How do get your kids to eat homecooked meals?

[Disney1fan2002]

Let them be the cooks!

I just discovered a way to get my kids to eat. I let them cook. My DD helped me cook some chicken a few nights ago, and amazingly she ate everything on her plate! So, I got an idea. They each get 2 nights out of the week to plan and cook the meal. So far it is working. They are having fun, and EATING.

5yo cooked Ravioli his first night. Not the frozen kind you cook in marinara sauce. No, Good Ole Chef Boyardee himself helped cook. Tonight is 5yo's turn again, and he has chosen non other than Beefaroni by Mr. Chef Boyardee. LOL

At least tomorrow night, when 9yo DS cooks, they will get to eat Mufasa's Mouthwater Chops (from Mickey's cookbook)

 

[mommytotwo]

I found that to be a good way for my kids to eat also.
It's good to start them young. You can have them go grocery shopping with you and help pick out what ingredients are needed or vegetable choices.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

With my 12yo the key was always letting him think that the food is unhealthy. If he thinks it's healthy he won't eat it. With my 6yo it's letting him think the food is healthy. Makes it hard when both boys are within earshot.

 

[BuckNaked]

If they don't want to eat what I cook, they can make something for themselves (with restrictions) or not eat. I try to make sure that I have at least one thing that each of them likes to eat each meal. If that's not enough, they're on their own.

 

[kirbsam]

great idea...thanks for the tip

 

[bigbabyblues]

My kids are not picky in the least, but they'd like to help I'm sure. Thanks for the idea!

 

[CEDmom]

My DD is much more inclined to eat something if she helps make it or at the very least sees what's going into it. Luckily she doesn't like any canned pasta because I'd have a tough time eating it. When I'm making something and she's not sure if she'll like an ingredient I just tell her it's the one that makes it taste go good. So far she falls for it.

 

[sha_lyn]

5yo cooked Ravioli his first night. Not the frozen kind you cook in marinara sauce. No, Good Ole Chef Boyardee himself helped cook. Tonight is 5yo's turn again, and he has chosen non other than Beefaroni by Mr. Chef Boyardee. LOL

How is that a home cooked meal?


As for how do I get the kids ot eat home cooked meals... they don't have a choice, they eat what is preparred or they don't eat. There are only a couple of exceptions, because all of us do have 1 or 2 items we don't like that everyone else in the family does like. Usually it is a veg, so the "hater" can fix a salad or carrots and dip. Other than that they have to eat what is on the table.

I think thew key is to expose them to different flavors and textures as soon as they start eating table foods. Also if it is a new food, serve just a bit or 2 so they don't feel overwhelmed. I also never say "oh you might not like that" I think it tends to put the idea in their mind.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

How is that a home cooked meal?

"home cooked" = cooked at home.

By home cooked, I mean, no take out, no Friendly's, no Outback, ect.

 

[HunnyPots]

Kids who don't like home-cooking is a foreign concept to me. Both my kids would rather have pot roast, mashed potatoes,gravy, green beans and carrots than a pizza or chicken strip anyday. Now DD's boyfriend is one of those picky kids. I swear, if its not pizza or chicken strips you might as well offer him a plate of bug guts! Needless to say, I've stopped inviting him for dinner...

 

[MzDiz]

As for how do I get the kids ot eat home cooked meals... they don't have a choice, they eat what is preparred or they don't eat.

I think thew key is to expose them to different flavors and textures as soon as they start eating table foods. Also if it is a new food, serve just a bit or 2 so they don't feel overwhelmed. I also never say "oh you might not like that" I think it tends to put the idea in their mind.

The pickiest kids I know are the ones whose parents play caterer to them all the time. My kids love foods that most kids their age would turn their nose up at. I have a rule - you have to take at least one bite every time I make it. I don't care if you hated it last time, you have to take one bite this time too. It works really well. Tastes change with age. They come around eventually.

 

[Sparx]

I'm very pickey. I learned to cook because I didn't like what was always being cooked. (beef. fish. stuff like that) Sometimes I cook for the whole family, sometimes I don't. It depends on what mood I'm in. If you've got a pickey child, I suggest this. It teaches them how to cook, and you don't have to worry abotu catering to them.

 

[barkley]

my kids have thier own likes and dislikes but will generaly eat what is set in front of them (or go without). but both have gotten what we consider homecooked foods from day one (soups, pasta sauces, stews, casseroles...from scratch).

i found it interesting when i worked in a day care center-parents would swear up and down that their child would NEVER eat certain foods (and were very particular about certain brands, items-some would only eat fast foods). we had a kitchen facility and would cook homestyle meals for the staff (whole turkeys, pot roast, vegetable soups....)-well, many of these little ones had never been given the opportunity to try these foods and relished them once they were given the opportunity.

i think in some situations (not all) parents will pass down food dislikes to their children (they don't like a particular veggie so they never offer it to a child-they did'nt like the way their mom prepared an item so they've never tried preparing themselves).

if a child has only been exposed to certain foods that is their only base of knowledge/experience.

p.s. i dated a guy who would NEVER eat pasta (his mom cooked it until it was mush) and could not understand why i relished it. until he tried one bite of correctly cooked pasta-it opened him to trying foods he never would have tried before.

 

[Planogirl]

My son liked quite a few veggies until he grew older and suddenly he got really picky. There are only a few he likes now but luckily he'll eat pretty much anything else. I don't understand why he changed though. His Dad and I like veggies so it's not us!

 

[sha_lyn]

"home cooked" = cooked at home

When I think home cooked, I think of cooking, not warming up canned food.

i found it interesting when i worked in a day care center-parents would swear up and down that their child would NEVER eat certain foods (and were very particular about certain brands, items-some would only eat fast foods). we had a kitchen facility and would cook homestyle meals for the staff (whole turkeys, pot roast, vegetable soups....)-well, many of these little ones had never been given the opportunity to try these foods and relished them once they were given the opportunity.

I babysat a little boy for yrs who was much like that. However I learned to never tell him mom about him trying new foods, because she would say right in front of him "Oh I know he doesn't eat that he hates it". Then he would never try it again.
I remeber her getting really mad one time because he dad and step mom would take him to eat mexican on the weekend they had him. The mom would say something like "poor kid I he told me ate the food. I know it was just because his dad would beat him if he didn't". Then I mentioned her son had eaten mexican with us many times, either in a restaurant or at home. The mom apparently hated mexican so insisted her son did too.

 

[barkley]

here's a tip my friend shared with me-neither of her boys liked veggies, but they LOVED spagetti sauce. so she would make a pot of homemade and through in brocolli, eggplants, spinach....then use a hand blender to puree it to the same red/smooth consistency as "normal" spagetti sauce. her kids ate it and loved it. so the next time she would offer a veggie and her kids came out with "eew, i don't like that-i would never eat it"-she would smile and say "boy you loved it the other night in your spagetti sauce ". she also kept a couple of jars of (ick) store made spagetti sauce on hand and told the kids they could pour it over the veggies to see if it made them taste better (usualy they ended up eating them)-i've known people whose kids will only eat veggies if they can put ranch dressing on them (hot or cold).