How To Hide Veggies In Your Kid’s Meals
Mar 10, 2010 | Posted by in Food and Drink | 0 Comments
Make Your Kid’s Healthier
What parent wouldn’t want to be blessed with children who love vegetables? Life would be so much easier if kids adored carrots, onions and broccoli as much as they like chocolate and PSPs. Unfortunately, most children shy away from the foods that are best for them, and that’s when a parent needs to know how to hide these vitamin-laced nutritional foods in their kids everyday meals.
Perhaps the most difficult foods to hide from kids are the green ones, which are often the most nutritious. One trick is to cut them up exceptionally tiny so that they aren’t so green. Mincing up broccoli and adding it to rice can almost camouflage it completely.
And what child doesn’t like spaghetti? Here lies the perfect hiding place for any and all veggies you want your kids to eat. The color can camouflage even the most frightening vegetables like cauliflower. Simply cook the vegetable and pop it in the blender, then add to the sauce. Perfect!
In fact, the blender holds the key for hiding most every vegetable from your children. Do they love mashed potatoes? Blend cauliflower and chick peas and you have an instant healthy addition to the meal.
Another great way to get your kids the nutrition they need is using pancakes and waffles to house spinach and carrot juice. This tasty alternative to regular cakes can also carry bananas, shredded sweet potatoes and zucchini.
Meat loaf becomes the perfect vehicle for carrying hidden agendas such as broccoli, carrots and spinach. Chili can conceal white beans and other unappealing veggies, cloaked also in cheese and filled with mushrooms and zucchini.
Breads also hold appeal for kids, especially quick breads like zucchini and bananas which can also add to the moisture of the muffin. Pumpkin bread is naturally sweet and kids eat it up.
Since kids love cheese, why not make it au gratin? Smother a plate of steamed veggies in melted cheese, and add those to mac and cheese. This is a great way to sneak them into an old favorite.
Even though kids can be picky eaters, putting veggies on top of a pizza can really hit the spot. You can puree the veggies or make a stuffed crust so they won’t even see them.
There is a school of thought that believes that hiding veggies in your children’s food is too sneaky for their own good. Common advice is that you should show them how to enjoy and eat these fresh necessities instead of trying to con them into eating something they aren’t even aware of. Give them a variety of foods and let them pick for themselves what they like. Serve the “hidden” foods like because you like them and want your kids to enjoy a variety of nourishing meals.
Research tells us that kids might have to be exposed to some foods several times before they develop a taste for them. Help them develop healthy eating habits now!