If you struggle to convince your kids to eat their fruits and veggies and you’re tired of the struggle to get them to just eat something green, instead of trying to convince them by sheer force of will, you might have some success by being a little…well sneaky.
Using stealth to feed your kids healthier foods might not be a long-term solution, but it will ensure that they get the goodness they need until they get a little older and start to feel more comfortable trying new foods.
Sound good? Here are some simple, but stealthy ways to get the goodness in:
Replace Meat with Lentils
If your kids aren’t eating enough healthy beans and legumes, and you want to get more plant-based nutrition into their diets, a very stealthy way of doing so (which will also save you money) is by reducing the amount of minced meat in dishes like spaghetti bolognese with lentils. They blend in very easily, don’t really alter the taste and add some extra nutritional value to pretty much any dish.
Replace Sugary Drinks with Fruit Water
Instead of letting your kids have sugary soda or Kool-Aid, try giving them blackberry water or lemon infused water, and they won’t even realize how much more goodness they’re taking in because it will taste almost as sweet and delicious as the average soda. This is especially true if you use sparkling water as opposed to still.
Liquidize Them
If your kids are really picky and they can spot the tiniest bit of onion at 50 paces, simply cook your veggies and then pop them into the liquidizer before adding them back into your soups and stews. They’ll be virtually undetectable that way.
Make a Pizza Base
If your kids love pizza, but they hate eating their veggies, trick them into thinking they’re eating their favorite, veggie free food by making a cauliflower pizza base, They’re extremely easy to make, look almost the same and once they’re topped with cheese, tomato and pepperoni, it’s unlikely that your kids will spot the very healthy swap.
Make Vegetable Fries
Kids love fries, right? It’s a shame then that regular potato fries don’t have much nutrition to offer, Sweet potato fries, carrot fries and zucchini fries, however, are a different matter, and they’re just as delicious and easy to make. If your kids are really picky, then choosing veggies that are close in color to fries is probably your best bet for getting them to eat them but if they’re a bit more willing, those orange veggies really do cook up well.
Bake Beets Into Your Cakes
It might sound a little weird, but beets are a great addition to chocolate cake. You can find many beet cake recipes online, and they’re a really good way of sneaking in goodness because they are amazingly undetectable to the palette when disguised by chocolate. Other veggies that work well in cakes include carrots and zucchinis.
Give these ideas a try, and you’ll be cramming more veggies into your kids than you ever imagined you could.