How Do You Sneak in the Veggies??

A book i just bought for all the families i work for : the sneaky chef. I swear by it and hope i will be able to use when my son is older. good luck

You can chop up (or blend in a blender) veggies and add them to whatever you would usually make. For instance, add blended carrots/celery/etc to meatloaf and bake them in; or in spaghetti sauces, cassarole dishes, and so much more! It disguises the flavor as well as the form.
Wish you the best with giving her healthy veggies, but if you're interested in information on how to get her all the nutrients that her body needs, send me a personal email.
Blessings!

I have the same problem with my 2-year-old. <sigh> It can be so frustrating. You may want to check out Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook that teaches you how to sneak veggies into everyday food. I can't remember what it's called, but I'm sure it's not difficult to find on Amazon. Good luck!

Hi J.!

I love all the advice you received already! I think I might have to use some of it!

My son is usually a good vegetable eater, but sometimes he's a little stinker! He LOVES sweet potatoes, as most little guys do. So I end up sticking his vegetables in with those, and he has no problem eating them. He even watches me put them in, and he still eats them!

Good luck!

I don't have any specific recipes but i have a few tricks i use myself and the hot dog one is great, i do the same thing with burgers as well. also kid favs like mac and cheese i buy the kind with broccoli in it, it's not much but it's something and the pieces ar so tiny, but they can see them, it just depends on how terribly picky they are. a fun snack i like to make is ants on a log, it's celery with peanut butter and then raisins on top for the ants. and a tip for any time you make a stew or soup, this even works with a roast if you want a thicker gravy, but double the amount of veggies you put in then after they are soft take out half of the veggies and the liquid and toss it in your blender, then mix it back in, this works great in beef stew, and doubles the entire family's veggie intake, and you really can't taste them, i'm very picky and i do this all the time for myself as much as the kids. it also works well in like veggie soup only i increase the liqiud so it stays a soup and not a stew. there are also some great recipes online for meatloaf that has veggies in it, i generally look on better homes and gardens. hope these ideas help a little good luck.

my kids are 6 and 4 and they are addicted to vegetables. I started when they were young giving them vegs. I make a veggie with dinner every night. I basically just kept trying things til I saw what they liked. Salads are great, especially a salad bar where they can pick what they want, I cut up cucumbers at home for a snack, or carrots and ranch dressing. I make chicken pot pie (with gr beans, corn, pots, carrots), and veg soup as well. When they were young, I would tell them take just one bite.. if they didnt like it, wait a little while and try it again. There isnt a veg my kids wont eat now. Remember tastes change with age, so what they wont eat today, they may eat it tomorrow. I give my kids pickles, black olives.. mushrooms ( my son wont eat them raw but he eats them cooked) When my daughter was your daughters age, she liked to go to subway so she could pick out the veggies on her sub. My son recently had some testing done, the dr insisted that it was prob a vitamin defiency, I said I didnt think that was it, but he insisted on testing him anyway, saying that 4 yrs old dont get enough vitamins because they are picky. He did a complete vitamin test and he is fine. i think just being persistant is the key.. Also, I found with my kids, if they see you eating it, they will want it too.

I always had to sneak veggies in to meals i puree carrots into my spagetti sauce and no one knows because the tomatoe sauce covers it another way is to make fruit smoothies and add carrots or other veggies and the fruit hides the flavor. These are just a few tricks i have learned and they worked for my family (i also made the spagetti for my daughters kindergarten class and everyone loved it not one complaint and that was 34 kids) hope this helps.

Hm, I was a picky eater myself but have been blessed with a very non-picky eater. I add veggies in with every dinner. Actually I have them in the feezer, I set my 4 year old pick out the one he wants that night, he fills the pot with water with some help puts it on the stove and I start it. He gets to help stir every now and then. We found that with him helping with dinner, not only do we not have to hear "I want someone to play with me....I'm bored....I'm hungery....Is it time to eat yet....change the channel on the tv" but he has a love for a healthy meal. I started having him "watch" me when he was still a baby. First with small things- He got fussy over the bottle, I found he was less fussy if he was watching me make it. He learned the steps quickly and learned that when he is hungery it takes time. As he has gotten older, he gets more responsibilities with cooking. He picks out his lunch each day for preschool, and watches or helps me put it together. At dinner he sets and clears the table and then helps with dishes by helping load the dishwasher and dries others that we hand wash. We make it a game and quaility time well spent together! :)
So my suggestion is to involve them in the process of making food. Encourage them to try it, maybe help them eat it (yes, we still will poke the food to get it on my sons fork at the table if he starts with his "i'm only this hungery now") and if they really don't want it fine. We don't have if you don't eat your dinner you don't get a snack rule-but if you don't eat your dinner you get your dinner back for snack rule. No yelling at dinner, I let him get up when he is "done".
Best of Luck!

