As we begin a new year, many of us have made a promise to ourselves to live a healthier lifestyle. It’s a great idea to include the entire family but convincing kids to eat their vegetables can sometimes be a challenge. With a few simple but creative tricks, your kids will be eating those vegetables and having fun too.
Cookie Cutters
One of the easiest ways to get kids to eat their vegetables is to cut them into fun shapes. I know we all grew up hearing the “don’t play with your food” rule but let’s just toss that rule out the window for now. With a few little cookie cutters, your green peppers, salad, broccoli, cheese and sandwiches can turn into a fun picture.
Your kids will love helping you cut up the vegetables using the cookie cutters and you can let them set their own scene on their plates. Set a little dip on the side and you’re all set!
For this easy and cute lunch, I used a small dove cookie cutter for green peppers, a horse cookie cutter for the cheese, shredded lettuce for the grass, sandwich tree trunks and broccoli florets on the tree.
Hiding Vegetables
The cute food trick won’t work for some of the picky eaters so another option is hiding vegetables in meals. I try to add shredded vegetables to most of my meals like spaghetti sauce, chili and even hamburgers, but some kids will pick up on that trick quickly. If shredding the vegetables won’t work for your picky eaters, you can also try pureeing them into some of your sauces.
Muffins are one of our favourite mid-day snacks. Zucchini carrot muffins make a great after-school snack.
Vegetable Drinks
A delicious way to start your morning is with a fruit smoothie. You can sneak some vegetables into those too. If you don’t have a juicer to do most of the work for you, you can buy fruit juice that already has vegetable juices (like carrots) in it.
With a few easy tricks, you’ll be well on your way to leading a healthier lifestyle. Don’t feel guilty about an occasional cookie – we all deserve to indulge a little too!