Can I confess something? Do you mind?
I am SO OVER DINNER TIME. I am so over it. I want it gone, and I’ll happily have it replaced with breakfast. I’m over the battle. Lacey is a good eater, and will eat whatever I give her. I didn’t realise what a bloody BLESSING that is. It’s huge.
Lulu has suddenly decided she’s the fussiest kid in the world. She won’t even eat spaghetti bolognese. WHAT’S WITH THAT? Every kid likes spag bol, right?
So night times are a battle of finding a food that Lulu will eat, and because she’s a VERY HUNGRY fussy child, she wants seven or so courses of whatever foods she does like {which I can list as sushi, ham, apple puree, 2-minute noodles and air}.
My question is, do I keep persisting with a range of new/old foods or just give her foods she does like to eat? I don’t want to create an adult who doesn’t eat foods, particularly vegetables.
Anyways, rant aside. I made these pies on the weekend, and they were so stinking easy. It’s an attempt to offer Lulu something new. She looked at them and exclaimed, “I love pies!” and then in the next breathe, “Not like that pie!”
The pies are delicious. I can promise you that, and the squeeze of lemon at the end just does something wonderful. DO NOT SKIP THE LEMON.
Also, I know you probably don’t need another kitchen gadget but we inherited a pie-maker, and I’m starting to love it. It’s good for giving leftovers a second life. You can grab one for cheap at Kmart {or probably even at your local supermarket}.
Easy-peasy mini chicken pies recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 leek, thinly sliced
50g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
300ml chicken stock
100ml thickened cream
300g shredded, cooked BBQ chicken
75g frozen peas and corn
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and Pepper
4 sheets of puff pastry
METHOD
♥ Get your pie maker out and at the ready. Don’t turn it on just yet. Defrost your puff pastry.
♥ Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the leek for five minutes until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute, then stir in the stock a little at a time, to make a smooth sauce.
♥ Add in the cream, and cook until the sauce starts to bubble. Stir in the chicken and peas and corn. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.
♥ Cut the pastry into quarters, and place one quarter onto the pie maker until all holes are covered for the bases. Fill with filling and then place another quarter on top. Trim if needed {with pie makers sometimes it’s easier to trim once cooked}. Cook until cooked through {the pie maker will usually turn the light off when it’s cooked}.
♥ Serve with vegetables!
I think I need a pie maker in my life – this looks delicious!
You do! Sorry waistline!
I’ll see your fussy eater and raise you an even fussier eater!!! My miss 7 is the worst. So sadly I don’t have any answers for you in that department…..I’d suggest one of those cute dinner plates that has a little trail of compartments leading up to a treat (which could be a healthy treat of course) and just put the tiniest morsel of something in each and gradually increase it. I’ll be checking back to read others advice!
Oh we have that plate. I’m sure she’ll just tear open the treat section and have a tantrum. Gah!
I am with you – why oh why must dinner roll around EVERY single night particularly when your energy has been sucked out all day. Thankfully my husband does 90% of the cooking and he is an awesome cook. Raya went through a very fussy period when she was 2 and we were travelling where all of a sudden she wanted only white things – white bread, plain white pasta. Apparently their tastebuds change and things can taste quite bitter for them – an old survival tool. We still gave new foods but on the plate with things we knew she liked. She grew out of it.
Ah, that’s interesting. That would make sense that tastebuds have changed, because she does want plain things – perhaps bolognese meat is too rich?
Thanks for sharing. x
Yum – you could also do this in a jaffle maker/sandwich maker. Puff pastry in those things rocks. Just like pies but different shape!
That is a brilliant idea!
We do “dinner” at lunch time and then a pick plate at dinner time to help with our pain in the bum toddler. Only works because I’m home with her though. We do the main meal at lunchtime when I’m not so rushed and cranky so that at the crazy 6pm I can just give her a little platter of crackers, cheese, a bit of protein, piece of fruit kind of thing. Sometimes a smoothie on the side. Her lunch is normally hot leftovers of whatever we ate the night before. Seems to work currently! She definitely is less fussy when she isn’t as tired.
THIS IS THE BEST ADVICE EVER.
Thank you. This is what I do sometimes to, and I love that others do the same. x
Yum I’d like these too & a pie maker! I’m with you on the dinner time tedium. My 7 year old is the fussy one (maybe it’s a second child thing). There is no logic behind what she likes and doesn’t, now I’m convinced she does it just to mess with my mind!
I agree! It’s unpredictable. You can just a jaffle-maker for the pies if you like. đŸ™‚
Breakfast for dinner! Bacon, eggs, tomato etc. I’ll generally do that once a week:)
I like it!
Welll, good luck with that! When my daughter was young, the only thing she would eat was marmite sandwiches and the occasional satsuma. She only ate these things until she was about 12, and started getting invited out with friends. She is now 34 and has never eaten eggs, gravy or vegetables…….
Oh my goodness, that would have sent me batty. The good thing is Lulu has liked veggies in the past, she’s just going through a ‘moment’!
Now, I’m off to Google ‘satsuma’. x
My 6 yr old changes from day to day. I’ll give her something that she has eaten for years and she’ll say “Mmmm. No. I don’t like that today.” Very annoying when you are cooking something she ate last week.
I’m wondering if these would work in a muffin tin?
I did them in a muffin tin. Worked perfectly. Super yummy too.
I have a 6 year old that is very picky, always has been. She eats a very limited range of food, basically sausages, chicken drumsticks, carrot that is raw, cos baby lettuce that is crunchy, broccoli steamed and hot chips…thats it really! If I don’t give her these things for a while she stops eating them so I try to always give her things from the above list plus one new thing to try. Every now and then we have success, she has recently taken to like eating tacos so i think we are coming out of it…although slowly.