what cunning ways do you have to get your kids to eat fruit and veg?

Question

like mashing up cooked veggies in mash potato!

Answer 1

Easy. Make raw fruit pies and refrigerate them instead of baking them.

Your crust can be made from crushed soft barhi dates, almond butter and finely crushed walnuts. In a bowl, mix the above ingredients so that it forms a ball. Then stretch it out with a rolling pin and place it in a pie tin, or better yet, round glass pie tray.

Refrigerate the pie "crust". Then take soft fruit, frozen mangos, unfrozen, blueberries, pears, peaches, bananas. Place one layer of fruit into the bottom of the pie crust. Then use your blender to mix up some lemon or lime with honey or maple syrup. Take a spoon and lightly sprinkle the sweet lemon mixture over the first layer of fruit. Then add a second layer of fruit and sprinkle the lemon mixture. Finally a third layer of fruit and a final sprinkling of the sweet lemon mixture.

Refrigerate and top off with whipped cream. You whole family will LOVE it.

With reference to vegetables, steam the vegetables until soft, but not overcooked. Make a tasty sauce to pour over the steam veggies. You can use a teriyaki sauce and butter, ginger-lime sauce with olive oil or butter. You can also bake the vegetables and serve them with macaroni and cheese. Kids will love it. Good Luck.

Answer 2

When I was a kid my mum used to make fruit in to a dessert - bananas and custard, fruit salad and cream that sort of thing.

It was easier to get us to eat it that way as we wouldn't eat it "straight up".

I guess if you had a blender you could try mixing your veggies into the mashed potato.

Trouble is kids are very sensitive to how food LOOKS as well as it tastes so if it looks like a bit of dog's breakfast they won't eat it no matter how healthy it is.

Most people find British boiled veg and mashed potato a bit bland and yucky so do something different with it. Add mixed veg to spicy rice, make a vegetable pizza with peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms, tomatoes etc for a topping, do a chinese style vegetable stir fry, mix into into pasta with a nice tasty sauce or make a vegetable curry if your kids like spicier food. I'm a vegetarian but have to say I don't like plain boiled veg (steamed broccoli is utterly disgusting!), I find it much more palatable when its got a bit of taste and interest to it.

If you want to do plain boiled veg and mash (like for a Sunday dinner) give it some added kick with a nice bit of gravy.

Answer 3

Peas and onions in the mashed potato.
Smoothies.
Fruit salad (fresh not tinned) mixed into yoghurt.
Shepheds pie is a good way of adding LOADS of hidden veggies!

5 a day sticker chart worked a treat though!!

Answer 4

Dip fruits (dried or fresh) in low fat, high antioxidant dark chocolate. It's good for them. As far as veggies, perhaps you should look for new ways to cook them. Most kids will eat veggies with no problem when the flavor is right. Not to put down your cooking, but seriously...too many people overcook veggies and take the snap and nutrients out of them.

Answer 5

My husband had to increase the amount of vegetables he ate in his diet for medical reasons and he absolutely hates them, so I got very good at disguising!

Here are my suggestions

Cook a mix of vegetables and then liquidise, they can be added to a tomato sauce type mix, which can be used in pasta dishes, shepherds pie, base of pizza's that sort of thing.

Add carrots and suede to potato and mash, they will never realise

Smoothies are fab for fruit, they will love them.

An another note, my kids like vegetable, but I think that was because I got them to cook them with me. They wanted to eat what they created.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Get them to pick one strange vegetable in the supermarket or greengrocer to try and then get them to help you prepare it. We cook with our kids and they will eat just about anything if they've helped out pre-dinner. Tray baked veg is a popular one in our house, loads of different veg and pulses seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onions and cumin with a good splash of olive oil. Looks as exciting as it tastes.
Five veg mash is a good one and casseroles and hot-pots hide a multitude of vegetables and pulses. Other than that it's dips and fruit smothered in yoghurt or home made crumble/pie.

Answer 7

Include LOADS of vegetables in a tomato/pasta sauce. My Mum used to mash carrots into potato when cooking Shephards Pie, as my brother used to be really picky when he was small.

Answer 8

Fruit smoothie drinks are basically fresh fruit squashed up into a tasty drink. Also kids usually enjoy a few specific veg (I liked carrots, peas, capsicum and sweetcorn as a child) so just serve the ones they like more often.

Answer 9

Fruit is ez u just mix it with some mayo and sugar and put in a special bowl, with veggies its more complicated.

step 1:get food colorin

step 2:make something the kids like and mix colored veggies in with that.

If all else fails use the all mighty god i call Cheez Wiz.
step 3:Serve in a special dish something festive( can't think of better word.)

Answer 10

When we were growing up, my Mom kept fresh fruits around the house to snack on. She always bought a wide variety, and never bought any junk food. Cake was for holidays.

As for vegetables, she would let us pick something new at the Farmers' Market. We would help her cook it. That made it a fun, family project.

Dad, hee hee, would make us sit at the table until we cleaned our plates.