There is nothing worse than slaving over a hot stove to cook a delicious meal, like a Portuguese-style Cacoila, Nigerian Beef Suya or Filipino Adobo Aromatic Chicken that your children, or for that matter, partner or parents, won’t try, simply because they are fussy eaters.
If you are the person (mum!) who does most of the cooking in your household, preparing meals can be a real challenge.
You’ll, of course, want to ensure your family gets all the nutrients they need to stay healthy and strong. But you’ll also want to expand your offerings further from the same old choices you bring out on rotation.
So, how can you go about enjoying sumptuous and exotic meals while ensuring your picky eaters are also fed what they want?
Here are some of the top hacks you can employ to help you please everyone’s palate. Along with some strategies to expand the horizons of those who have conservative tastes.
1. Cook their favourite meals in bulk
The picky eaters in your life will have some meals they absolutely love. Therefore, it is worth cooking them up in bulk and having them ready to go in the freezer to take cooking for them out of the equation.
For instance, if they like Spaghetti Bolognese or taco mince, buy a kilo of it from the supermarket and cook it up in one go. When ready, simply divide it into several portions, ready for you to heat up for them as and when required.
By doing this, you can focus on cooking a meal that you and the rest of your family will enjoy and not have two separate ones from scratch on the go.
If you don’t fancy doing bulk cooking in this way, ordering ready-made meals home delivery with FoodSt is another good option.
2. Present the food as best as you can
As humans, we have a tendency to eat with our eyes, which makes sense because we usually see it first before smelling it and tasting it. For this reason, the more inviting the food looks, the more likely your family will be to eat it.
You’ll know from your own personal reactions to dishes you’ve been given at restaurants or seen on TV shows like Masterchef that the more appealingly you can plate your food, the more excited you are to try it.
For this reason, you might want to take some tips from the Maggie Beer Foundation to bring a bit more ‘Wow’ factor to what you serve up.
If the kids are the fussy eaters in your home, it is a good idea to get creative. Use cookie cutters to shape vegetables, sandwiches, or pancakes, or create fun designs on the plate, like smiley faces with fruit or veggies, as this can make mealtimes more exciting for them.
3. Lead by example
Kids learn by watching, so if they see that you enjoy making and eating different types of foods, they are more likely to want to try them as their tastebuds develop. Additionally, if you regularly try new foods and cuisines, they will be more prone to follow suit.
Most importantly, never let them hear that you, your partner or your parents don’t like a certain food.
Kids are smart enough to realise that if it is ok for you not to eat something, then it should be the same for them as well. So, they will only dig their heels in if they don’t want to try something new.
4. Make meal times stress-free
Meal times should not be a battleground, so it is important not to get stressed or upset if your picky-eating children don’t want to eat something you present them with.
The more pressure you put on them the less likely they will be to willingly eat something. Therefore, you should try to make mealtime as relaxed and stress-free an event as possible without demanding that they have to eat a specific food or finish everything on their plate.
Creating a positive atmosphere and enjoyable mealtime experience can make your child more receptive to trying new foods over time.
5. Give the new food to them as a starter
One clever tactic to help picky eaters widen their horizons is to give them a small serving of the new food as a starter.
If kids are hungry, they’ll obviously want to dive into the favourite parts of their meal first before even thinking about anything else on the plate when you serve it to them. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that they will ignore the new element to it.
However, if you tell them that dinner is five minutes away and to try the new food item while you are getting it ready, their desire to eat might make them more open to trying something new.
6. Introduce new foods gradually
Talking of trying to get them to try something new, it is a good idea to adopt a less is more approach when doing this.
If you try to introduce new vegetables or foods to your picky eaters on too frequent a basis, there is a good chance they will resist. However, if you do so on an irregular basis and you catch them in a happy mood, they may well be more open to it.
