Tips to train kid eat vegetables.

Here's the tips.

Most parents struggle with training their kids to eat and enjoy vegetables. As a mother who despises vegetables this is particularly challenging because it is literally painful to model for the children. The food pyramid recommends 5 servings of vegetables, but my friend that works as a nutritionist suggests 10 servings a day. My oldest two children can be reasoned with and we can talk about the benefits of eating vegetables, however, Nisha presents a challenge all on her own. Now that the novelty of food has worn off and she has experienced the joys of tasting junk food, she tries to hide and give away her vegetables at the dinner table. So, how do I can I train the kids to eat and enjoy vegetables? The following techniques have been successful in the Tague household.

1) Dips! What toddler doesn't like to dip their food? Instead of using the staple of ranch dressing
(which isn't so good for you) I have started making dips made from vegetables or beans. Sounds gross, huh? The kids love it! One of the favorites at my house is a sweet potato puree with caramelized onions, a little garlic, salt and pepper. I throw all of it in the food processor and the kids never know that there are actually two vegetables in the dip. The kids like to spread that inside sandwich wraps and dunk their raw veggies in it. A variation of that is using a can of white beans, garlic, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and tahini or sesame seeds. Again, throw it all in the food processor and out comes a protein packed dip or spread. The bean spread is also yummy on crackers or toast.

2) Make the portions fun and small! I found a package of colorful silicone cupcake molds at Walmart, which I use to cook and serve the kid's vegetables. I found that if I chopped the vegetables very finely (squash, zucchini, peppers, onions), sprinkled a little cheese over them, and put them in the oven for 15 minutes, the kids seemed not to notice that they were eating an assortment of healthy vegetables. An even more exciting option is to turn the cupcake molds over and place shredded potatoes over the top. I bake them until they get crispy and remove the molds. The potatoes make something that looks like a bird's nest- which I use as a bowl for cooked vegetables or salads.

3) Try making your own variation of a salsa. While my kids hate tomatoes (which I can't blame them) we tried making a green salsa with avocados finely cubed, cilantro, caramelized onions, corn, peppers finely chopped, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir it all together and serve it on tortillas or over chicken. Sometimes, we make this at my house for a quick snack with chips (
OK, the chips aren't such a great choice, but they are yummy).

4) Have you ever tried zucchini pizza crust? Just stick a couple of zucchini in the food processor, mix with an egg, a little flour, and some Italian herbs. Press onto a silpat, bake for 10 minutes, then add your favorite toppings. My kids liked the tinted crust and never knew they were actually eating vegetables. Score!

5) Homemade vegetable chips are cheaper than the Terra versions at the grocery store. Thinly slice sweet potatoes, beets, or any other root vegetables. Brush them with a light coating of oil, add salt and pepper and stick them in the oven for half an hour. If you don't like chips, but do enjoy french fries, try substituting sweet potatoes and cook as you would a french fry.

6)Hide them in the burgers! While some people are totally against hiding vegetables in kids' food, I say it is a good way to expose them to different vegetable flavors. We make turkey and salmon burgers every week at our house. It only takes a minute or two to finely chop peppers, onions, and spinach to throw in the mixture. These can be cooked on the grill or on the stove top.

So, how do we keep track of all the vegetables we are eating??? We use a magnet system. I bought a pack of magnetic circles, printed off pictures of vegetables and fruit and mounted them to the magnets. We put our collection on the side of fridge. As we eat a serving of fruit or vegetables throughout the day, the kids move one magnet per serving over to the front of our fridge. At the end of the day, theoretically, all of the magnets should be on the front of the fridge. Some days we meet our goals, others we do not. However, this is a simple way to help the kids and I aware of what we are eating.