Sunday, December 14, 2014
Seven Fun Ways to Get Children to Eat Vegetables Without Fussing... Much
5:50 PM | 
Posted by
STAR Fine Foods |
"It’s a major battle
getting my kids to eat vegetables, and I’m at my wit’s end!” Do you recognize yourself in this sentence? We hear it constantly. Parents who struggle with chard, peas and cabbage every day are commonplace. We have no secret weapons to win this fight, but we do have some clever, commonsense tips that will help. Ready to make meals more enjoyable for the whole family while getting
your kids to take in the nutrients their growing bodies need? Here are our suggestions:
1) Let’s play! Play with color and presentation. Dress up a salad by cutting lettuce into a round shape and using tomatoes for eyes, balsamic vinegar for hair, a carrot for a nose and a yellow smile of olive oil. You may find your kids eating bite after bite without much coaxing. At the least, there will be more smiles on the table.
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| Silly Spaghetti |
2) Childish illusions. Switch “carnivorous” ingredients with
vegetables. Tonight for dinner we’re having...grilled portobello mushroom burgers!
Marinade mushroom caps with flavorful ingredients like brown spicy mustard, olive
oil, freshly ground black pepper and hot sauce—and serve them on a bun spread
with mayonnaise along with cheese, onion, lettuce, and tomato. Another option
is to create a stuffed eggplant steak by substituting pork
loins with eggplant slices and filling
them with melted cheese and ham. Once they are breaded and cooked with
extra virgin olive oil they will taste even better than the original recipe.
3) Happy couples. Mix greens with rice or pasta. Drop a few beets, some carrots or a handful of peas in one of those rice or pasta recipes they love. If this trick doesn’t work, you can add the veggies to the sauce.
4) Serve them what they love. Add some of their favorite ingredients to a salad or a vegetable soup. Some sunflower seeds or some shredded cheese, for example, will make a dish much more appealing to your kids.
5) No more salty chips. Accompany meat and fish with vegetables. Leave the potato chips for special occasions, restaurants and family reunions. Start with carrot chips and hummus or fried green tomatoes. And see what happens...
6) Paint and color. If the tips above don’t work, try frying various vegetables as if they were chips for a colorful, fun and easy trick. Carrots, beets and sweet potatoes are all good choices for fried vegetables (get inspiration from Japanese tempura). Just cut the vegetables into thin slices and fry them in a pan with hot extra virgin olive oil until they are crispy. If you prefer not to prepare them yourself, look for vegetable chips in stores. They are easy to find, although you’ll need to check to be sure that the salt content is not too high.
7) Let’s eat together! Our final words of advice: Eat with your kids, and eat the same foods they do. If you devour a plate of vegetables, so will they...eventuallyJ.
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