Vegetable Dilemma

My boys go to the farmers market with us. They help pick out the veggies. They all love most any fruit. But they love corn, green beans, broccoli, squash, baby carrots and spinach. They are not so fond of lettuce, tomatoes or potatoes (except fried in the fry form!) But they eat veggies, so I am ok with them not liking certain veggies. I do not like corn or hominy. All I ask is that they taste it. Usually, they end up liking and wanting more. If they don't like it, they don't have to eat it

Have you read Jessica Seinfeld's book--I believe it is called "Deceptively Delicious" Simple secrets to get your kids eating healthy. She basically purees veggies and hides them in your kids favorite meals. The recipes are also quite healthy and they taste good too. The pureeing takes up some time but if you do it all at once and freeze the veggies you add to the recipes it makes it easier. Check it out, I found it very helpful and honestly the kids have no idea the veggies are in there! Good Luck!

I work at a preschool and we often serve fresh veggies w/ lunch. Many of the children will eat them fresh if we give them a little ranch dressing on the side. Try celery with cream cheese and raisins on top, we call it ants on a log and most kids love it. Peanut butter is good on the celery too. Kids also like snow peas the flat kid like the ones in chinese stir fry. THey are good alone or with ranch or cream cheese. serve them raw, but be sure to get the snow pea type and not the snap peas. Snow peas are sweeter and more appealing to kids. Another thing you can do is to make zuchini bread for them and get a recipe that has cinnamon or you can even add a few choc.chips, I bet they would like it. Also if you can get them to help you prepare it they are more likely to try it. They can peel the carrots, cut the celery, cucumbers with a dull plastic knife and parent supervision. May also try cherry tomatoes, something about the small size they like. Try planting a small veggie garden next spring and let your kids do most of the planting. We do this at our school and kids are much more likely to try and eat what they have grown. :D

One option is to make sloppy Joes and add diced bell peppers or pureed carrots or sweet potatoes. I keep thinking of other ideas but then realizing they are heavy on the carbs or cheese (we are vegetarian so end up eating too much of both, unfortunately) but the other ideas are fajitas, veggie burgers (some have actual veggies in them like Morningstar Farm Gardenburgers), sweet potato fries, pureed cauliflower added to macaroni-n-cheese (if you ever eat that), or soups--Trader Joe's makes good soups like Tomato and Red Pepper, Butternut Squash, and Carrot Ginger. My kids also like veggie dumplings (that I buy frozen at Target or Trader Joe's) or spanakopita (again, has cheese and some carbs, though).

My son is not quite three, and his juice allowance per day is always a fruit-vege blend. (Fruitables are awesome.) He is also a fiend for sweet potato fries. I bake them in the oven til they're just crispy on the outside. I love them too!

keep offering them raw with dressing or hummus on the side. I think the key is to keep offering. You'll shoot yourself in the foot if you dress them up too much.

buy the freshest, yummiest veggies you can in season. buy lots. lots and lots. steam 'em, let it cool, then process it in a vita-mix, food processor or good blender (use the steam water to thin, it's loaded with vitamins), then freeze in ice cube trays. pop out the cubes and store in a freezer bag to add to soups, stews, burgers, sauces and so on.
khairete
S.

We do lots of stir fries on top of quinoa and I make my own sauces to go on top...peanut, orange, etc.

How about a salad with greens and all kinds of veggies, sliced almonds, fruits, and chicken or tofu? Mexican salads? Chilis or stews. Bean salads.

Do you involve your kiddos in buying the veggies at the store or farmer's market? I don't know how old they are, but getting them to help choose the food and pick the recipes may give them more ownership in the foods.

I steam lots of veggies and then do a simple lemon zest and agave dressing. You can use the tiniest amount of agave to get quite a punch of sweetness...like 1 tsp for the whole thing. That's an easy way of making veggies sweeter.

We get regular fruit and veggie deliveries and in the heat, the fruits and greens start to go bad quicker than in the winter. I puree them and put them in homemade smoothies or popsicles. One of our favorite popsicles has pineapple and pureed kale in it!

You can hide veggies in food and I do add pureed veggies to stuff, but not to hide them, rather to supplement or strengthen bland foods.

