Meals

My daughter and husband love this:
Make pasta (you could do little ones that she can pick up) and put an alfredo sauce on it. Then I mix in cubed ham and baby peas. It tastes great and gets them to eat peas. Sometimes I add italian seasoning. Or I make the same sauce and put tomatoes instead of peas.

My two year old likes pasta, but doesn't want sauce on it. So I wouldn't be able to sneak veggies into it unless it was lasagna or manacotti. (I have that cookbook another mom mentioned, The Sneaky Chef)

He also prefers raw veggies for the most part. I give him matchsticks of carrots, cucumber, zuchini, etc w/ dip. And he really eats a TON more if he puts on his apron, gets his butter knife and "helps" me make dinner. Frozen peas and frozen blue berries are a good munchie too.

Mostly I just let him eat what he eats and I try to eat the same thing, showing that he gets what I am getting. I read somewhere that you should just model good eating habits and keep offering the good stuff. They'll catch on.

As for potty training... I am in the middle of that. I am hoping to get him pretty well out of diaper before my next one arrives. All I know is that if I let him run around in "big boy pants" he has accident after accident. But if I let him run around pantsless, he catches himself and has made it to the potty a few times. I am going to try to stay close to home for a week or so letting him run around in the breeze, if you will, to see if we can get this thing started.

Good luck.

Potty training. Put some Cheerios/Fruit Loops in the toliet and say aim...

Eating vegetables... there's a cook book that Jerry Senfield's wife has out. I cannot remember the title but she wrote it for her children who do not eat vegetables.

There's vegetable pasta. Found it at Wal-mart. Maybe getting dressing to dip raw vegetables in...

Good luck.

I've found that I can diguise almost any vegetable when pureed in sauces and soups. If she likes the marinara sauces on her pasta, try blending up veggies and mix in with the sauce. She will likely begin to try new food experiences more as she ages, but for now, there are many ways to make sure she at least gets good nutrition, even if you have to sneak it in on her! :-)

Try not to worry or fret about what they eat. My 18 year old would only ever eat Pasta as a baby but I was able to coax him to eat bananas. Now he is a healthy strapping young man. As your child gets older, encourage her to prepare the food with you as a game but in the meantime, try using pureed vegetables as decoration, say making the pasta into a smiley face, with the puree used as eyes.

I also have a picky eater that loves pasta. One great thing I have found is the gerber graduates pasta pick ups. They are ravioli type pasta filled with different veggies and meats. My daughter loves them and i am pretty sure she just thinks shes eating pasta. You can find these in the toddler baby isle at the grocery store in singleserve microwave containers.Good luck..

The best advice is offer veggies and keep offering them again and again. Serve a favorite food and then a new one. Kids need to see and taste new foods many times before they find one they like. Different fruits offer different nutrients, so offer a wide variety of them to cover anything missing from the veggie side. Fun shapes and dips might help, too. Hide veggie purees in muffins or pancakes sometimes. Give her a good multivitamin (ask pediatrician about this one, first.)
Bring out the potty and have her sit and go whenever you do. She may or may not be ready yet but you'll have that extra bonding time in the ladies room together! :)

hi B.!!

You just HAVE to get "Deceptively Delicious". I found this cookbook at target, written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife. Anyways, they have you puree all your veggies and freeze them and then you sneak them into really great recipes. I have tried most of the muffin recipes and they are great. My family also loves her turkey meatball vegetable soup. You puree the carrots and tomatos and kids don't notice they're int there because of the texture. Kids still need to eat real vegetables too though, but there is some very good advice in there from a pediatrician as well.
Good luck!

I puree veggies (mixed, peas, carrots, broccoli, green beans, whatever) and then freeze it in small batches. Whenever I am making meat loaf, pasta ect I put the veggies in it and since it's pureed it can't be picked out and they eat it pretty well.

S., mom to four girls ages 5 and under

B.,

I fed/feed my daughter Kroger's Whole Wheat noodles and still do 2 years later ... they come in a brown box, are very healthy and the kids love them. Only $1 or so its easy and inexpensive to stock in your pantry - I just cook the entire box ahead of meal time (rotate with spaghetti, penne or rigatoni) and put what isn't eaten after the meal in a ziplock and use it for other meals and snacks - use about 2 boxes a week ad just make sure to give them other finger foods so that they don't get bored. For variety, try opening a can of sliced olives (the kids love to put them on their fingers), canned peas, shredded colby jack cheese, sliced apples or raw or cucumbers or carrots. A dollop of of red sauce or salad dressing the kids like can also change the taste and appearance easily and quickly.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out the new book by jessica seinfeld.... deceptively delicious.... that might help you with ideas on food.... you are amazing for all the work you are doing!

