Getting your kids to eat their veggies can be worse than waiting in the grocery line for over an hour – you need a lot of patience. Some parents get lucky and end up with a veggie-lovin’ kid. For the rest of us there is simply just hope!
Unfortunately kids need their veggies (as much as we do!) to help them grow and stay healthy, so they’ve got to eat them. Knowing this, we’ve compiled a list of tips that might help you help them eat those nutritious dishes. Here are our ideas…
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Raw Veggies
Everyone loves finger food, so why not take it to the next level and make those vegetables grab worthy. If you feel like being creative why not cut them into fun shapes, and add them as a side to chicken nuggets or cheese. Also try including dip and use food colouring to make it look more exciting. Everyone loves to dip food!
Gardening
Kids love being included in anything you’re doing. This might be a good experiment for you to try – get the kids to garden! If they see where their veggies are coming from or even better get to eat their own veggies from the garden, they might be more excited and willing to jump on the bandwagon of healthy food. Give them their own garden, include them in yours or even take them to visit the community garden.
Grilled Veggies
Grilled veggies are altogether more fun and yummy. Who doesn’t love how soft and tasty they are (well some kids don’t). Have you tired giving you kid’s grilled veggies yet? If not, this could be a good solution! Take their favourite vegetable, add some spices and oil, and put it on the grill and vola! They might just be the happiest kid on the planet. They might even ask for seconds!
Add Cheese Please
Everyone loves cheese, and cheese is the best way to make a kid smile. Not to mention it’s full of calcium and other vitamins to help your little one grow nice and big! Take some cheese, melt it and pour it over those veggies. You can also add cheese to any raw veggie dishes and get the kids to eat one bite of cheese, one bite of veggies. This is a great trick!
Puree the Veggies
Nothing is easier than offering a hungry kid some mashed potatoes. Well, why don’t you do the same for the carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes or broccoli? Even add two or three types of vegetables to the mix and serve it as a “surprise dish” or “superman dish”. Get the kids to help too; they’ll love being part of the process.
Other tricks that have worked include: adding food colouring to processed/pureed veggies, playing the veggie guessing game and the old, offering a reward for finishing your plate.
These are just some of our tricks. Tell us what you do and help mothers everywhere get their kids to love veggies!
