How do you get a picky toddler to eat more vegetables?A few weeks ago I stumbled across a cookbook about how to hide vegetables inside kids' food so that they will consume more of them without realizing it. I do not agree with this philosophy at all, because I think that children have a right to know what they are eating, and because I don't believe it actually encourages kids to "like" eating vegetables! Parenting has to include building trust between the parent and the child, and I don't ever want my daughter to think that she can't trust me to tell her the truth about what I am giving her.
Instead, I prefer to capitalize on what N. does like and build from there. I continue to serve her a variety of foods each day that she has both liked and disliked in the past, and every once in a while she will decide to like a new food. (Recently: honeydew melon and grapes.) I also regularly serve her favorite nutritious foods so that I can be sure she's getting the vitamins she needs.
The cookbook did have some ideas I found intriguing, though; in particular, inserting vegetable purees into common everyday foods. I decided to try this myself, but WITHOUT HIDING! N. watches, and even helps, as I spread her quesadilla with pureed carrot or her grilled cheese sandwich with butternut squash. And one of her new favorite breakfasts is pumpkin french toast!
1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1 slice whole grain bread
a pinch of cinnamon
cooking spray or oil/margarine
1. Mix together the pumpkin, egg, and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Soak the bread in the mixture, about 30 seconds each side.
3. Heat a pan that has been sprayed and/or dotted with oil or margarine.
4. When the pan is ready, place the bread in it. Pour any excess pumpkin-egg mixture on top of the bread (there will probably be a lot). Lower heat, cover, and cook for about two minutes.
5. Flip the slice of bread and cook the other side for about two minutes, or until it appears that the egg is all cooked. Continue flipping and cooking as needed until you are sure it is thoroughly cooked.
6. Cut, cool, and serve! Can be topped with maple syrup or powdered sugar if desired. Personally, I think it needs a little sweetener, but I try to serve it to her without much extra sugar.
