If your child will only eat burgers and fish fingers, why not try some home-made and healthy versions? Suzannah Olivier, author of Healthy Food for Happy Kids, tells us how

By far the easiest plan for time-pressured parents is to develop a child's tastes towards eating the same food that the rest of the family eats. However, we live in times in which the market for specific kid's foods has grown into a huge beast and it is hard to get away from that fact. This becomes particularly relevant when young friends come round for tea and all that the children will eat are sausages or nuggets. Fixing up batches of some children's favourites, when you have time to spare, and keeping them in the freezer for when you don't, can help.

Chicken nuggets
The average commercially available chicken nugget is a disaster area. It is less than 36 per cent meat, and is heavily laden with salt, low nutrient fillers and water. They also use the lowest quality meat from battery chickens that are routinely fed with antibiotics as growth enhancers.

To make your own, make breadcrumbs with 50g of bread, put in a bowl and season. Beat two eggs in another small bowl. Cut three or four skinless chicken breast fillets into strips. Dunk the strips one by one into the egg and then into the breadcrumbs to coat on all sides. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry them for about ten minutes until cooked through on all sides. You can 'par-cook' these more gently until cooked through but not overly browned and then freeze interleaved with greaseproof paper until needed. These can then be thoroughly defrosted and grilled until cooked through. You can also make fish fingers the same way, though these cannot be frozen. Serve with lemon.

Chips
Chips with everything takes on a new meaning when you make them from scratch - five minutes of preparation, not much effort to cook, and the taste is a thousand times better than 'oven chips'. Choose baking potatoes for the right texture, scrub them clean (no need to peel), chop into chips, put a single layer in a baking pan with a fairly modest brushing of olive oil and bake in a medium-high oven for around 25 minutes until cooked (turn once or twice with a spatula and add a little bit more oil if needed, though the end result should be dry and not greasy).

Pizzas
Buy ready-made bases or, even better, make your own dough in a bread machine. This is simplicity itself. It takes just a couple of minutes to check the recipe in the book that comes with the machine and to throw in the ingredients - you just need to plan a little ahead.

Spread the base with salt-free tomato puree or passata, line up the toppings (such as ham, pitted olives, pineapple, mushrooms, broccoli, sweetcorn) for children to build their own, sprinkle on grated cheese, and bake in a hot oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Burgers
Delicious burgers can easily be made with lean chicken breast meat and pear or with lean pork meat and apple. In a food processor chop 30g of onion. Add 200g of your chosen meat cut into chunks, and 50g of fruit, and process on high speed until finely chopped but not mushy. Add some herbs if you wish. Form into patties. Fry, bake or grill in a tiny bit of olive oil on a medium heat, making sure to cook through. Serve on a bun with chopped salad, relish and sour cream. Extra, uncooked, patties can be frozen to defrost and cook another day.

Falafel
This Middle-Eastern favourite, made from fava beans and chickpeas, is the ideal vegetarian alternative to burgers. Buy a ready-made dry mixture, add water according to the instructions, shape into small balls, and fry as directed. Serve inside warmed pita pockets (wholemeal is best) with a chopped cucumber and tomato salad dressed with tahini and lemon dressing.

Sausage rolls, pasties and samosas
These are incredibly high in fat and usually include the worst imaginable quality of meat. Vegetable samosas are marginally better and around 20 per cent less fat. To make a delicious home version, keep ready-rolled filo pastry in the freezer for when you need it, or invest in a sandwich toaster (the kind that seals the edges). Put your filling in the middle of a square of pastry, fold into a pocket, seal and bake. Alternatively, put the filling in between two slices of bread and make triangle toasties.

Fillings to mirror the convenience options could be high quality cooked sausages (add pickle for interest), cooked minced meat with onion and tomato (left over from when you are making a shepherd's pie), curried cooked chicken or curried cooked vegetables. Other fillings you could choose are as varied as your imagination - goat's cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and basil, ham, spring onion and grilled red pepper, or grilled aubergine with baked garlic and hummus.