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Veggies For Your Children
By Mommie | September 17, 2008
Many children today don’t get the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables they need on a daily basis. If your children are between 2 and 6, it is recommended that they get 3 servings of veggies and 2 servings of fruit a day. If they are over 6, they should be getting between 3 and 5 servings of veggies a day and 2 to 4 servings of fruit. (Adults are recommended to eat at least 5 a day of each) But with the fast food culture, and many children fixed on chicken nuggets, hot dogs and mac and cheese, how do you get them to get to the recommended amount?
VEGGIES - While I’m blessed with one kid who will eat pretty much anything I put in front of her, my son is turning out to be a little bit of a challenge with vegetables. Here’s some tips that might get them to their daily quota:
1. I’m all about sneaky cooking. Look, I’m the one cooking the food, so if I happen to put in some pureed veggies, so be it. Many times you can’t tell at all. Here’s some of my favorites…
a. Cauliflower in mashed potatoes - you seriously can’t taste them and some of the benefits include improved heart health, reduced risk of strokes, strengthens the immune system, helps maintain a healthy cholesterol level, aids in cell growth and replication, and an excellent source of fiber.
b. Carrots in meatloaf or meatballs - Again, you can’t taste these and the color of the meatloaf usually hides the carrots quite well. Carrots can give you improved appearance of the skin, hair and nails, can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, has a strong antioxidant that can prevent cancer, can help prevent bodily infections and is claimed to be valuable for the adrenal glands, help improve eyesight, can regulate blood sugar and contains a great source of fiber.
c. Sweet Potatoes in Mac N’ Cheese - (This will only work if you make it from scratch and not out of a box…) This actually sweetens the Mac N’ Cheese, making it a way sweet treat for your kids, plus you can’t see it at all in the sauce. Sweet Potatoes are a Super Food, giving you a low-fat source of vitamin E, contributes to heart health, is a good source of dietary antioxidants, helps to regulate high blood pressure, helps anemia and may also protect against inflammatory conditions.
2. Another trick you might try is to serve your kids the veggies first. At dinner time my family is starving, so putting something on their plate a few minutes before the main course hits the table usually ensures that some of those veggies will be eaten before dinner.
3. One last thought on veggies is that V8 has a vegetable juice out, V8 Fusion, which I recently tried after seeing those funny commercials. This one inparticular made me laugh because I hate, and I mean HATE tomato juice and I’m one of those people who take the veggies off of everything I eat, burgers, mexican food, you name it, so this commercial hit home for me. Anyhow, I tried this stuff and it straight rocks! It’s actually a treat for me and for the kids (but they don’t know it’s a full serving of veggies!).
FRUIT- Most kids will eat fruit, that is because they are naturally sweet and juicy. If you can’t get your kids to eat fruit, you can hide it too, but in different ways:
1. Bake - I know, it sounds way to easy, but you can use applesauce (which is apples people) as the oil substitute in muffins. That’s one serving, then add any kind of fruit you want, blueberries, peaches, even bananas (there’s serving 2)
2. Mix it with cereal - Some kids like this, some don’t. I puree strawberries or peaches to put into their oatmeal, makes it sweet and a great way to serve some fruit. You can also put raisins or blueberries into pretty much any cereal and that’s a great way to up their fruit intake.
3. Snacks - We don’t have any sugar snacks at our house, but we do have grapes, apples, oranges, raisins, peaches, kiwi fruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, raspberries, you name it. That’s their snack, they don’t have an option of sugar snacks.
A last thought on fruit, fruit has fructose in it, it’s what makes fruit sweet. It’s natures sugar, so don’t add to much table sugar into dishes with fruit, as it’s already sweet.
Any tips for getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies?? Let me know, I’d love to hear it!
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Topics: Everyday Mommie |
September 17th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
[...] Mommie wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptb…/b hits the table usually ensures that some of those veggies will be eaten before dinner. 3. One last thought on veggies is that V8 has a vegetable juice out, V8 Fusion, which I recently tried after seeing those bfunny commercials/b. b…/b [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 10:12 am
The best thing is to have the foods readily available. Even if it means to cut up a few apples the night before. Most fast food places now have healthy sides, too, like apple fries or mandarin oranges.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Those are some great tips! By the way, there’s an award for you over at my place!
September 18th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
ugh, i’m a nugget, dog and mac mom. i try to get him to eat veggies but he just doesn’t have any interest. he loves fruit though so i guess that’s ok for now. it’s frustrating!
September 18th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Out of my 3 girls I have one that will not eat veggies at all. So I am going to have to start being sneaky and try to get some veggies in her, thanks for the tips!
Cinnamon~
September 18th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
My daughter falls into that chicken nugget and burger category while my son eats everything that takes time to prepare but nothing associated with ‘fast’. Albeit he can pick out an onion or green pepper diced and hidden in a pasta sauce
September 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
You must have read the book called “The Sneaky Chef.” If not, check my blog for a link. I also write about 23 tips for helping your child to eat a healthier diet on my blog post at:
When Does A “Happy Meal” Become Sad?
http://aiminghigher.blogspot.com/2008/06/when-does-happy-meal-become-sad.html
September 19th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
loved the article! I’ve heard some of them before, but you have re-inspired me. Nice blog site, too!
September 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Thanks a lot for the excellent tips.
I don’t like the way some people deal with the nutrition for thier children and keep on using such unhealthy fast food.