Getting your daily recommended amount of fruits and vegetables can be a trying task for both kids and adults. Most children in the US don’t manage to get their recommended 1-3 cups a day and some of this is due to children’s refusal to eat certain vegetables.
So, how can we get more fruits and vegetables into our children’s diet? While it’s important to encourage your children to openly eat their vegetables and understand their importance, a little clever recipe tweaking can help you add in more than they realize to ensure they’re getting the valuable nutrients they need. Below are a few creative ways you can add more fruits and vegetables into your family meals.
Make your own sauces
Making your own sauces for mac and cheese, noodles or pasta dishes is one of the best ways to sneakily increase your veg intake. Next time you make mac and cheese, try pureeing your veg into your cheese sauce. Sweet potato is full of fiber and gives the sauce a wonderful rich orange color. Or, when cooking sauces like marinara sauce, simply add some herbs and vegetables of your choice to the mix, and blend them for the extra picky eaters.
Add them into your desserts
Some vegetables can be added into baking or dessert recipes without your kids even realizing they’re there. Carrots and zucchini are great options for cakes, muffins or other baked goods. You can use them in the base of the batter and then add more delicious fruits like raisins or blueberries. Or, if you want to try something new with pancakes, why not try adding some mashed butternut squash to the batter?
If your kids love chocolate pudding you can try adding avocado. Avocado’s creamy texture and taste make a great addition to your desserts. Simply, blend up some ripe avocado with some unsweetened cocoa, sugar, vanilla, milk and cinnamon and chill for an hour or so.
Use cauliflower as a carb substitute
Cauliflower is a great source of vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and potassium and it can be used as a substitute for many different types of carbs if you’re looking to add more vegetables to your children’s meals. To make cauliflower rice, simply pulse cauliflower florets in a food processor until they become small granules.You can also “rice” other vegetables like broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and sweet potatoes.
Cauliflower is incredibly versatile and can be used in many ways such as roasting, pureeing, and even making pizza crust.
Create smoothie popsicles
To turn fresh fruit into delicious popsicles, simply add a selection of fruit, leafy greens, milk and ice into a blender and add the mixture to some popsicle molds. Then leave in the freezer overnight.
Add them into patties
When making homemade burgers, try sneaking in some veggies as well, like onions, peppers, or even spinach. If they are chopped into fine enough pieces and mixed in with meat they won’t be very noticeable. If you’re looking to make veggie burgers try adding your chopped vegetables to sweet potatoes and black beans.