Healthy Ways to Sneak Fruits & Vegetables Into Kids' Diets
Kids need between seven and 10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day, according to the University of Michigan Health System, but not all children enjoy these foods because of the strange appearance, odd texture or unusual smell. Changing all three of these veggie or fruit characteristics makes sneaking the foods into the daily menu an easier job. Incorporating these nutritious foods in dishes and drinks for daily meals, although in altered states, gives your child important vitamins and nutrients without a fight at mealtime.
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Blended
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Many kids enjoy shakes and smoothies, and these liquids offer an easy way to sneak several vegetables or a collection of fruit into a meal. Some healthy shakes mix both veggies and fruits, but these home recipes mean using trial and error to create the flavors your child enjoys. Fruits and veggies can offer color to drinks, depending on your selection and the amount added to the mix. Pitted cherries and mashed blueberries and strawberries add color. Not all vegetables, however, make good smoothie mixes. Hard root vegetables such as radishes make poor choices, but steaming vegetables like carrots and cauliflower allows you to add small amounts of the veggies to your child's drinks. Carrots are low-calorie, low-fat and cholesterol-free, low in sodium and have fiber and Vitamin A. The orange-color of carrots blends well and a small amount adds color to shakes and smoothies.
Baked
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Baked casseroles offer a good place to hide vegetables, especially veggies sliced into slivers or fruit cut and diced into small chunks. Many children enjoy a baked compote, a term used to describe finely diced fruits, spread over ice cream or frozen yogurt. Spaghetti is a favorite meal for many kids and pureeing vegetables such as cauliflower or carrots, mixing the favorite family tomato sauce with the puree and then baking the pasta mixture makes it impossible for your child to find -- or taste -- a vegetable in the meal.
Hidden
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Pasta dishes, meatloaf, fresh salads and fruit compotes filled with a variety of your child's favorite food items offer excellent hiding places for sneaky fruit and vegetables. Remove any identifiable texture or skin from the foods so your child can't locate the hidden healthy veggie and fruit bits. Stuff pasta shells, ziti, zitoni, cannelloni or manicotti with your child's favorite filling and sneak in several teaspoons of slivered or tiny diced veggies.
Disguised
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Many children enjoy pizza, and pies made with special vegetable and fruit toppings disguise important daily nutrients. A tomato is technically a fruit, even though many children immediately think "veggie" when faced with a large tomato. Diced pineapples add a bit of sweet flavor to pizza dough, and when silvered or cut into small pieces, never give a hint to their pineapple origins. A small amount of peas or beans smashed into a paste make a tasty spread for crackers or burrito shells when mixed with your child's favorite bread spreads, such as butter or peanut butter. Introduce the veggies and fruits in small amounts throughout the day so the flavor blends well with the foods your child enjoys.
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