Welcome aboard, Louese
Judynew is right, you have to work with them on changing the meal plan and not to seek how to serve their desire.
I have no child so I don't have any experience with feeding children, but me and my husband are foodies and even my DH likes to eat different foods at different meals (nowadays I tend to talk to myself and decide I'm too lazy to make other food than that is already there
). But I would write you some tips which work for both of us (me and my DH):
- I always keep different starches ready to eat in the fridge. It means I have home made bread, cooked rice, baked potato at hand.
- I always keep different ready to eat veggies at hand. It means I always have canned or home cooked beans (beans are basically starch but we eat them like veggies beside the starches), canned or home cooked veggies (the cooked are drained and put in a plastic container, the liquid is reserved to make soups with it).
- I always keep different condiments in the fridge, like home made ketchup, mustard creme, sauces we like, etc.
- I always keep at least one sandwich spread ready at hand.
- I always have some fresh veggie in the fridge ready to eat or in the garden (not so ready to eat). These are mostly salad veggies, like prepped lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato, different types of onions and whatever you like and/or is in season.
It sounds like huge work, but it's not if you already started, because we usually don't run out two things at the same day, so I need to replace (cook) no more than one thing a day. What's more I have routines, like after baking the bread I automatically put a whole plate of washed, whole potato into the oven, or I bake regularly beans in the oven when I make bread in the morning. In this way I bake the bread, then the beans and I put the potato in at the end (in a day like this I make huge amount of food despite the fact that I spend less than an hour in the kitchen including cleaning). I always make a lot of food even if I have to put some in the freezer because we don't have room in the fridge.
When I'm at home and have time (and energy) I make some one dish meal in the morning. This can be a huge ball of pasta dish (like chili mac or fettucine or whatever your family like) or a rice dish (like mexican rice or fried rice or something from your own repertoire) or in wintertime a hearty soup or just a huge batch of side dish (we love Indian food, so I often make that).
In this way everyone can eat as many times a day as (s)he wants and whatever (s)he wants. Even if you have to make it for them (which is not a good idea in case of adults, IMHO) you already have huge amount of ingredients that are already cooked so you can create a dish in less then 10-15 mins. Frozen veggie mixes are also your good friends if it's about "fast food"
Look around in the
recipe section of the forum, there are tons of other tips and tricks how to make cooking easy even for four
Hope it helps