My son seems to like quite a few vegetables steamed - cauliflower, carrots, squash, brocoli, etc. I also season them a little - close to the way I like them (just not as much). They're softer than eating them raw...

Hope this helps,

T.

OMG I was just goint to tell you to get Jessica Sienfeld cookbook! I just bought it an LOVE it! So far I made her turkey chili, pb&J muffins(have carrots in them) and chocolate chip cookies (made w/garbanzo beans). My kids couldn't even taste them, infact I had to tell them to leave them alone, I'm taking the cookies for thanksgiving today to see who else I can trick! lol! All her recipes have pureed veggies in them they don't lose nutritional value either, they are all healthy recipes. It's GREAT! I got mine at Sams Club for $15, Target had it for $17.

S.

Dear J.,
You need to buy Jessica Seinfeld's new book from Amazon.com. It's all about the puree and her recipes are awesome. Hope this helps. N. H.

My children are 6 and 4, and luckily I do not have a difficult time giving them veggies. They both like them. One dish I make for them is pasta and carrots. I just boil pasta with frozen carrots and then put butter on it once it is drained. They love that. I will also make this with mixed veggies and put a cheese sauce on it. That is also a hit. Having your daughter help pick out what she is eating is a good idea. Give her a choice of 2 veggies and she will be more likely to eat what she chooses. Or have her help you make a salad...she can get the items from the fridge for you, you cut things up, and she can put it all in the bowl and help mix. Even have her help pick things out at the grocery that she would like to eat. While I haven't been there myself, a friend of mine likes to go to Jungle Jim's on Rt. 4 near Cincy to get a wide variety of veggies. That could be a way to expose her to different veggies that she may like other than the 'normal' stuff we see everyday at our local stores. Give her ownership in someway and hopefully she will eat more for you! Good luck!!!!

I saw on Oprah where Jerry Seinfelds wife...think her name is Jessica has a cookbook out where she hides veggies in different types of food. Simple things like mac n cheese all the way to cookies. She steams and purees the veggies and then sneaks them in to different types of food. She has a cookbook out now. I haven't bought it yet but am thinking about getting it very soon myself. Just thought I would pass the info on to you. Have a great day!
T.

Hi J., you need to buy a cookbook. Jessica Seinfeld has a cookbook called, "Deceptively Delicious." It is fabulous! I have made the french toast with sweet potato, the chicken nuggets and grilled cheese with butternut squash. They were delicious! My 8 year old son said my nuggets were better than McDonalds.

D.

My 3 yr old loves the Juicy Juice with fruit and vegetable juice in it. I think V-8 also has one. They are somewhat expensive, but to me it is worth it. My daughter will not eat any kid of vegetable right now. Her pediatrician says if she ate them before, she will eat them again. It is a phase.
She will eat cooked carrots with a little honey on them. She also loves to dip, so she will eat raw carrots with Ranch dip.
With my older daughter, I would put peas or finely chopped green beans in her mac and cheese, spaghetti, etc.

just keep offering them. none of my older 3 kids are veggies before two years, then they ALL started eating them almost exactly on their second birthday! Almost like magic, the veggies started disappearing into their mouths instead of in the trash! my 13 month old started earlier, about 2 months ago-I don't know why. my pediatrician once told me that if they were malnourished, we would be able to tell, so don't worry too much about that aspect.

i sneak in baby food veges into spaghetti sauce or a little bit in her ketsup (sp?)

but the best way i've found to get her her veges (and our doctor was very happy we do this) is we replaced juice with the V8 fusion at least once every other day. good luck, its hard for us as well.

Jessica Seinfeld (Yes, Jerry Seinfeld's wife)has a GREAT cookbook called Deciptivly Delicious. The premis is putting pureed veggies in the food you already cook.

Try making veggioes look like foods the child likes, your on the right path with the tofu hotdogs.

But heres what I mean. Most kids like potatoes,so try mashing and whipping cauliflour. Make a creamy drink the child likes(choc milk?)and blend in pureed carrots or such. A little goes a long way. Soups are a great way to get pureed foods(or medicines) into a child.