This is not just a baby, this is an M&S baby

What do you do when your toddler will only eat from Tom Kerridge’s M&S Gastropub range?

Now, I love a pre-done dinner. Little Dishes are welcome in our fridge: they probably make up 65-70% of my weekly food shop. In fact I’m embarrassingly proud when I manage to scratch-cook something my child will eat. 

HOWEVER.

All ready meals are not created equal. More importantly, there’s a pecking order. 

Let me set the scene. Day three of our mini break in Wales, evening sun (unbelievably) shining, we’ve taken a rare opportunity to have dinner as a family. The Prosecco is flowing — two glasses each, steady on — and we’ve gone all out with a Tom Kerridge feast for two. On the menu:

• Bombay potato and lentil cottage pie (better than it sounds)
• Mac and cheese croquettes (bit of a weird addition)
• A six-portion apple crumble pie (Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference but it had a yellow sticker, so…)
• And, not to leave George out, a Little Dish cottage pie to match mummy and daddy.

Ha, as if I thought it would be that easy. George takes one look at his own food, then clocks our posh pie and it’s game over. He gets an entire croquette — saturated fat and salt content be damned — and a hefty portion of Bombay potato to wash it down. The Little Dish lies untouched in the middle of the table, and I’m so hungry that I consider snaffling a few spoonfuls of that instead. We split the apple tart down the middle and call it a night.

I have to applaud my son’s excellent taste. M&S is clearly the premier choice of supermarket and their Dine in for Two for £15 (swear it used to be a tenner with a bottle of plonk chucked in) is still a bloody good deal. But if I’m ready-mealing it for dinner, best believe I’m planning to eat every bite myself.