I don't know if your house is like mine... but for some reason my babes will not eat their veggies! I am always baffled by how they lived on pureed baby food vegetables and seemed to absolutely love them and eat them up! Probably because back when they were tiny, tiny, babes they did not have the option of hot dogs, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese or fruit snacks!
Lately vegetables have been a huge struggle at our house. Greta won't touch them and Tuck... well he will put them in his mouth only to spit them out! I have tried canned, I have tried fresh, I have even tried raw carrots with ranch as a dipping sauce (thanks to my cousin Alysha) only to have no success.
I have been bothered by my kids not getting a lick of veggies in their diet but I didn't really know what to do... so honestly I kind of brushed it off. I mean they eat a ton of fruit and we really do a pretty decent job at limiting the sugars and pop and giving them plenty of healthy choices. But I got a motivation to change things when my husband, of all people, kind of got me on the defense! - I know, it sounds silly. But he came to me with the concern of our babes not eating any vegetables and I can honestly say my feathers got a little ruffled... almost as if my faith in myself as a Mother was put to the test!
As Mom's we all want to make sure our kids are healthy and eating right and when they are not it almost feels as though we have failed! Some how my husbands genuine concern made me feel like it fell on me to get them to eat more vegetables and make a change. Well since change is what we needed... change is what I did!
Right before we left for Missouri I pulled out a handy dandy book my mother in law gave to me long before I had kids. I threw it in my purse and started reading it on my down times during our trip. The book is called Deceptively Delicious.
Some of you may have heard about it. It was written by Jerry Seinfelds wife, Jessica Seinfeld.
I am telling you... this book is genius! Pretty much Jessica Seinfeld tells about the exact same problem I have been having at our house.... kids not eating their vegetables! So, she started pureeing vegetables (pretty much making them into baby food) and then slipping the veggie purees into tons and tons of kid friendly dishes! After steaming the vegetables, she purees them, then measures them out into zip loc baggies and freezes them. Then when she wants to whip up a recipe that calls for a puree she just reaches into the freezer and viola! Vegetables can finally be eaten at dinner!
In the book she has a ton of recipes... all with "hidden" vegetables your kids won't even be able to see or taste! There are recipes for Brownies with Spinach or Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower, Mac and Cheese with Carrots, French toast with Sweet Potatoes, Spaghetti Sauce with Carrots and Broccoli, even Pink Pancakes with Beets!
It is such a great concept that I knew this was my ticket to get the babes eating more veggies. So... I jumped on the band wagon as soon as we got home and started pureeing. And boy did I puree!!!
All in all I came out with 10 cups of carrot puree, 4 cups of broccoli puree, and 2 cups of spinach puree. After bagging them up and labeling them I threw them in the freezer and now I am ready to go! As I find more little windows of time I will be doing more purees here and there. They are pretty easy and don't take long if you just do 1 or 2 at a time. For the amount of 3 veggies I did the other night it only took about an hour.
We already tried a couple of the recipes and they are delicious! I made my own broccoli cheese soup last night and threw in 1 cup of carrots and no one knew the difference!
I am super excited about this idea and plan on keeping up with it for a long while. Who knew "hiding" vegetables in your babes dinner could be so fun and rewarding!
How about you Mom's... do your babes eat their vegetables or do you have to trick them into eating them? If so, how do you do it? Do you have any tricks up your sleeve you'd like to share with us?
Chat later,
Jen
In the book she has a ton of recipes... all with "hidden" vegetables your kids won't even be able to see or taste! There are recipes for Brownies with Spinach or Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower, Mac and Cheese with Carrots, French toast with Sweet Potatoes, Spaghetti Sauce with Carrots and Broccoli, even Pink Pancakes with Beets!
All in all I came out with 10 cups of carrot puree, 4 cups of broccoli puree, and 2 cups of spinach puree. After bagging them up and labeling them I threw them in the freezer and now I am ready to go! As I find more little windows of time I will be doing more purees here and there. They are pretty easy and don't take long if you just do 1 or 2 at a time. For the amount of 3 veggies I did the other night it only took about an hour.
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