Getting Kids To Eat Veggies: Part 5
From You've Got Mail:
Those are the lines I chant to myself when I serve veggies to my kids. They hate me at the beginning, but I'll get 'em in the end.
Eating well is an uphill battle, for sure. As a mom of three kids, each mealtime can be a frustrating and discouraging experience. Trust me, I am right there with you, doing what I can to train my troops to choose wisely when they eat.
But in the midst of the training, my kids still need the nutrients from a good diet. Aside from the daily multivitamin (which we use), another trick to get the veggies down the hatch is this:
I first learned this lesson with soup. My son would eat the potatoes, but none of the other offensive veggies. Well! One day I had an epiphany, and thought to puree everything but the potatoes, and then mix everything back together. Voila! He ate the soup right up. Today, since he is used to the flavor of onion, he will eat the soup "as is."
Other things I try? I sneak pureed peppers into spaghetti sauce, or spinach into smoothies. If this idea sounds like a lifesaver to you, make sure to check out Deceptively Delicious. It's filled with all sorts of foods to puree and camouflage among other things on the plate.
This trick is best used as a "bonus" way of getting kids to eat veggies versus the "standard operating procedure." It helps in the short-term, but the long-term goal is for your kids to eat vegetables as recognizable vegetables. Otherwise, the next thing we know, we'll have a whole generation of adults mysteriously craving baby food.
What about you? What are some ways you play "hide and sneak" with your vegetables?
For other Works For Me Wednesday ideas, head over to Rocks In My Dryer.
Meanwhile, check out my first four tips in the "Getting Kids To Eat Veggies" series:
Stay tuned for more veggie eatin' hints next week. Five tips down; five more to go!
Joe Fox: Do you know what? We are gonna seduce them. We're gonna seduce them with our square footage, and our discounts, and our deep armchairs, and...
Joe Fox, Kevin: Our cappuccino.
Joe Fox: That's right. They're gonna hate us at the beginning, but...
Joe Fox, Kevin: - but we'll get 'em in the end.
Those are the lines I chant to myself when I serve veggies to my kids. They hate me at the beginning, but I'll get 'em in the end.
Eating well is an uphill battle, for sure. As a mom of three kids, each mealtime can be a frustrating and discouraging experience. Trust me, I am right there with you, doing what I can to train my troops to choose wisely when they eat.
But in the midst of the training, my kids still need the nutrients from a good diet. Aside from the daily multivitamin (which we use), another trick to get the veggies down the hatch is this:
Blend 'em into other foods.
I first learned this lesson with soup. My son would eat the potatoes, but none of the other offensive veggies. Well! One day I had an epiphany, and thought to puree everything but the potatoes, and then mix everything back together. Voila! He ate the soup right up. Today, since he is used to the flavor of onion, he will eat the soup "as is."
Other things I try? I sneak pureed peppers into spaghetti sauce, or spinach into smoothies. If this idea sounds like a lifesaver to you, make sure to check out Deceptively Delicious. It's filled with all sorts of foods to puree and camouflage among other things on the plate.
This trick is best used as a "bonus" way of getting kids to eat veggies versus the "standard operating procedure." It helps in the short-term, but the long-term goal is for your kids to eat vegetables as recognizable vegetables. Otherwise, the next thing we know, we'll have a whole generation of adults mysteriously craving baby food.
What about you? What are some ways you play "hide and sneak" with your vegetables?
For other Works For Me Wednesday ideas, head over to Rocks In My Dryer.
Meanwhile, check out my first four tips in the "Getting Kids To Eat Veggies" series:
Bribe 'em with candy.
Make 'em clean their plates.
Take away the snacks.
Drown 'em in dips and sauces.
Stay tuned for more veggie eatin' hints next week. Five tips down; five more to go!
9 comments:
But haven't you heard?!! This is LYING to our kids! You are teaching children to DISTRUST adults by not telling them EVERYTHING that's in their food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our dinner table is a 'take it or leave it' kind of place. IF they're hungry they'll eat it, because breakfast is a long time away. We fix one dinner to eat together as a family. Unless my kids are helping me cook, they don't get a list of ingredients. We also follow the rule 'take what you want, but you eat what you take.' My kids trust that I do the very best for them, even when they don't know the specifics.
Thanks for sharing what works for you! Maybe I'll try it sometime on my often anti-vegi son and husband! C'mon by Wani's World to check out free films!
tina marie: it is beyond obvious that we are related. that level of snarkiness is in the genes! LOL
It's funny that you should mention craving baby food as adults since we've put our daughter back on some baby food veggies since that is the only way she'll eat certain ones. The other ones (broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes and grean beans) she'll eat just fine. I guess I'll just have to keep trying the "real" veggies!!
I like this idea. I just wonder how you puree the veggies with the kids standing there, staring wide-eyed at you. "What are you gonna do with those, mom?"
marigold: Ha ha ha. You know, one of the things I don't like about this trick is that it is sneaky. I am a terribly up-front kind of person.
I just have to do my sneaking and blending when the kids aren't around. TV is a great distraction, LOL.
The author of Deceptively Delicious recommends pureeing a bunch of veggies and freezing them in small amounts. I am not that prepared. So I just sneak as the moment allows.
I have a friend whose son would not eat anything but pancakes as a child. So... you guessed... EVERYTHING was blended into the pancakes. I've never gone to breakfast at her house.
My daughter HATES her vegetables! I found this stuff online called "Hide-A-Veg" and it is so awesome. It's like the purees I guess, but it's powedered vegetables instead! So I add it to pancakes (obviously) and spaghetti sauce. Tonight we were making cheese burgers and instead of sprinkling salt and pepper on them while they were cooking, I sprinkled this Hide-a-veg. It says it's all real vegetables, and we can't taste them at all.
I've told my daughter, slowly what I was doing and once she got over her disgusted freakout she is starting to come around to the idea that "vegetables does NOT automatically equal GROSS!"
It's a step.
oh, the stuff is at www.lynnzetta.com
maybe it'll work for you guys.
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