How to Hide Veggies in Food for My Son Who Hates to Eat Veggies

Maybe you could dice them up real little and mix them with the rice, or if he eats spagetti than put them in the sauce or mix a little veggie juice of any kind with his fruit juice.

There are a couple of books out there to help with this. The one I have is "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. It has a lot of great suggestions. Good luck!

There are so many things you can do!! My favorite was "colored" mashed potatoes. For green, use zucchini, broccoli, green beans, spinach, etc...puree, then add to mashed potatoes. Use carrots for orange, etc.

You can also make cauliflower-mash instead of potatoes. Boil a head of cauliflower until soft, then whip it with a little butter/milk/salt/pepper just like you would with potatoes. Looks like mashed potatoes....all veggie!

You can also add pureed/shredded vegetables to meatloaf, burgers, lasagna, spaghetti sauce, etc.

My son was a really picky eater too. Luckily, he isn't bad about it anymore.

Sometimes I would make a fruit smoothie and add some veggies to it. The fruit usually overpowered the veggie taste.
Not sure how old your son is, but sometimes I would hide them in his peanut butter jelly sandwiches! I know it sounds really weird, but he like it! Either puree the veggies or just chop them up and put them in there. I mostly used carrots, celery, or fresh spinach.
Just a couple of ideas =)

I think how you deal with this partly depends on how old your son is. If he is young (preschool or younger) then you need to be in charge of what he eats. Put a reasonable amount of healthy food on his plate and that is what there is until the next meal. And I'd start with veggies. When he's eaten X bites of veggies, then he can have his chicken. I'd totally ditch the rice and breads for a while--he's probably filling up on those to the exclusion of veggies. Or he can have them as "dessert." Obviously, he's not going to love all veggies-- I'm a great veggie eater, but tomatoes literally make me vomit. So he should have some control over which veggies he eats but not if he eats veggies or not.

I don't think there is anything wrong with "hiding" veggies in food, but that should be a supplement to what he's eating, not a substitute to eating veggies. He needs to learn to eat veggies because restaurants and school lunches aren't going to hide veggies in their food, and you don't need more to do to put dinner on the table! I do think that there is nothing wrong with making veggies a bit more palatable-- a little bit of butter, a teaspoon of sugar in some peas, some yummy herbs, etc.

There is a cookbook out called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld (wife of Jerry). You can trying checking it out.

If you are cooking his rice in water or chicken broth, you can add in the veggie puree into that water. You'll have to experiment how much to use. Of course pureed veggies mixed into soup broth is a great way to sneak them in. Zucchini bread is very popular and carrot cake is sinfully delicious and it's basically carrots for dessert!

Well, I don't know how old your son is, so some of this may not be relevant to his age, but here is some of what I do.... I mix one red yam in my mashed potatoes- adds more vitamins, antioxidants & gives it a slightly sweet taste that the kids love- add no sugar, just make the mashed potatoes as you usually would. I mix grated carrots in all pasta sauces. and sometimes pureed spinach too. I add a cup of beans to my brownie mix and I make cookies with grated zuchinni & Carrots with raisins. Some of these ideas I got from the book "Sneaky Chef" some have been passed down from my Mom & some I made up- tinkering around with different recipes of my own. If you are good in the kitchen you can make your own recipes using some of these delicious veggies. Get the "Sneaky Chef" it is worth any Moms while!

I agree with a couple of other moms that suggested just trying to get him to taste some each night and he will eventually come around. Also make sure you are leading by example, most kids who don't eat veggies have parents that don't either. And finally, depending how old he is let him cook with you. Even if it's just pushing a button on the blender or stirring some ingredients, kids love to help and are so much more likely to eat things if they feel like they helped make it. Good luck.

Here are some resources:
http://www.thesneakychef.com/
http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/
http://bit.ly/9tnZye
http://bit.ly/ZfY3Y
I have only hidden things a few times. My son knows he needs to eat his veggies before the sweet stuff (fruits). I usually hold off fruit until he eats enough dinner. Also I don't give him much bread/breading/rice/white potatoes to fill up on. He gets some protein, lots of veggies, some grain and fruit. If you continue to offer, he will come around. Especially if you try a variety of veggies. My son likes sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli (his favorite!), cauliflower, squash (not too often), green peppers, onions (in stuff), tomatoes....well, most all of them! Try a salad. Kids love to dip...try some Ranch or Thousand Island. Whatever you decide...good luck!!

One of my favorite hidden treasures is homemade pasta. I cook and puree just about any vegetable, and use it as the "liquid" in my homemade pasta... super easy with a kitchenaide mixer and the pasta attachment.

Broccoli fetticini, spinach lasagna noodles, carrot spaghetti, etc... you can make them up ahead of time... spend an entire day making them, and them bag the in freezer bags and freeze until you are ready to use them.

They taste great and pack a whole serving of veggies... good luck!

I really lucked out, all three of my kids love veggies, however, I have pureed veggies and put them in foods forever. I do it to use up veggies so they don't go bad.

You can add any veggie to almost anything. I have put a 1/4 cup in my cookies, you can puree anything and mix it in rice (this is the easiest), mix it in mac and cheese, anything. The trick is to remember that veggies can have a strong flavor so you have to find the right amount to mix. You also can mask the flavor if your kids have an issue, just add a tiny bit of soy sauce to the dish or you can mix it with peanut butter and spread on bread, etc.

Good luck, hope this helps.

I saw that Jessica Seinfeld has a cookbook out that is all about putting veggies in things so kids will eat them. I saw this book during the summer at Five Below for a couple of bucks.

I wouldn't do it. Have him try one or two bites of veggies at each meal, or he doesn't get dessert. You didn't mention how old he is, so I am not sure how much he understands, but you can tell him he needs veggies to grow. My kids have to eat as many bites as they are old. A lot of the time, they will just be talking and all of the sudden they realize they ate all of the veggies! I give small portions to make that easier. It has taken years, but they now eat them and like several of them. I still serve the ones they don't like and they eat their portion of those too. If you hide the veggies, how are you teaching your child good eating habits? Just my two cents...

I make mac and cheese with squash in it. It hardly affects the taste and the color is still super yellow. In my grocery store, I can get the squash in the frozen veggie section. It's already pureed in those 10 oz square packages right by the chopped spinach. If you PM me, I'm happy to share the recipe.

another cookbook is the "sneaky chef"

Jessica Seinfeld has an awesome little cookbook called 'Deceptively Delicious' that has some really creative (tasting and looking) ways to hide fruits and veggies into food. You may want to check it out. Good luck!

Hi,

Boil potato chunks, carrots or other roots in water. Add any other vegetables you want. When tender, puree with an immersion blender, add milk, salt, pepper. Heat, but don't allow to boil. Serve with butter or sour cream.

Our kids loved this, especially in the cooler months. It is astonishing how many vegetables you can hide in there without it getting too green. Peppers aren't suitable for this.

Have fun experimenting - hope you get some empty bowls.

D.

I can't wait till my library gets "The Sneaky Chef" and "Deceptively Delicious" cookbooks which are all about this.