BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Cooking For Kids masking veggies

Hi there! I was wondering if you might be able to offer some ideas on masking veggies in different recipes. One I've recently learned about is spinach in meatballs. Our boys LOVE meatballs, but we have a hard time getting them to try other new & exciting veggies!

** Another item of interest is smoothies! We LOVE making smoothies in our house. Do you have any interesting combinations you could share with us?
THANKS! A LOYAL READER! ; )

I used to put veggies in the blender, like peppers, mushrooms, etc and then put them in spagetti sauce. You can do this with lots of recipes. They don't see them then. My daughter never liked anything "green" but she didn't notice the taste of I blended the veggies up and added them to recipes.

I have a recipe for smoothies on my website based on green tea which is healthy. You could try that for your family.

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Hi - My name is Lisa and I am new to the boards here. I am a Food Professional with the Kraft Kitchens and love to talk to other Moms about food and recipes.

My Mom always put catsup on our veggies to get us to eat them - and now catsup is considered a veggie itself - so maybe that is a good idea. But one of my big strategies for getting my daughter Julie to eat her veggies was either adding cheese sauce OR sprinkling with cheese.

Do your kids like when there is cheese on the veggies? And what type of cheese?

Lisa

I was a volunteer in my daughter's grade school cafeteria for a while and they put out the ranch dip for the kids to eat cut veggies with. It seemed to work, altho I'd suggest a low-fat-low sugar variety!

My daughter and kids I've taken care of loved cheese melted on anything-even veggies.

Now you've all given me something to think about. :)My first response was either smoothies or spaghetti sauce. How about salsa?

I think the key to adding veggies that your kids wouldn't otherwise eat to anything is to make sure they are chopped fine enough that they can't be pulled out and identified!

I got to try a new product at work recently - Grate-It-Fresh Parmesan cheese - it is a nice chunk of Parmesan in a canister with a built in grater.

The kids love it since they can use it themselves (no worries about handling the sharp grater) and so they are more apt to eat their veggies or salad or pasta - if they will eat it, I will let them top it!

I think the taste is great, and I know this sounds really lazy, but I like that I just put it back in the frig and don't have to clean my grater which I always find is a pain to clean. It is a clever invention - it would be good for other cheeses too I think.

Lisa

My nephew loves melted or dipped cheddar on pretty much everything.

If you lightly fry them, it loses a lot of value, but gain a lot of appeal and then slowly introduce them not fried mixed in.

Wait a tic...ketchup is considered a veggie? You are kidding, right??

Have you seen how much sugar and what type of sugar is in commercial ketchup? I think calling ketchup a veggie is just one step below calling canned fruit in heavy syrup a healthy choice.

Using it as a tool to get kids to eat REAL veggies is one thing, but calling it a veggie just because it contains tomatoes??

I'm so glad I'm not a parent. Masking veggies? What a pain. Sorry moms - don't mean to be critical, just seems funny. I'm sure it's easier said than done, but if I were a parent I'd serve veggies and if they didn't like it that would be too bad, no other choices. Does that ever happen?

Also, I agree on the ketchup thing - too much sugar & [censored] to be considered a vegetable.

Sorry for intruding on this forum, but the title caught my eye and I was curious. Is it really that hard to tell kids dinner is served, period? I know I would lose my patience real fast with arguments about what was for dinner.

I haven't seen any discussion of ketchup being considered a vegetable on this forum. Perhaps you're thinking of somewhere else.

As far as nosy's response goes, let me just say that before I became a parent I may have said the same thing. Parenting changes your perspective on lots of things.

You can't force a child to eat, no matter how hard you try or want to.

This may also be a little off topic, but my opinion about raising children is that it should be done from a point of respect. Mutual respect. How would you feel - - as an adult - - if you went to a restaurant and ordered a certain food item but the waiter brought you something you hate and said, "I don't care what you want. You'll take this and be grateful."