How to sneak veggies into your children's food

How To Sneak Veggies Into Your Children's Food

We hear you mama, when you say that you are struggling to make your children eat their vegetables. We know how difficult it can be to persuade them for a minimum intake of vitamins and nutrients necessary for a healthy immune system. For all you out there trying and failing to make your kids eat their greens, we have just the right tricks to make it happen without fighting or spending hours preparing.

Here are 3 easy ways to sneak veggies into your kids’ daily diet.

1. Cook Them With Favourite Foods

Children love pasta and pizza so what better way to make them eat vegetables than to put them into their favorite meals. Add colorful peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes in pizzas and zucchini, broccoli or eggplant cut into little pieces in their pasta dishes. Another easy way is to blend them all in the sauce of the pizza or pasta you are cooking and they will never know they ate it plus vegetables make sauces more tasteful anyway.

Here is a recipe for a great pasta sauce (you can also use it as a base for your pizza).

Ingredients

2 tomatoes
A carrot
A pepper
A zucchini
An onion
Some basil leaves and
5 spoons of olive oil

Preparation

Blend all ingredients into a paste and then put it in a pan on fire.
Add salt, pepper, some paprika powder (optionaly) and a cup of water.
You can let it slow-cook for about half an hour.
Then serve it with pasta and cheese, put it on pizzas or store it in the fridge.

2. Sneak Them Into Pies

Pies are a great way to make your kids eat their greens, especially the difficult ones like spinach or celery. Pies are also a full meal nutritionally speaking, because they contain everything from carbs to proteins and vitamins that children need in their daily diet for strong bones and a resilient immune system.

However, baking pies from scratch every day is a challenge for busy moms who prefer to spend quality time with their kids instead of cleaning up. Fortunately for kids and parents, you can have the pie and eat it, without labouring in the kitchen.

The slow-cooked pies made with selectively chosen ingredients in Switzerland by Le Pie, are a nutritiously balanced meal that can be prepared within 15-20 minutes in the oven. The pies are pre-baked and packaged in a vacuum, and once they arrive at your doorstep you can pop them in the fridge or freezer to enjoy them any time. All pies from Le Pie are handmade with fresh local ingredients that cater to the meat lovers as well as the vegetarians in the family. The spinach, mushroom and feta one is to die for, although there is one for every taste.

They are a great plan A and an even more impressive plan B, when dinner doesn't go as planned between pick-ups and and busy afternoons with kids activities.

When ordering the pies, Le Pie delivers everywhere in Switzerland, check out the extensive side-salad recipe list on the website and discover a variety of salads to impress picky eaters and picky guests alike. We tried the orange, carrot and avocado salad, and kids said it gave a tangy twist to the warm dish. Check them out and you will find them easy to prepare, time-saving and delicious.

If you want to give it a go at pie making yourself here is a recipe for a spinach, celery and bacon pie.

Ingredients

A package of refrigerated pie crust
250 gr Spinach
250 gr Celery
250 gr Cheese or heavy cream
1 onion
1 egg
Some bacon
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut the onion and bacon into small pieces and put them in a pan for about 3 minutes.
Add the spinach and celery and let it cook for 5 minutes.
Then add the cheese or cream, the salt and pepper and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
Stuff your pie crust and use the egg to gently spray the surface. Then bake at 180 degrees for about 1 hour.

25% Off your first set of pies by Le Pie with the code: 25%

3. Juice Them

Juices are a great way for children to take all the nutritional elements they need to grow up and develop properly. If your children refuse to eat vegetables you can add some such as spinach, celery, broccoli and carrots, into their juices or smoothies. If you add some honey or some sweet fruits like banana, strawberries, pineapple or oranges and tangerines they will cover the heavy veggie taste and your kids will surely enjoy them!

We scoured the internet for “green’’ smoothie and juice recipes and picked this one for you because it is simple, filled with comfort food and keeps little stomachs happy.

Ingredients

A ripe banana (the riper, the better to make your smoothie sweeter)
Some spinach
A cup of milk and
Some cooked ice. Put them all into the blender and enjoy!

Finally, remember that many vegetables are an acquired taste and children need to get familiar with new flavours at least 5-10 times to really be sure if they like it or not. So be patient and give them time to try and re-try different combinations!