Sneaky sneaky!

[MaryElizabeth]

Lately I have been on a quest to get more veggies into my DD. She just decided one day to become picky :( I have been sneaking around pureeing veggies into things, but tonight I was extra proud of myself! She loves guacamole (weird, I know!) so I pureed steamed broccoli and spinach into it... muah hahaha. Also she likes quesadillas so I put the beef, beans, etc in the food processor and then melted cheese on top... she didn't even notice all the veggies in there either!

 The other night I made macaroni and cheese but with pureed cauliflower and sweet potatoes. It was delicious!

I'm thinking of order Jessica Seinfeld's book "Deceptively Delicious". Anybody else like it? I think it would help me with ideas of recipes and how to hide what amount of veggies where.

Any more sneaky recipes out there??? DD is great with any fruit and grain/pasta, but has become super picky about her meat and veggies. I'm hoping this won't last much longer....

[Coco17]

Have you ever tried green smoothies with your daughter? My kids and I start our mornings with it every day. It is just a smoothie packed with fruit, water and greens. Every day you choose a different green to add to your smoothie, such as spinach, kale, romaine lettuce and swiss chard. It is a nutrient powerhouse. The fruit provides you with tonnes of vitamins and fiber and the greens give you minerals. The resulting color of the smoothie is green, but I am sure if you make up a fun story about it your daughter may try it. And if you add enough fruit, you won't taste the greens at all (be especially lighter with the kale though - it has a more bitter taste). Here is a few recipes to start you off:

Spinach Smoothie:

2 cups water

2 bananas

2 mangoes

1 cup spinach

Romaine Smoothie:

2 cups water

2 bananas

2 cups strawberries or blueberries

1 cup Romaine

I hope this helps. My family is addicted to them. I cannot go a day without them and I definitely cannot live without my Vitamix. Good luck!!!

[MaryElizabeth]

This is a great idea! I need to find some big fatty straws so we can sit and drink them  in the morning! She doesn't care about the color of drinks as I give her a half water/ half Naked green machine smoothie drink at least once a day. I'm sure I could save a ton of money by just making them myself haha

[SpuglyRoo]

Adding blueberries makes them an interesting purple color for kids who flinch at the green

[krankedyann]

I sneak veggies into just about everything.  I use a variety of methods.  In baked goods, I substitute the flour for blended beans and cut down on the fluid.  I add extra eggs for added nutrition.  Anything that calls for ground beef gets a little organic, grated liver added, too, for the iron and vitamins.  I make brownies with black or cannellini beans all of the time.  Red lentils dissolve when cooked, so I add them to a variety of dishes.  Butternut squash puree with also similarly disappear.

[jenniferlynne]

Try dicing veggies very finely (I have one of those Williams-Sonoma vegetable choppers) and saute them as a base for other dishes.  I usually start every meal by sauteing finely diced onions, carrots, bell peppers or zucchini, then adding the other ingredients.  This works great for meals with ground beef (spaghetti sauce, tacos, etc.)  If they're finely diced, my kids don't even notice them, but if I leave them big, they complain.  

Green smoothies are a great idea.  I used to do that when my kids were in their extremely picky phases!

[newyorkmommy]

If you are really anti sugar this would not be the right recipe for you, but I've had stellar success with making my kids shakes using organic whole milk vanilla yogurt, and then adding whatever else I feel like! I throw in green powder, probiotic powder, a handful of spinach, a handful of nuts, frozen fruit.

Sometimes I even add honey to make it super sweet, but it's my trade off because if they get a whiff of green they won't drink it.

Good luck!

[DianeFuentes]

Nice suggestions! I'd like to try that smoothie and will look for a mobile app or something with recipes. So hard to focus on my computer with my attention divided three ways! LOL

[Dazedstella]

i grate zucchini into whole grain pancakes and then add a variety of fruit- blueberries/strawberries/banana etc. I do this a couple times a week and even DH can't tell until I point it out. It makes the pancakes more moist and fluffy.

I also bake whole wheat zucchini/pumpkin/choc chip muffins and the excitement of choc chips outweighs anything else.

The smoothies used to work for us before, not anymore though, "I NO LIKE SMOOTHIES MAMA"

I like to make spaghetti sauce with shredded carrots/zucchini/spinach etc anything that blends nicely.

I also have an easier time getting veggies into DD if they are in an omelet which has a large quantity of ketchup on it, I compromise on the ketchup.....

[heatherr30]

I think letting kids help in food prep as much as possible (for toddlers this could mean dipping veg into a sauce or making a picture out of the veg) gets them interested.

Bread dipped in veg soup also goes down well around here.

I also like Dr Fuhrman's advice--if you are not hungry enough to eat veggies then you are not really hungry!

I think this goes for children, too....  the key for me is having the veg ready to go when DD is hungry.  Carrot sticks on the table while I am cooking dinner... leftover veg in the fridge to pull out quickly when she gets home from kindergarten.. etc. 

On those days when DD eats no vegetables despite me offering them at the "right" times, I suspect she was just not really hungry enough.   She can always eat candy but eats veg better on the days when we've been really active and not sat around in the house all day or had lots of unhealthy snacks. I think another important point is to offer the veg before she says she is hungry... since when she decides herself she is hungry, she is likely bored and angling for some unhealthy sugary snack.

[jimblejamble]

http://tammysrecipes.com/creamy_spaghetti_squash_casserole This is SO good!!! It's baked spaghetti using spaghetti squash instead of noodles. A little dairy heavy so adjust if you need to. I think I added about half what the recipe calls for it and was still very creamy. My son devoured it! I served myself a pretty big portion and he ate 3/4 of it (I ate the other 1/4), then I served myself some more and he ate another half of that again!