First of all, you are a SAINT! :) Have you tried grinding or finely chopping fresh vegetables and adding them to your spaghetti sauce? It worked for me over the years with little ones (I have 5 children). Zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, green beans, red/yellow peppers all work really well and they aren't even noticeable. Also, kids love to "go dipping". Keep trying different fresh vegetables (sugar snap peas, carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, broccoli, cauliflower) with different dips (Ranch dressing, sour cream and dill seasoning, cream cheese/sour cream/dry italian dressing). Sometimes by just preparing the vegetables different it seems to help such as grilling asparagus, sauteing green beans or broccoli, puree steamed cauliflower and add to cheese and macaroni. The key is to not give up. Keep trying in small doses and try to relax. Good for you for wanting to keep a healthy and balanced meal before your little ones! Bless you.

I kinda do what the previous mom says, but I only ever offer my kiddos healthy stuff, so I don't worry too much about them boycotting a food group - it's typically pretty short-lived.

One thing I've heard a friend mention is pureed cauliflower in scrambled eggs and mac-n-cheese.
Something I did for my daughter when she was around 2y old was use an ice cube tray. I put small carrot sticks, trees (broccoli), clouds (cauliflower), nuts (almonds/ walnuts), and fruits in all but 2 of the ice cube holes. In the remaining two I put "dip" - for us that was yogurt and homemade dressing (ranch, onion vinegarette). This was her snack tray in the fridge for a while. If she was hungry between meals, this is where I directed her. Also at meals, I would let her have dip as well (ketchup being added to the list of options).

Also, if he likes fruit, you could make fruit smoothies. I use my blender. This is a great place to add veggies! I usually use some stronger flavored fruits like banana, kiwi, and berries. Then I'll add cooked/steamed pureed veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, edamame, whatever else that is on hand that isn't too strong tasting. I'll also add greens (spinach, kale, red chard) in small amounts. Catherine thinks it's fun to have a spotted shake :-) I don't put enough greens in to be tasted, so for her it's all how it looks :-) I also use yogurt and a few ice cubes in my smoothies. If you'd like some specific recipes for smoothies, feel free to emall me

HTH

K. H, mama to
Catherine, 4y
Samuel, 15m

I give my son Veggie Booty. It is a puffed rice snack with kale, spinach, & carrot powder. It is not a ton of veggies, but at least he gets some of the nutrients. I buy it at HEB.

My son is that way. I took him to a nutritionist. She suggested to keep offering but not forcing. Another thing I have found to get those all important vegetable servings inside of him and not have to fight, is to give him the various V-8 fruit option drink. They offer fulls ervings of fruit and vegetables but they only taste the fruit and many of them are 100 percent juice versus only 10%. Either way it made me relax a bit to know my son was getting his vegetable serving during that trying time...He now eats carrots fairly regularly and will even eat vegetable egg rolls. I was worried about these as they are fried but the nutritionist assured me that I should just relax as long as he was getting some vegetables...

I sneak pumpkin into my pancakes. Just put a quarter of a cup of plain canned pumpkin into your regular pancake recipe. It is a great veggie supplement and the kids love the pancakes! Cooked carrots are also good, but not the kind that are canned or the baby food kind...for whatever reason they can them in a salty brine. Instead, cook them yourself and then toss them with a little butter or butter spray and a pinch of brown sugar...they are sweet and my kids love them. I also give them sweet potato casserole...cooked sweet potatoes (or canned) mashed with a little butter and brown sugar. If you melt some marshmallows on top it is like a dessert. If you whip them really well with some cream, they are like a pudding dessert. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky!

My little boy (now 7) was the same way. I gave him snacks of frozen sweet peas. He thought they were candy. He still likes them even now.

I have made the "veggie" colored pasta and added some very small veggie chunks of carrots to the sauce I use. I have also put a small bowl of frozen peas by her plate to "try" and she loved them because they are new and cold.

Good Luck!

J.

Have you maybe tried to puree the veggies and mix them in with the pasta. It doesn't have to be a great amount but at least she is getting some. I also used pureed squash and zuchinni in muffins/bread. My daughter eats them up and doesn't know she's getting her veggies. Hope this helps.

jessica seinfeld wrote a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious about adding veggies to food that kids don't know about. you may want to try it.

I have a two almost three year old and have not figured the potty training out but have managed with the vegtables. I had to teach myself to think "outside the box". Many of the magazines(Parenting) offer kid friendly recipes...how to sneak in veggies when you're kids aren't looking. One of them even suggests pureeing greenbeans and mixing it in with hamburger meat on burger night. Also we spend the extra on the juice that offers servings of veggies in the juice. My two year old doesn't know the difference. I also make a lot of stir fry with teriyaki sauce, it's sweet, has noodles, chicken, carrots, and broccoli...the sweetness makes him gobble it up and he doesn't put up a fight. I've also found that he loves caesar salad. What does your little one like? Sweet, sour, tart? Pickles have a lot of potassium and we go thru them like crazy. Lettuce of course is good too. My child seems to like the "green" vegtables. He'll eat the onions and bell peppers right off the fajita plate. I have also found that he likes "his sized things", cherry tomatos, the small red apples, baby dill pickles, we even have mini bananas in our area. I hope it helps...if all else fails, pretend not to watch and they'll sneak in a few bites when they think you're not looking.

