Superquick suppers for after school

[Emski]

My 4 yr old has just started school, but as they're only getting sandwiches for lunch I want to give her something hot and nutritious when she gets home (& ideally bread-free). I'm already struggling for inspiration after just a week! She's going through a picky phase so I'm keeping it pretty simple, but as my husband doesn't get home til late it doesn't need to be anything too sophisticated as we'll be eating later.

Any ideas out there? So far we've had:

Omelette with ham and cheese, green veg

Pizza & salad

Chicken goujons / fish fingers, pasta & veg

Baked potato w tuna & crudit?s

Salmon fillet, rice and veg

Thanks!

[Fuschia]

Pasta with pesto and peas

Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese

Pasta salad

Burger in a bun

Eggy bread

[Fuschia]

Wraps with various protein fillings and salad - egg, ham, cheese

Grilled halloumi hummous salad and pitta

Roast sweet potatoes and fish fingers

[devsdev]

Things that could work for the whole family (and could also be batch cooked) - not sure how picky your LO is!

-Chilli con carne with rice/quinoa/couscous/other carb of choice

-Fajitas (chicken, peppers, plus any other veg like courgette, aubergine, carrots) - sour cream and guac may make it more appealing

- Thick dahl soups which can be frozen and defrosted quickly - again with carb of choice

- Mousakka/shepherds pie/lasagne etc. which can be batch cooked and frozen in little ramekins in 4-yr old portions and popped into the over for 45 mins or so (requires a little more forethought on the day!)

I need to start doing this myself!

[Pickle]

Do you have time during the day to cook? I make just one meal a day, which we all eat, and try to steer clear of "kid" food so that they learn to eat a good range of food (my kids are 6, 5, and 20 months). When I plan my meals I make sure they're things I can get prepared in advance, so that they either just need reheated, or quickly cooked, at dinner time.

The Hairy Bikers cookbooks are brilliant, we ate meals from one of them every night last week - meatballs, fish in Parma ham with roasted veg, cottage pie, egg bacon & asparagus tart, chicken korma. All very easy to prepare, healthy, and a hit with the kids.

[Emski]

I have a 4-month-old who's a very 'variable' napper, so cooking time isn't guaranteed. I should sometimes be able to knock up a ragu or fish pie filling though and freeze in ramekins - great idea. We would love her to be more adventurous with food, but she's taken to announcing that she doesnt like pasta and tomato sauce, or peas - things that were guaranteed favourites a couple of days before! It could be the new baby and starting school that are making her play up, but at the moment I don't want to turn every mealtime into a battle (more than they are already!). I figure sticking with simple stuff for now, but making sure there's a good variety, is the best way to go for now - at least til things settle down for her. As long as they're quick to make I don't mind making her supper separately.

[bkkmei]

Risotto with chicken & sweet potato - I make a huge batch with a pressure cooker, eat some, put some in the fridge for later in the week, freeze some.

Griddle fry trout fillets, with couscous mixed with sweetcorn (& peas)

Stir fry chicken with noodles and some greens

Beef stew with rice or tortilla wrap

Chicken & sweet potato stew (add ginger, cinnamon, honey etc. for a tajine effect) with rice or couscous or tortilla.

Pizza - for the first time I actually put my own toppings on a bare pizza base. Good fun, cheap and still tasty!

My eldest only eats sweet potato, sweetcorn and peas for veg willingly. So I sympathise about fussiness!

I like the Hairy Bikers books too - actually I got the diet ones although I'm not on one, but find them really good.

[nunheadmum]

Emski - I've got the problem too of my 5 year old announcing that she doesn't like old favourites any more. I keep trying to stress with her that there's a difference between 'not liking' and just 'not my favourite'. Sometimes it helps. Also sometimes trying to find out what it is about it that they don't like can help. Sometimes it's texture rather than taste - so they may have gone off the skin on peas rather than disliking the taste or they don't like bits of tomato in the tomato sauce (I've taken to mashing my sauce now) etc. I've found with both my 2 that around about 4/5 they've taken a dislike to any kind of bits in their food.

I often cook big meals at the weekend when I have time (shepherds pie / lasagna etc) and make enough to put a few portions in the freezer for mid-week meals.

[susyp]

meatballs are good as you can premake them and the sauce - sometimes i even pre cook the pasta if it's likely to be a really bad day!

omlette also really good for an after school supper- i find things that are easy to eat work better.

susypx

[GinaG3]

My daughter is so bland, she used to love everything now she likes nothing. Its the worst thing imaginable when I spend 1 hour plus cooking foods of the world for us and she sits there eating boring crap! I've tried and tried. She has just started school and insisted on school dinners which really shocked me, and is slowly trying things. This week she tied beef (but "definitely didn't like it"), cheese & onion pasty (winner), watermelon (which I know she hates anyway, and still does apparently), mash potato (winner), scrambled egg (winner - because school don't put pepper in it like I do, doh!). We are getting there, slowly.

For dinners she eats:

fish fingers in a corn wrap/pitta bread with cucumber & homemade potato wedges

spaghetti/pasta with cheese/ham & carrot (coins only)

cheese & ham cappelletti & garlic bread

pitta pizza (tomato sauce & cheese on pitta bread, 2 minutes in the oven)

roast without the meat or with fish fingers - yuck!

[canela]

to be honest i find during the week that we just stick to firm favourites. we pretty much eat a variation on the same meals each week, and fingers crossed at the weekend i'll try something a bit different. as long as what they get is healthy i don't think it needs to be that varied (or i am just lazy...).

firm faves in our house are:

lentil stew and rice

bean stew and rice/tortillas/nachos

omlette

pasta and pesto

spaghetti bolognese

meatballs and home-made chips

chicken soup

humous

all with veg sticks on the side. I tend to cook last thing at night once the kids are in bed, so we just re-heat when needed the next day. i make the lentils and beans very bland for the kids, and then spice them up for the adults.

sounds like there's lots of ideas on this thread though, so I might branch out. will try the pizza, i think.

[BeccaL]

Cheese on toast with slices of tomato under the cheese (can call it "pizza" if that makes it more appealing? Beans on toast, scrambled eggs on toast (can also add chopped tomato or pepper, or chopped chorizo/ham/bacon to this if needs a bit of variety) - all easy to do quickly when they're hungry...

[Emski]

Thanks for all the suggestions! A sticker reward chart for finishing a meal seems to have been working too. This week we've also tried noodles/stir fry and mange tout. Mange tout she did!