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.

[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.

[~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

[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!!!

[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!

[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!

[Michelle71]

MR - I have (so far) been blessed with a toddler who happily eats (and requests) fruits, vegetables and salads. Cucumber is a favourite and he ate a punnet of cherry tomatoes for a snack recently However DD is rejecting solids at every turn unless she is sucking on the odd carrot stick so I can see these tips are going to come in VERY handy soon the way we are going - even if she is just 6 months

[MantaRay]

I know how you feel Michelle, although I had them the other way around. Getting DS1 to eat vegies (or anything much in fact) was a challenge. DS2 on the other hand, has eaten everything in sight from 6 months and especially fruit and vege. Carrot is one of his favourite foods LOL! GL with your DD.

[ACJ]

Kellie - Rhys has been the same lately.....I have been making litle omelette for him with grated vege through them. He is loving them!! Hehehehehehe...... I so far have put zucchini, carrot, potato, pumpkin, beans cut into rounds, frozen corn and peas, tomato, bacon and diced chicken through them!! Tho it is the only thing he will eat for dinner at the moment.

[~kellie~]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, will give them a go.

Might have to have a look for that book too!

Thanks again!

[DoubleK]

Manta Ray, i have never thought to put something in the egg for crumbing chicken! i make my own nuggets for DD, and ill definitely be trying this one!

one thing i do is grate onion & zuchinni and mix it into plain rice.. i actually posted up recently if it would freeze ok, so now i have about 5 snap lock bags of frozen rice! dd loves eating rice with her ****tail franks- not my idea of yummy meal, but does her for lunch!

[Jacki]

DS isn't too keen on veges so I do a fair bit of hiding.
I recently made pizza with thin slices of sweet potato, potato, pear, cumin and cheese - he couldn't eat it fast enough.
Mixed veges, chicken, pasta and a cheese sauce is also a bit of a winner.
Its amazing how many veges you can hide in spag bol if you blitz it up at the end (same goes when turning it into lasagne or meatloaf).
Maz - love the broccoli in the egg idea!

[christy]

Sorry I missed this thread. Our family lives off of pureed vegetables. We have quite a few issues with our oldest refusing all vegetables except carrots and potatoes. (She's unaware that the red sauce on pasta includes tomatoes )

I have in the freezer at the moment, 1 sweet potato mashed into 1/4 cup portions, 1 broccoli steamed and pureed with 150gm spinach and put into ice cubes, 1 cauliflower pureed and stored in 1/4 cup portions.

I add these to nearly everything I make. If I make a homemade pizza, I will mix 2 of the broccoli cubes and 1 sweet potato in with the tomato paste with herbs & spices for the base. Then she thinks she's having ham pizza "With NO vegetables mummy", mini quiches with cauliflower hidden and 3 of the "green" cubes... and ham, lamb & potato curry with special sauce (i.e. sweet potato and cauliflower curry sauce....)