Comments on: Calling All Veggies!

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:22:25 +0000

My kids are really great veggie eaters, some of our favorites are green beans, snap peas, corn, asparagus, artichokes from the pressure cooker, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, black beans, hummus, edamame, bamboo shoots, really almost anything. The trick for us is that we have always had the rule that you try at least three bites of everything on your plate. And offering vegetables over and over again. I read somewhere that it it takes 4 separate times of exposure to a new taste for it to become familiar and for a child to begin to develop a taste for the new flavor. As much as my children now love asparagus, the first time they tried it, they hated it! I’ve found that involving the girls in preparation helps their willingness to try new foods. Also the foods that require effort to eat, like artichoke and edamame are more experiential than just nutrition, which makes them lots of fun to eat together!

By: melissa s.

melissa s. — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:49:34 +0000

my kids rave over this orange carrot soup (recipe at bottom of post):
http://ebabble.blogspot.com/2008/09/fall-blog-soup.html
also, it’s a little ‘out there’ and not really veggie but it is good for you: black bean brownies:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Bean-Brownies/Detail.aspx
love this post!

By: DeerDominique

DeerDominique — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:39:51 +0000

We eat a lot of “Princess Pancakes”
Potato Pancakes made with Beets, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Broccoli Stalk. Finely shredded, lightly salted to get a little excess water out (you want about 3-4 cups of shredded veggies). Mix with 2 large eggs, 1/3 cup flour and salt and pepper to your liking. Medium heat, a drizzle of olive oil, plop down, lightly press cook til browned, turn over and brown.
The princess part is because the beets make everything pink!

By: Sherral

Sherral — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:20:44 +0000

one word – SMOOTHIES! you can hide all kinds of veggies in a smoothie. This isn’t really a recipe, I just throw in a little of this and a little of that, but these are some common ingredients:
plain yogurt
bananas
apples
carrots
frozen corn
frozen berries
milk
juice
etc…
You can even add things like parsley or ginger. Not everything is a winner, but once I put a straw in it my two-year-old can’t resist trying it out!

By: Daffodil

Daffodil — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:23:15 +0000

These are all such great ideas, and they come at the most perfect time! My son is refusing to eat much outside of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches right now. *Sigh.*
Although he does eat hummus. He’s too young to eat it with carrots for dipping, but the dipping concept is all mixed up for him anyway. He eats the hummus off the pita bread and then wants “more dip” — without eating the bread. Oh well. Better that than the other way around!

By: Yvette

Yvette — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:27:26 +0000

I love this easy lentil soup, you can add any veggies to it, we like carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers.
http://yvetteyasui.memebot.com/?id=83
Also, we love, love Mollie Katzen’s Pretend Soup; Salad People; Honest Pretzels. The directions are all done in pictures for kids so it’s easy to follow. All her recipes are healthy. This link shows one of her recipes in pictures.
http://www.molliekatzen.com/kids.php

By: melissa Brouillette

melissa Brouillette — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:11:59 +0000

May I ask you a question? Why don’t you homeschool??? I am weighing everything out, and I thought you’d be a great person to ask because you are so great with activities and learning. Then to top that off your a teacher!! Please let me know your reasons. We have a preschooler and are trying to make the right decision. Thanks!!
Melissa

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:52:33 +0000

My son refuses to eat veggies almost daily. I try to hide veggies in everything I can. I’ve started adding different veggies into my zucchini bread instead of just the zucchini and carrots. This week’s loaf is made with zucchini, green beans and spinach. I just finely chop the veggies in my food chopper. I was very skeptical about the different veggies, but they’re wonderful.
I also put a lot of veggie purees into things. Tonight we had turkey meatballs and instead of using an egg I used pureed acorn squash. I put puree in my meatloaves, spaghetti sauce and I’ve even dipped chicken breasts into it before the bread crumbs.

By: jessica

jessica — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:24:38 +0000

That veggie cookbook is a great idea! I can’t wait to check back and download it. As for veggie recipes that are kid friendly, I like a batch of fresh hummos to dip carrots, broccoli, and celery in!

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:02:12 +0000

I’m so glad you brought this up! I cannot wait to hear others’ good ideas–I am always looking for more ways to help my kids eat veggies. Here are a few things my mom and I have come up with:
My mom thought of spreading a very thin layer of peanut butter on a small lettuce leaf and folding it in half so it sticks. It was a great introduction to eating lettuce for my little ones–they love it! She also makes ‘cucumber sandwiches’ with cucumber slices with peanut butter or cream cheese in the middle.
I make ‘applesauce’ or ‘carrotsauce’–I have done many variations, but here is the most common: Steam apples, carrots, and a bit of broccoli (or I have also done just carrots and added a small amount of broccoli). Puree the steamed vegetables until they are the consistency of applesauce. Add a bit of apple juice if necessary for consistency or taste. Go easy on the broccoli though or the taste is way too strong!
I also have a great dip that my kids like for apples, carrots, cucumbers and such. I found it in a magazine a few years ago: ‘yogurt dip’. Take about 1 cup of plain yogurt, add 1 tbsp peanut butter and 1 tbsp of honey. Mix really well to combine thoroughly. Low on sugar!
The other trick I’ve found for my kids (probably not all kids, but it works for mine) is a lot of variety and color. The meals where they eat the best are when there are plenty of choices: I call them ‘rainbow dinners’. Not everyday by any means, but often I try to set their plates with something like: whatever meat we’re eating, a few raisins, 3 thin carrot sticks, a little scoop of corn, one small broccoli tree w/ dip, 2 cherry tomatoes halved, a few crackers, 1 piece of cheese…lots of color, tiny portions. Their plate looks colorful and yummy, they have a choice as to what they want to eat first. And for the things they don’t like, there is only a tiny portion they need to eat–so it’s not overwhelming to them.
The other thing I’ve learned is that teaching children to eat healthfully is a process. I keep thinking long term. I just keep putting new things (veggies and other items) on their plates. Let them taste it–sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t. But I still put a tiny portion of everything we’re eating on their plate every night. We generally require ‘1 bite’ of something they don’t like. Sometimes after continual exposure, they actually begin to like the food–my son and tomatoes are an example of that. At this point my kids now like quite a few veggies and so I try to make meals I know that my kids like much of the time so that dinner is typically fun and enjoyable, not always a time of eating something they don’t like. But at the same time I’m regularly introducing more veggies and other foods to them.
Can’t wait to hear more thoughts on the topic!