Good luck mama!

one thing that helps for us is to discuss why we are eating things. my daughter loves a nutrition lesson with her meals. she helps me pick out the vegetables at the grocery store and occassionally pick them at the farm. she also helps me cooks them.

If your children like tacos, add peppers, diced mushrooms, and squash to the meat/or soy crumbles. Yum. Also, you wrote no pasta, then keep serving them to your children in fun ways, like kabobs, raw veggie tray with dip. Favorite lunch dishes, tacos, spaghetti, (we do pasta and rice), and smoothies are a great treat.

I have a weird child that doesn't like sauces, but loves black olives and sautéed mushrooms, go figure. I have discovered that if the vegetable is in a soup he will usually eat it without even thinking. He also loves carrot and raisin salad. Also, oddly enough, it we feed it to him he seems more likely to eat it than if it is just on his plate. Good Luck! and just keep offering. Tastes change, I eat stuff now I wouldn't touch as a kid.

L.,
If you're looking for something new, check out my fun and tasty (family style) vegetable recipes at www.artfulveggie.com. All of the recipes are delicious, healthy, easy to prepare, inexpensive, and tons of fun for kids. Enjoy!

my kids LOVE salad.....They eat spinach!!! I never tried to give it to them before (I was SURE that they wouldn't eat it), and I always prepared them steamed veggies (which they hate). One day I saw my son eating out of my salad bowl.....I was super shocked. Now I give it to them all the time.....

You can do it! I have 3 boys, and they like vegetables. When we go to the grocery store they ASK for broccoli and asparagus! Other shoppers have even commented to me about their enthusiasm for vegetables. They also ask for junk food, so its not like they're not "normal", but that is a fairly rare treat. Anyway, how'd I do it? Like a lot of other posters have mentioned, keep offering it. Cut up veggies and dip is always big here. But they eat it straight also. I steam the carrots and broccoli, and usually just squeeze a lemon on the broccoli, and some salt. The carrots usually get garlic salt and a little butter. The asparagus gets tons of chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and then grilled or broiled. Frozen peas (they love cause when the bit into one it causes an "explosion" in their mouth) get a quick boil and a little butter and salt.

In our house other options just werent offered. They either ate it, or they went hungry. I love to cook, but I am not going to be a short order cook fixing everyone something different. They still go through phases when some vegetable is in the doghouse, but it usually comes back into favor 3 months later.

As for lunches, I do buy the mandarin orange cups when clementines are out of season. (All 3 boys can peel their own clementines and love them, teachers don't want to have to "help" too much with lunch so make sure your kid can peel it himself.) Cut up carrots, celery, and cherry or grape tomatoes - no dip, mine eat them fine without - organic carrots that I peel and cut up myself taste way better than most of the other kinds of carrots we've tried; also I taste the tomatoes and make sure they actually taste good. Low sugar granola bar, pretzels, chocolate covered raisins or dark chocolate covered pomegranates for a treat in the lunch. No sugar natural peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat. Grapes, cut up apples. I have even done the frozen Go-gurts, I'm not thrilled with them nutrition-wise, but I get them every so often. My kids don't even want to buy the lunches at school (thank goodness, cause they appear nutritionally awful!). I do let them get chocolate milk at school, although I ask them to only get it once a week and stick with white the rest of the week. I doubt they do as asked in this regard, but until I can find an easy cheap way to send in milk I'm letting this go.

Stand firm - you're the Mom, just do what's best for them! Good luck!

D.

First of all your children (and you) need carbs. Not all carbs are bad. Avoiding the overprocessed nutrient lacking sugar filled carbs is smart. Make sure you choose whole-grain products. It is very easy to put finely chopped veggies or pureed in sauces, breads, muffins, casseroles. My kids like chopped salads. I cut everything (romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers, etc.) into small diced pieces. They also like roasted veggies. All colored peppers cut into wedges and tossed with a little olive oil and roasted in the oven or on the grill. Yum! Roasted root veggies are also good. Spinach dip made with greek yogurt instead of mayo & sour cream is also a great snack with cut up veggies or whole grain crackers or pita chips. Wraps (you can even use lettuce leaves). Stir-frys are also a great way to introduce veggies.
Keep offering and vary it cooked & raw. Get them involved in the cooking process. Let them choose recipes they think they'll like and make them together with the understanding that they HAVE to try it. Good luck.