Help me hide vegetables!

[~kellie~]

My DD has just decided she doesnt like vegies.... (or fruit either for that matter), I was just after everyones ideas and suggestions on recipes where i can hide them? I've managed to get her to eat grated carrot and zucchini in spag bol but what other ideas are there!

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld - fantastic! I jusy borrowed it from a library to have a squizz.

Concept is all about pureeing your fruit and veges and chucking it in anywhere. Would she eat a zucchini slice? Maz has an awesome recipe for it and she makes it in penguin shapes.

[~clover~]

Pumpkin & sweet potatoe in mash?
Rissoles, I put onion & carrot in.
Would she eat them raw? DD1 used to love raw veggies. Frozen peas corn & carrot. Like mini ice blocks

[Cassius2]

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld - fantastic! I jusy borrowed it from a library to have a squizz.

Concept is all about pureeing your fruit and veges and chucking it in anywhere. Would she eat a zucchini slice? Maz has an awesome recipe for it and she makes it in penguin shapes.

i LOVE this book!

[spooky]

You can also grate or process broccoli, cauli, swede, almost anything and hide it in spag bol. It is also possible to do the same with meatballs and sausagerolls.

take 50/50 beef and pork mince
grate lots of vegetables and mix in

take half and use for bolognese or similar

add egg and breadcrumbs to bind the rest of the mix and use this for meatballs, sausage rolls, burgers etc.

This is very basic and can be altered to suit whatever vegies you are trying to get them to eat.

[spooky]

Just remembered that last time I had vegies rejected, i took them and mixed through two eggs and a handful of cheese. Baked the mix in a muffin tin and made a sort of mini fritatta. Went down a treat!

[Sammiejane]

In Mash, i she will eat that. I do mash pototo, add in cream cheese and a bit of butter then get carrot, zucchini and anything else n hand and cook/boil/steam realy well, food process and then mix in with mash.
Sometimes i will make into little patties too - she loves these

Ditto the spag and meatballs, there are all sorts hidden in mine!!! DH would shudder to know how many serves of veg he is actually eating each night!!!

[MantaRay]

Definitely the "hide the vegies in the spag bol trick" - you can put almost anything in - I will generally "hide" 4 or 5 vegies at a time. Finely diced mushies etc.

I also puree brocolli to put in the egg when crumbing chicken - you can't even tell and it actually tastes better - the boys call it "magic skin". Even DH who hates brocolli loves it and he knows it's there!

I also put grated carrot and corn kernels (as well as onion and zucchini) in zucchini slice - which DS1 won't eat if it's called zucchini slice, but he loves egg and cheese pie

We often eat orange potatoes - pumpkin and potato mashed together. This is an old family recipe from DH's family - so called because DH wouldn't eat it if it was called anything else (can you tell who DS1 takes after ).

[suse]

My DS is a pretty good vegie eater, but won't isn't too fussed on vegies on their own yet (the only exception to this being raw grated carrot), he prefers them flavoured with something. I tend to do a huge batch of mixed vegies (usually pumpkin or sweet potato, potato, corn, carrot, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, peas, beans, mushrooms, lentils or chickpeas or some sort of legume). Everything gets either very finely chopped or grated, then cooked in a little bit of water, half a massel stock cube or some mixed herbs, then I freeze it in small batches. I then can add it to whatever he is having that day - rice, pasta, couscous, scrambled eggs, casseroles, risotto, stirfry, etc. It is also good added to basic sauces (like white sauce, bolognese, tomato based pasta sauces). He usually eats whatever we eat for dinner, except where we would have steamed vegies or salad, he will have some of his vegie mix.

I also mix mushrooms into scrambled eggs, make vegie muffins or frittata, and make roast root vegie 'chips' which he adores.

[Michelle71]

Along with the fabulous suggestions from the other lovelies - also add a sample of the veges you are eating on the plate as well. It normalises them and they may eat them (or not - but that isn't important if you have them hidden elsewhere ) but they are there. I think I read (somewhere ) that it takes 10-20 exposures for a toddler / child to accept a new food. It was a safety mechanism in pre-historic times to prevent them from eating poison berries etc

[MantaRay]

Michelle, you are certainly right about the 10 - 20 times, and in fact it can be more. DS1 must have refused salad over 100 times until one day he asked for it, ate it all and asked for more! Now it's one of his favourites!

[Jas]

I made a shepherds pie with zucchini carrot, celery and I put tiny tiny bits of pumpkin in...very nice

mini frittatas made in a muffin tin

today I made delicious little meatballs with aucchini, carrot, beef mince, bit of grated cheese, egg and bread crumbs and gave to Noah with some salsa for dipping they were really good and he loooooooovvveedd them!