Easy Ways to Make Your Kids Love Vegetables

  • Category: Food
  • December 26, 2016

If kids learn good habits from day one, the foundation for good, healthy eating is set for life. However, this is easier said than done. Use these tips to get those ‘oh so picky eaters’ to eat their veggies with the same excitement and joy that they eat Cheetos and French fries with.

The Tricks and Tips 

-Set a good example yourself: If you eat vegetables happily yourself, your child is bound to eat them with that same positive attitude too. Children imitate the habits of their parents; hence by eating more vegetables, you indirectly enforce that habit.

-Love color: Make use of a variety of color when it comes to choosing vegetables. Use the beautiful natural orange, purple, red, and green that nature has provided. For children and adults alike, an orange colored muffin (carrot puree infused) is much more attractive and tempting to eat than carrot mash served on the plate. Sandwiches, pizzas, and stir-fry noodles filled with color-bursting veggies are more yummy and eye-pleasing.

-Play with flavors and shapes: Try quirky flavors together; you never know the kids might just gobble it up in no time–for example: spinach in honey sauce. You could also just add some cheese. Use cookie cutters and peelers to design your ingredients in unrecognizable ways, for example; a flower-shaped carrot is going to get eaten up faster and more effortlessly than a normal shaped one. You can also hide your veggies in dessert, such as beetroot juice infused cookies; they look beautiful and taste amazing.

-Educate them: Involve them in the kitchen process. You can have a DIY day where the kids get to make their own sandwiches, pizzas, or tasty bowls. Take them shopping for vegetables and educate them about the benefits of the vegetables, not just that they contain vitamins and minerals, but these make you sharper, stronger, and even taller. It influences their thinking on making better decisions later down the line.

-Get Creative: Artistic fun arrangements of food include cat-faced pancakes and broccoli faces soaking in yogurt pools, creative games with food, favorite character inspired names for veggies such as Barney beetroot and Hulk kale create positive memories and experiences in the child’s mind, which enforces him/her to choose vegetables over junk food. You can also use stickers, character cut-outs,  and cute cutlery to make it look vibrant and exciting.

(Credit: Blogger Kanchan Bhojwani; thehystericaltaurean.wordpress.com)