Help your Kids Eat more Vegetables!
By rainbow
@rainbow (6761)
March 16, 2007 1:45pm CST
If your little one is eating carrots maybe you can get him interested in other orange foods!
Yes, green vegetables are good but don’t make the dining table a battleground.
As long as he's also eating some fruits, he's going to get enough nutrition to stay healthy. Most kids have ultra-sensitive taste buds and need to try new foods at least eight times before making them a part of their diet. They’re also partial to sweet over bitter or sour flavors.
If your kids like raw carrots try sweet red bell pepper sliced into baby carrot-sized strips.
Keep dip healthy by using nonfat yogurt mixed with low-fat mayonnaise, or some low-fat ranch dressing.
Some kids like mixed vegetables so sneak in some green beans along with carrots and peas, and if you sprinkle them with butter buds, you may have a winner.
Lightly steam green beans or stir-fry with chicken and soy sauce kids love stir-frys.
A good trick for more vegetables is soup. Even a lot of tinned soups now have chunky vegetables in, if you pull the bread to bits and mix it into the soup the vegy lumps if soft enough are hardly noticed.
Lead by example, and to start with they only have to take one bite - maybe eventually they'll enjoy more varieties.
Quick Broccoli Soup
2 1/2 cups frozen broccoli cuts: microwave until just thawed, drain.
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 cups low-fat chicken broth, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup unbleached flour
3 cups nonfat evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
How to make it:-
In a food processor puree 1 cup steamed broccoli, garlic, and 1/4 cup chicken broth.
In a large saucepan over low, heat oil; whisk in the flour, and stir until mixture thickens and slightly browns.
Slowly add remaining 1 cup chicken broth and evaporated milk, stirring often. Continue to stir until mixture thickens, about 5-7 minutes.
Add pureed broccoli mixture to chicken broth plus remaining steamed broccoli and cumin (optional). Continue to cook over low-medium heat for another 5-6 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
4 people like this
8 responses
@14missy (3183)
• Australia
19 Mar 07
We used to worry about our middle child (he's 9) as he didn't seem to eat anything of substance. Slowly though we tried diffeent tiny pieces of vegs and flavours and now almost without warning he has decided he actually likes a lot of the things we put on his plate. He still doesn't eat butter or creams but who knows, he may end up with low cholesterol (haha) and like me is not fond of anything spicy but we are finally getting there. It must just fall into place for some kids.
1 person likes this
@dreamingmyth (592)
• United States
18 Mar 07
thankfully drake LOVES veggies! his faves are cuccumbers, green bell peppers, corn, lettuce lol. hes not very fond of coliflower though but thats ok because he eats all the other ones. this brocoli soup recipe sounds really yummy since i LOVE brocoli, however i cant eat soup :(
1 person likes this
@rainbow (6761)
•
18 Mar 07
Cauliflower is a difficult one, I remember my mum used to serve white trees raw as a treat when I was little, lol.
I'm glad Drake eats his veg, when Teddy was little he used to eat the cucumber, carrots and fruit on his way round the shop, dipping them in yoghurt if he could get away with it - another good reason for having home delivery on my shopping, lol.
My boys learned to be giant tree eating monsters and eat all the green and white trees, lol.
@tigerdragon (4297)
• Philippines
17 Mar 07
i have a simplier suggestion, just have a balance diet every week where you include vegetables as part of your meal. here in the philipppines , we usually have rice vegetables mixed with some meat or fish and fruits after a meal and viola! there you have it a balance diet.
@rainbow (6761)
•
17 Mar 07
Hi, my kids are pretty good, although we have been through phases, lol. I started with soups etc when thy were tiny so they're not too bad at all. We often have rice salad and they don't mind at all, blessthem.
In England there seems to be a culture of little kids not touching veg which is partly because their friends say yuk and partly because a lot of familys live on processed and take away foods, with little balance or never see vegetables above baked beans in tomato sauce.
I thought this may be helpful to some of the mums who are having difficulty getting more vegetables eaten.
@harwoodkp (285)
• United States
17 Mar 07
That does sound pretty good. I might try that one night eventhough we have our son eating vegatables right now. I am not evensure how we did that. I think the we were just good examples for him. I like what you have there and it gives me a lot to think about if we have more children.
1 person likes this
@rainbow (6761)
•
17 Mar 07
I'm glad your son eats his veg, mine do too, it's nice to throw these ideas around because some kids do have problems eating their veg.
In England a lot of kids don't seem to eat much veg and filling up on sweets and junk cannot be helping their little bodies nad minds. The government are even trying to get mums to buy better food now as our children are becoming overweight and unhealthy, sad isn't it?
@maildumpster (3815)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Thanks for the awesome tips. I have a toddler that I am struggling to get to eat veggies. I am definitely going to try that soup recipe.
1 person likes this
@rainbow (6761)
•
18 Mar 07
Toddlers all go through stages it's part of learning about how things taste and feel in our mouths. I just kept sneaking a litte of something in somewhere until they were used to the tase, aslong as a little goes and stays in, it's not worth worrying. With a lot of kids yummy veg is never offered so when they get it later on it seems horrible, especailly if they are used to soft fried foods.
I used to hide tiny bits of veg in all sorts of things and they never even noticed, soup is a good way to get veg in with little effort call it green mars man soup or swamp soup, dirty dog pie, any silly name you can think of and in it goes, lol.
@Willowlady (10657)
• United States
16 Mar 07
Thanks for sharing this recipe however we like our vegetables and don't make soup like this. Might be good for a switch when flush with broccoli maybe. We would like little bits of broccoli in ours for sure. Thanks again for sharing this recipe on Mylot.
1 person likes this
