Does your pediatrician dole out helpful tips suggesting that you feed your child fruit and veggie snacks instead of candy and junk food? The advice is sound… but it’s easier said than done. Once your kid discovers cheese doodles and Halloween candy, the carrot stick snacks are pretty much over.
If you’re worried about not getting enough fiber and vitamins into your little guy or gal, then do what I do – sneak veggies into their favorite meals. Below, some examples:
Instead of mac and cheese, make it macaroni and cheese with broccoli.
If your son or daughter is used to having it the plain way, it may take some time before they stop picking the broccoli trees out of their beloved meal. But eventually, they’ll grow accustomed to seeing greenery peeking out of that golden goodness. And you might even get them to take a bite or two!
Quietly blend carrots and green beans into your gravy.
What could be as innocuous as a thick, rich brown gravy served over meat, glorious meat? Before you stir thickener into those drippings, puree up a melange of vegetables, and add it to the mix. No one need be the wiser… not even hubby.
Make hamburger night into meatloaf night.
Remember that famous Eddie Murphy skit… “McDonald’s hamburgers don’t have no green peppers!” Well, Mom’s do, and they’re rectangular, aren’t served on a bun and look a lot like… well, meatloaf. Add tomatoes, onions, peppers and carrots to ground beef. Mix in well and top with a tasty red sauce. Before you know it, green things poking out from their “burgers” will seem perfectly normal.
Blend veggies into your Italian tomato sauce.
At this point, you may be realizing that the blender (VitaMix, Magic Bullet, whatever) is slowly becoming Mom’s best friend. Simmer sauce for the usual amount of hours. Serve over pasta as you normally would. Shhhhhh.
Make soup a regular course for lunch or dinner.
Even better, puree the soup (there’s that blender coming into play again). Kids who turn up their noses at kale and beans, push away their bowl of lentils, and won’t touch minestrone with a ten foot spoon will surely respond to a delightfully smooth and tasty “mystery soup” that has essentially already been chewed. Gerber’s got nothing on you, Mom!
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