What’s a parent to do when their kids absolutely refuse to eat all their ‘veggies’, or even worse, eat none of their ‘veggies’. One approach that never works is to firmly re-state your position, that all vegetables must be eaten. Or, an approach which may develop into power and control (or eating disorders) later in life is to have the child finish all their food before they are allowed to leave the table. A boring lecture on all the antioxidants and the new pyramid food guide, probably won’t get very far with the recalcitrant child either. So, what to do, what to do!
1. Use your blender and mix blended vegetables into soup, or into hamburgers or meatloaf. Kids will never notice.
2. Blend together a favorite drink (orange juice?) with a vegetable (e.g. carrots). Makes for a delicious drink that one would have to pay a lot for if bought in a store.
3. Continue to serve vegetables and salads. Do not pressure; eventually, your child will include as a part of their diet (be patient, they may be over 21 years old, when this occurs).
4. Use creative sauces over vegetables and salads which your child likes; such as various cheese sauces (make sure the vegetables are small enough, that they won’t be able to simply lick off the cheese, and leave the vegetable).
5. Puree vegetables and add them to your child’s favorite pasta dish, mixed in with the usual sauce. Using baby food for this task simplifies the work.
6. Make applesauce in a blender, and then prior to finalizing, put some spinach leaves with it. You will have to try this one to believe it, as kids do not taste the spinach at all, and allegedly go crazy over the cool green color.
Many other unique ways of integrating vegetables into the normal foods kids eat every day are available to the creative Mom. V-8 doesn’t have anything on the parent who is willing to think outside the box. After a while, it will not be unusual, it will be the norm to eat vegetables at every meal.
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