When my oldest was teething, our nurse recommended frozen peas. They were such a relief for her swollen gums, so as soon as my youngest could handle them, I started her on them, too. Now, it's one of the few veggies I can get them to eat consistently.
Additionally, when feeding them, I would sometimes get a small bite of veggie on the spoon, hidden behind the food that they liked. Every once in a while they'd do the Houdini thing, and chew up the stuff they wanted, while simultaneously spitting out the veggie, but sometimes it worked. ;-)

I use to buy pasta that has veggies in in the pasta. the pasta was green, orange, ect.
dice veggies in the sauce.

Pureed some veggies and mix them in with the pasta (SO SNEAKY). Tomato sauce hides broccoli and spinach, cheese hides squash and sweet potato. Goat cheese hides EVERYTHING. We do whole wheat pasta with chicken, goat cheese and spinach a lot. We also like ground beef, tomato and broccoli.
YUMMY!
You might try DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS by Jessica Seinfeld. It's BRILLIANT!

Also, I love to make quiche for my 15 month old. I buy crust and throw in frozen veggies, leftover meat and grated cheese. Scramble 5 eggs and pour on top. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. It makes 6 good servings that you can foil wrap and freeze then just heat and cube for self feeders. EASY, EASY, EASY.

K.

There are two cook books out that tell you ways to mix veggies into almost anything. They blend up steamed veggies and mix them into pasta sauses, baked good, and even tacos. There are so many things that they do I was shocked when I tried some of the recipes and didn't taist any of the veggies. The books are The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious. Good luck.

you can puree vegetables (squash, sweet potatoes) and mis it with the pasta. got that idea from jessica seinfeld's cookbook, "deceptively delicious".

Hi B.:
I am also a grandmother, consisting of 5 granddaughters. Three of them did not eat vegetables because their Mom didn't enforce it in their meals. If they said they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. When they eat meals with me, it is a different story. I usually ask them if they ever tried the vegetable. Their answer was always "NO'. I tell them it is impossible to make a dislike decision if they never tried the vegetable and then I would insist that they at least try them on time. I would put just a few 'green beans',or 'corn', or 'peas' on their plate and tell them they have to eat it or no desert. It always started out with how awful it tasted and by the end of the dinner they surprisingly liked it because it wasn't so bad. Some parents don't realize how important vegetables are to the body. They rather not have the fuss and crying, so it is easier just not give them the vegetables. Who's in control of decision making? the parent or the child? It only took 3 or 4 attempts before the girls decided they liked the vegetables. Now they never question anything new on their plate before they have tasted it. Hope it works for you. Remember, you must say what you mean and mean what you say. Be consistant with they trying of new any new foods.

Have you tried diced sweet potato? Or Carrot/Pea mix from the frozen section? All of these are kinda sweet like fruit & a good transition. I would also puree' veggies and mix them with applesauce - sounds gross, but it helps cross the fruit/veggie divide :) Also, just giving the veggies first helps train them to eat them (hunger is motivating). And a little dip goes a long way! Try a little plain or vanilla yogurt for her to dip the veggies in. (Ranch is still a little strong for their young tastes... but can be "diluted" a little with plain yogurt for a dip). Something else I've done that has worked well for my kids, is to fill a muffin tin with different healthy bite-size snacks in each cup (fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, and always add something new....) and just keep it in the fridge available for them to snack out of. By the end of the day, its all gone, and they've added a good serving of healthy to their day! Good luck! You are doing a great job just by caring about what she eats :) Keep up your good work & love!

I always add veggies to the pasta. I take frozen broccoli and spinach and put it in a blender to make tiny litle specs then add it (still frozen) to the pasta. They never even notice its there. I also add peas to almost every pasta dish. My son likes it but my daughter picks them out. Sometimes I add baby carrots that are chopped in to small rounds then cooked. By the time you cook them again with the pasta, they are really soft and sort of sweet. They like those too.

Another idea for pasta: Roast red peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, and lots of tomatoes in the oven w/ olive oil in the oven at about 375. Once its all really soft, put it all in the blender and use it like tomato sauce. Very nutritious.

Try spinach quesadillas. Put frozen spinach and cheese between two wheat tortillas and brown w/ a little butter on each side.

Or...Make English muffin pizzas by putting tomato sauce on a muffin. Sneak some spinach under the cheese and bake or even microwave.

Oh Yeah...I always add spinach and cheese to scrambled eggs. They like that, too.

These are my tricks. Hope it helps!