My son is not a bad eater but he has foods he loves and food he hates – there seems to be no in between. Our biggest problem is vegetables. I can easily list the vegetables he will eat:

• raw baby carrots with ranch dressing
• corn on the cob
• fresh tomatoes diced on pizza
• pasta sauce
• potatoes, sliced or as wedges homemade baked fries and also white mashed potatoes (god forbid if we use yukon gold potatoes)

and that is about it. One thing he is good about is trying the new food – he will at least take one bite but, that one bite will determine his love-hate relationship with that food.

As an attempt to broaden his favorite meals, help me stop cooking two meals and provide healthy meals, I tried out a new meal. The meal was Meatloaf with a ketchup sauce, homemade mashed potatoes ( I say homemade, as my husband was a box mash potato person before I came along) and frozen peas and corn (to keep it simple).

The recipe for the meatloaf includes carrots and zucchini. This was not an attempt to hide vegetables in his food, I want him to know how to make good choices later on. So, after the first bite I showed him what was in it.

The meal  was a huge success for all of us….my son for the first time turned to me and said “Mummy can you make this again, soon”. I was beaming when I replied “of course”.

Recipe (modified from Weight Watchers Magazine September/October 2006 edition)

3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup organic chicken broth
1/2 cup carrot, grated
1/2 cup zucchini, grated (1 small zucchini)
1/2 onion, grated
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tsp whole seed Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
Pinch of coarse ground pepper
1-1/2 tsp fresh parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1-1.5 pound ground beef (5% fat or less)
1/4 cup ketchup

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. I use a silicon loaf pan (5 x 9 in.), you can line this with foil if you wish.
2. In a kitchen whizz, I grate the carrot, zucchini, onion and cloves.
3. In a bowl, combine oatmeal, milk, broth, grated vegetables, egg, mustard, salt, pepper, parsley and oregano.
4. Gently mix in the ground beef to this mixture until just combined. I use my fingers to mix in the ingredients.
5. Spoon mixture into the loaf pan and level out.
6. During baking at the 45 min mark, I pour of some of the excess liquid and spread the 1/4 cup ketchup over the top.
7. Bake for 1 hour or until the internal temperature of the meatloaf is 165 degrees F. Remove from the oven and let stand 10 minutes.
8. Slice and plate with the mashed potatoes and cooked peas and corn.

As there are only 3 of us, I made one left over meal for my husband’s lunch and the rest I wrapped and placed into the freezer (once it cooled) for a future meal.