodness, food shopping halls, and great recipes. I have now made this one so many times and like to add in red lentils to build it up a bit. We love it. It is well-tried and tested.

Sticky Chilli Family Noodles with Salmon

This is still an almost weekly favorite with us and one Charlotte has continued to enjoy even through picky eating phases (she now likes to add in supermarket-bought prawn crackers. I doubt any nutritional benefits but it makes scooping the food really fun!)

https://theverybusyisy.com/sticky-chilli-family-noodles-with-salmon/

Happy family meal times ahead

I hope my blog has helped a little bit with what has helped navigate us and continues to guide us, through some picky eating waters.

As a busy Mum, it is hard to always get it right and it’s such a worry when it’s not going the way you planned. It’s OK to visit the drive-through and it’s OK that they throw their carrots.

If you are, however, feeling like it has taken a serious turn and you have concerns with your children’s eating PLEASE get in touch with your health visitor or GP. There are trained professionals out there who specialize and will guide you without judgment.

Thank you so much for taking the time this week to read my blog. If you have found it useful, why not read a little more about my favorite toddler meal ideas or more of my favorite recipes? Please comment below or get in touch to tell me your favorite tips for picky eaters xx