“We put the vegetables away” is a phrase that pops up time and time again as parents of young children try to figure out how to feed their kids healthy, nutritious foods without having to explain the virtues of the foods to their kids all the time. Certainly, there is some truth to the notion that children do not like vegetables, but it is not the only reason you might want to keep them out of your childs’ meals. You can certainly find plenty of vegetables for your family, but you’ll have a hard time convincing your kids that they are good for them if they have never been exposed to the idea that they are beneficial. You can’t hide vegetables from your kids, but you can definitely hide them from your
Not all foods taste great to babies. If you want to add vegetables to your child’s diet, keep them on the outside of the food, not on the inside. Here’s how to do it: 1. Use a small plate for vegetables. Fill your plate with food and place a small plate in the center of the plate so that the vegetables and some of the other food will fall on top of it. This will prevent children from putting the vegetables inside their mouths, and they can still get some of the other food.
It’s that time of year again—time for the family to sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. As you look around the table at the spread, you’re probably wondering how many of your family members know your secret food hiding tricks.
If you have children, you are undoubtedly well aware of how difficult it is to persuade them to eat vegetables with their meals. Here are some helpful hints that can encourage you to eat more vegetables and be grateful that your children do as well.
Why Do Kids Despise Vegetables?
Little kids are unafraid to consume candy and other brightly colored things that aren’t good for them. Candy manufacturers utilize bright colors and additional gleam to make sweets seem so appealing. When you look at steamed or boiled veggies, all you see is a super-matted surface. Furthermore, children connect sugary foods with positive experiences (birthday parties, ice cream parlors, rewards for good conduct, etc.) while vegetables are associated with parental nagging and forcing.
Another factor is the straight-up look of vegetables and the knowledge that they are unique. Seriously, you can’t simply put broccoli and peas on your child’s plate and expect them to eat them. Any great chef will tell you that a meal’s look is more important than its flavor. Your child will be on the lookout for anything that doesn’t seem to belong in their meal.
To conceal their meal, you’ll need to do some magic, or, for want of a better term, sleight-of-hand. This means you’ll have to disguise veggie components with similar-looking veggies so your kids don’t have a chance to examine any unusual colors they may notice. But, let’s face it, there’s a lot more than your child can be picky about.
Disguising your food is ideal for certain vegetables, but not all of them, since the scent of their meal may set off alarms! So, when it comes to matching them to popular meals, we’ll advise which are better for flavor and fragrance.
Veggies Should Be Added to Kids’ Favorite Foods
Let’s begin with a short tale that will make you laugh. One of our dinner guests had carefully picked out the chopped onions in the sauce one piece at a time while eating a bowl of spaghetti. Despite the fact that the onions provided a lot of flavor to the sauce, they were very focused on this. Later, the answer was to puree the onions into a paste in a food processor. The following time we gave it to him, we did it this way, and he gushed about how delicious it was!
The Sauce Holds The Key
As you can see, the appearance of some components, in addition to how they seem, may make a huge impact in taste. Sauces are the simplest method to include vegetables into a dish where they will go unnoticed and unconsidered. You may simply use these savory sauces since many youngsters like exciting dishes like Mac & cheese and spaghetti with meatballs. As long as it doesn’t overwhelm the natural taste of the sauces, that is.
Potato, zucchini, cauliflower, white beans, and butternut squash blend well into the Mac and cheese cheese sauce. Carrots, red bell pepper, squash and pumpkin, and even beets may be used in spaghetti sauce. If you’re making a sauce, try to match the hue as closely as possible so the end product looks like these opaque sauces.
Pies, patties, and nuggets made with vegetables
Fried foods are undeniably appealing to children. There’s something wonderful about meat patties and nuggets that already have a meaty taste, not to mention dipping sauces, if they come with a breaded coating. Let’s stick to the meat mixtures for now and talk about the dipping sauces later. Because most meat browns beautifully when fried and baked, this is an excellent method to sneak in veggies that people won’t notice.
Vegetables like carrots, potatoes, maize, onions, and a variety of green vegetables may be hidden in ground beef if they’re mulched and blended in. Cauliflower, potato, turnip, and butternut squash may simply be added to chicken. Because cooked chicken flesh is very white, you’ll want to choose light-colored vegetables that will blend in with your chicken. Using a food processor and a little egg white, you may tie these two together.
The end product will be a paste that you may mold into whatever shape you like and fry or bake. Children will like chicken with cauliflower or turnips in particular. You may use this technique to combine pork and veggies as well. Make breaded nuggets and patties that mimic forms that youngsters like if you want to make it more appealing. For additional appeal, use cookie-cutter shapes like dinosaurs.
Veggie-Friendly Dipping Sauces
Dip sauces like colorful ketchup, sweet BBQ, and honey-mustard sauce may drive your child crazy at some time. These go well with meals that include fried items like Tater Tots, hash browns, chicken nuggets, and breaded meat patties. You’ll have a lot of options for mixing and matching vegetables that can be pureed and combined with their favorite sauce.
Potato Snacks, Fries, and Tater Tots
Your children will like the new concept of tater tots or hash brown patties as much as they will enjoy French fries. Here, vegetables like butternut squash, cauliflower, and turnip will boost the taste of the potato by 20 to 30 times. If you cook them separately and then process them in a food processor to get a thick paste to create these forms, you won’t have to do any mixing.
All you have to do to create French fries is steam your vegetables rather than boiling them. These are then processed in a food processor, and a little amount of cornflour is added to make a beautiful formable paste. With silicone parchment paper between the pan and the top of the veggie/potato mix, this may be rolled out as thin as you want using a rolling pin inside a cookie tray. Put this mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm it up.
After that, you may cut your fries to size and cook them straight immediately. Similar to tater tots, this mixture may be rolled into a long log and sliced into little barrels. This mixture may be used to make thin strips that are baked if you have a pasta-making machine. These thin chips will be healthier than the store-bought varieties.
Look for a specialty slicer that will allow you to create beautiful slices and restaurant-style french fries at home as well.
The benefit to you is that your children will never suspect it is hiding vegetables in plain sight!
My son hates veggies. Like, hates them. Really, really hates them. I’ve tried hiding veggies in all kinds of places—on the counter, in the refrigerator, in his school lunch box, even in his backpack—but he always finds them.. Read more about cookbook to hide vegetables in food and let us know what you think.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you hide vegetables in picky kids?
You can hide vegetables in picky kids by placing them in a bowl of mashed potatoes.
How do you hide vegetables in food?
You can either use a blender or food processor to blend the vegetables into a smooth puree.
How can I trick my child into eating vegetables?
You can try to hide vegetables in their favorite foods, such as carrots in a cake.
Related Tags
This article broadly covered the following related topics:
- hidden vegetable recipes for toddlers
- how to hide vegetables in food for picky eaters
- hidden vegetable recipes for adults
- hidden vegetable recipes
- hidden vegetable dinner recipes