I have several recipes. many of which use chicken or pork, as they are cheap at the moment.
there are roast dinners with lots of veggies
chicken or pork stirfry with lots of veggies, bean sprouts, wholewheat noodles (egg allergy!)
chicken soup which is made from the gravy (homemde from the juices and vegetable water) carrots, onions, pearl barley.
chicken in white sauce (homemade, sorry schwartz!)) with sweetcorn, red onions, mushrooms courgette and wholemeal pasta
pork and apple (onion, carrot brown rice)
beef/pork or chicken (cheap cuts) and beans ( various from butter/redkidney, blackeye, mung, borlotti depending what was on offer in what store when!) I also do this with lentils and mungbeans instead of meat.
chilli con carne, (lots of veggies, little meat)
spagetti bolognase (ditto)
aubergine, mushroom, onion and lamb-taken from a recipe book.
trout or salmon, white sauce, sweetcorn, peas, wholemeal pasta. usually when there is an offer on in tesco/reduced.
tuna, tinned tomatoes, peas, sweetcorn, brown rice is my quick and easy stand by
baked(microwave) potatoes and whatever is to hand
if i can be bothered, i will sometimes make wholemeal pasta salad sprinkled with seeds. I am mean. they are not keen on the seeds but it is next to impossible to pick every sesame, or linseed off pasta and cucumber... etc.
to avoid meltdowns... proper autism ones... they only get wwhat they like, so dd may have a few sultanas dried apricots added to her dinners, but never raw caarrot. ds would not. the melt down is not worth it. his diet is varied enough. especially now he does not have ham and cheese sandwiches everyday
there are only the 3 of us so I cook what I feel like doing/eating (or defrosting one of the batch cooked dinners)
monday night is trreat night. beans on (wholemeal) toast the children love it, I do not have to cook. win-win
at my elderly mums we have chips, peas, sweetcorn fishfingers. shopped for by me and stored in her freezer. it is quick, easy, dd helps get it set up and everyone will eat it.
the rule is that they do not have to eat anything they do not like.
we aim to sit at the table, but ds will occasionally stand, eat on the sofa, sit in the toy box, sit on the floor. i save the battles for what really matters: going to school, suncream, road safety, no violence and name calling among them.
flavourings are garlic, herbs, ginger, mild chilli powder, balsamic vinegar, cheap wine, low salt stock cubes or homemade gravy with no salt added.
I occasionally treat myself to a microwavable/easy heat lunch when the children are at school. I prefer the healthier options (mainly green on the traffic light system) schwarrtz... that is where you come in. I like chinese take away occasionlly, but they are a bit expensive... and easyish dinner for me once the children are in bed would be an occasional treat too. (also saves juggling small boys and a chinese takeaway up the stairs to the flat. )
we have had a healthy eating phase after my dad died of stroke. we were looking at the brainscan of a massive bleed and the dr said it could occasionally be caused where plaques of cholesterol have accumulated in the blood vessels... I instantly went off anything fatty, and felt physically sick at the thought of chipshop chips/takeways for quite a while.
i also count myself lucky that I have children that are not really that picky. maybe it was a wide range of tastes when weaning, mainly homemade. but ds did not get as wide a range, or specially cooked for him meals... being the second like. there may have been a few more jars too! i also wonder whether being relaxed about what they like/ don't like has helped. unfortunately, a sample of two is not statistically significant, and a third child may have only eaten marmalade sandwiches!
oh and food from mummy's plate was far superior and worth pinching, even if it was the stuff they had previously turned their noses up at nd had been scraped to my plate in secret in the kitchen.