Do you having difficulties encouraging your kids to eat vegetables? Now it is very much impossible to convince kids to eat anything other than corn when it comes to eat vegetables. Here are some entertaining and sometimes clever methods to deliver some veggies to kids .
1) Make huge pot of vegetable soup, and then add some creative noodle forms. You may use letter noodles or hunt for some interesting novelty forms. You may be able to locate some cartoon characters, toy and sports forms etc. I have even seen pumpkin and Christmas tree forms. With a little luck your kids will be too busy spelling words, or recognizing the shape to notice all the veggies they are consuming in the soup.
2) If you can’t make them eat vegetables, make them drink it. Pour some vegetable juice over ice and add a straw, a cocktail umbrella or a stalk of celery and watch them drink it up. Your kids may not receive as much fiber as eating the full vegetable, but encouraging them to drink their veggies is better than not receiving any vegetables in their system.
3) Have you tried providing them some fresh veggies with some ranch dressing to dip them in? Many kids who don’t like much for cooked veggies will gobble them up if they can dip them. Just get a package of baby carrots and chop up some red and yellow peppers and some cucumber. Arrange them on a dish with a little touch of ranch dressing or your favorite veggie dip on the side.
4) Take it even a step further and let kids make artwork out of their veggies. Offer raw veggies in various colors and shapes and encourage them to build a vegetable collage on their dish. You can simply build a face using slices of cucumber as eyes, a baby carrot as nose and a slice of red pepper as a mouth. You may use watercress or shredded carrots or even some cheese as hair. Before you know it, you’ll discover them trying their “art supplies”.
5) To urge children to eat vegetables at dinnertime create a mini salad bar. Put out some lettuce, some sliced or chopped tomato, slices of cucumber, shredded carrot, slices of red and yellow peppers, little broccoli flowerets and whatever else you can think of. You may also want to provide them some alternatives when it comes to salad dressing. Favorites at our home include Ranch, Italian, Catalina, and French. To top it all of throw out some croutons and grated cheese.
6) Get the kids together and create a cold veggie pizza. Start off with a can of crescent rolls. Unroll the dough, but don’t rip the triangular pieces apart. Instead press the seams together and bake on a baking pan according to the package recommendations. Let the sheet of dough cool fully, then spread with some crème cheese (we prefer a vegetable or herb flavored one) and top with some thinly sliced fresh veggies. Cut into squares and serve.
7) Get them engaged in the kitchen particularly when it comes to cooking. Ask them to wash the vegetables, if they are old enough let them chop veggies (under your supervision of course), let them help you stir, or anything else you can think of that would be age appropriate. You’ll be astonished at how pleased they will be of their completed work. Believe me, they’ll try just about anything if they made it.
8) If all else fails, conceal the veggies in other food. My mom used to cook us some unique orange mashed potatoes. We thought that was pretty elegant, but all she did was to boil some carrots with the potatoes and mashed them right in there. You may also top broccoli with tomato sauce or cheese. Think of a meal your kid really adores and sneak a tiny piece of veggie in there.
Give a couple of these ideas a try and see which ones work best for your children. Keep at it and sooner or later kids will start to acquire a taste for veggies.
Read also: The Art of Balanced Eating: Creating a Healthy Plate for Your Kids
