Five tips for getting your kids to eat vegetables

March 21st, 2012

Ovens & Cooking Recipes

Vegemite sandwiches, Weet Bix and chocolate Yogo – this is pretty much all I ate for the first six years of my life. Consequently I’m now a hunchback leper with chronic scurvy and very few dinner party invites.

Parents of Australia: don’t let this happen to your kids!

Vegetables contain vital nutrients needed to keep your kids healthy and happy. Problem is, they’re generally not regarded as the “best bit” of the meal.

So here are five tips to make them go down a bit easier with fussy eaters:

1. Involve your kids in the cooking process

A great way to get your kids interested in vegetables is to give them some control over the cooking process.

To get them started, take your kids to the supermarket and let them choose whatever they want from the fruit and vegetable section.

Then, (with supervision of course), get them to wash the veggies themselves, and if they’re old enough, help them chop and stir.

This will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment, which hopefully should encourage them to eat their creation once it’s cooked.

2. Novelty value

Making vegetables fun is a smart way to stop your kids feeling fearful or suspicious.

One way to do this is to get a couple of kitchen gadgets – such as the Tefal Fresh Express which uses colourful attachments to safely grate and slice all manner vegetables from carrots to zucchinis and more.

See the Fresh Express in action:

Once the veggies have been chopped or grated into interesting shapes, your kids could create their own artworks on a pizza base. Or perhaps you could make a big pot of vegetable soup with alphabet noodles!

3. Juice it

One sneaky way to get vitamins into your kids is to make juice.

Modern juicers are more sophisticated than ever before, making it possible to extract all the goodness from fruit and veggies with minimum effort.

Once you’ve created the juice, make it fun for your kids by serving it in colourful cups with curly straws.

4. Have a veggie night

Another great idea is to have a night in the week where you serve a vegetarian meal.

This way, there’s no competition from other foods, so your children won’t be able to just eat the meat and then push the rest aside.

Veggie burgers, vegetarian pizza, bean tacos – the possibilities are endless. Check out Meatless Monday for other recipe ideas.

5. Hide vegetables in other food

And finally, if all else fails, you can always try the old trick of disguising vegetables as other, less threatening foods.

Jerry Seinfeld’s wife Jessica literally wrote the book on this in 2008 when she published Deceptively Delicious – Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.

She suggests pureeing vegetables that are the same colour as the food they enjoy eating and then adding it to the sauce so they won’t suspect they’ve been duped. Everyone wins!

Deceptively Delicious Macaroni and Cheese

Prep time: 5 minutes. Total time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

 

Ingredients

1 1⁄2 cups elbow macaroni
Non-stick cooking spray
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup skim milk
1⁄2 cup butternut pumpkin or cauliflower puree
1 1⁄2 cups shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1 ⁄4 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄8 tsp paprika
1⁄8 tsp pepper

 

Method

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the macaroni, and cook according to package directions until al dente. Drain in a colander.

2. While the macaroni is cooking, coat a large saucepan with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the oil, then the flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles a thick paste but has not browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

3. Add the milk and cook, stirring every now and then, until the mixture begins to thicken, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vegetable puree, cheddar, cream cheese, and seasonings, and stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir in the macaroni and serve warm.

How do you get your kids to eat veggies?