There are great recipes out there with vegetables hidden in food. You’ve probably seen them, spinach packed muffins, zucchini bread, carrot cake (okay this takes it down a whole different path), but usually that is the trick, you have to hide the vegetable among other things that kids love like chocolate chips or maple syrup. This isn’t always bad and I’m certainly not above a little trickery to get my kids to try something healthy, yet whenever I make one of these I feel like I’m missing out on an opportunity for my kids to realize that they ate a vegetable and they liked it. I want my kids to know what they like to eat and I want them to know that real vegetables can taste good. My kids have eaten whole carrots for breakfast. They aren’t vegetable freaks. They would obviously prefer waffles and syrup, but we don’t have those every day. They’ve learned to like vegetables, not all of them, but they try all, appreciate most, and even love some. Read on for ways that we’ve incorporated vegetables into our meals:
1. Serve the whole carrot
Have you eaten a vegetable straight from the garden? Even if the carrot has a little soil left on it, it tastes like the Earth’s best candy – because it is. Freshly grown vegetables taste so good! We all don’t have a vegetable garden growing in our backyards and even if we do we don’t get all of our produce from it. Instead of day dreaming my life away about the perfect backyard garden, I try and buy produce without it having been processed and as close to the source as possible. Baby carrots are super convenient, but put plain and simply they don’t taste nearly as good as the whole carrots they are made from. Try a whole carrot from your local grocery store or from the farmers market. It is more economical than buying baby carrots and if you do a little prep to peel them, I think you’ll find that they get eaten up faster.
2. Serve salad with dinner
When I lived with a chef’s family in France in my 20s we ate a simple green salad at the end of every meal. I still can’t find the exact variety of oils used for the salad dressing, but I won’t stop trying or stop serving a salad at family dinner time whenever possible. Even if one piece of lettuce gets eaten, they tried something new and we all know that greens are packed with nutrients. Sometimes I add a few favorites to the salad to make it a hit (think fruit, nuts, olives, cheese, whatever may inspire your family to take a bite). We rarely have a meal without vegetables as at least a side dish, but if we do I make sure to serve a salad.
3. Remember that potatoes are a nutrient packed vegetable
Potatoes are full of protein, fiber, potassium and vitamin C. The complex carbohydrates will keep you and your family full longer. All these wonderful nutrients make delicious potatoes a great thing to incorporate in your breakfast, lunch or dinner plans. The best thing is, most people love them, but read on for advice if your kids don’t.
4. Try, try and try again (as smart as you can)
If you’ve read this far and think that my kids are some sort of veggie cyborgs who only eat green things, well you’re right. No, I’m kidding – they aren’t and they don’t. I will confess that as of now, my 2 year old really does like most vegetables. But my oldest, she didn’t eat a non fried potato for four years. We just rounded the corner in getting her to eat those delicious roasted small potatoes (seriously, who doesn’t like these?). It took multiple tries, but I don’t quit making the vegetables, I try new ways of making them (stay tuned for more recipes) and I make sure my kids see me eat them. It may seem over the top, but this is my practice and my true belief. Eating whole, real, mostly plant based foods can change your life. Why wouldn’t I want this for my kids? I’m not promoting wasting food here. That is why I recommend being as smart as possible when you introduce different veggies to your kids. I won’t cook anything that I won’t eat when no one else does. So if I make something new and no one wants more than a bite, it’s to the fridge for my leftover lunch tomorrow. We all have preferences of what we like and don’t like to eat, and that’s great. I know that we can introduce our kids to enough different types of vegetables, they are sure to find some favorites. And sometimes when it is not their favorites that are being served, I am totally okay breaking out a whole carrot for them to eat at dinner.
5. Have them help you
My kids are always curious about what I’m doing at the kitchen counter and I get them involved as much as possible. We have one of those standing stools, but only one so someone always takes a regular stool too or pulls over a chair and the whole gang is happy. Obviously chopping is not the place for much help, but with washed hands most everything else is fair game. Mix a simple salad dressing, spread vegetables on a roasting pan and add spices, or our personal favorite blend a smoothie! Okay, maybe this sort of goes against my previous comment about hiding vegetables but I argue that these are not hidden, they are blended and my kids want to know everything that goes into the smoothie because they want to be the ones to put it in. My favorite recipe is frozen berries, apple, banana, almond milk, fresh spinach, and chia seeds. You can also add other frozen fruits, cucumbers, carrots, nut butters and more seeds. This is a great place to experiment with trying different types of produce, and showing kids that vegetables taste good and can be fun to eat. Hello, straws and messy faces!
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