Easy Ways to Get Kids to Eat More Vegetables
April 3, 2015
My kids are not picky eaters for the most part. With the exception of a few vegetables like zucchini and eggplant, they pretty much eat what I put in front of them. However, that doesn’t mean that if given the choice they wouldn’t choose to eat just about anything but vegetables.
Easy Ways to Get Kids to Eat More Vegetables
Dinner generally includes at least one vegetable. Sometimes we have two. Sometimes we have one vegetable and one fruit. It really depends on my mood and what I found a great deal on at the grocery store that week. Most days, the kids eat lunch at school so I don’t have a lot of control over what they eat there.
When they do eat at home, I try to find easy ways to get kids to eat more vegetables. While I could put a big scoop of vegetables on their plate with every meal, I find that it works best when you are just a little bit sneaky about it.
Here are the tips that seem to work for me right now.
- Dips and dressings are your friends. My kids love dipping just about any vegetable in ranch style dressing. Their favorite vegetable choices for dipping include carrots, celery sticks, cucumbers and green bell peppers.
- Toss them in egg dishes. Whether you make scrambled eggs or an omelet, it is easy to hide vegetables in your favorite egg dishes. I love adding in chopped red and green peppers as well as summer squash.
- Hide them in meatloaf and meatballs. It’s really easy to hide shredded carrots inside your meatloaf or meatballs. The kids don’t notice this at all if you shred the carrots finely enough. While you’re at it, you can do the same with yellow summer squash.
- If your kids aren’t too picky, you can add chopped vegetables to your spaghetti sauce. We often add a can of diced tomatoes to spaghetti sauce and no one has ever complained.
- Top your pizzas. Add sliced green peppers, onions, tomatoes, summer squash and whatever else you have handy on to of your pizza.
- Toss a handful of baby spinach in your casseroles. Macaroni and cheese or other casseroles are our family favorites. While cooking, just before it’s done, we toss in a handful of baby spinach leaves. The heat from the casserole wilts the spinach and the sauce coats the spinach leaves.
While your kids may never choose fresh vegetables over a cookie, there are easy ways to get your kids to eat more vegetables.
