Eat your veggies

It’s got to be one of the biggest mysteries for a parent. How do we get kids to eat vegetables?

It’s got to be one of the biggest mysteries for a parent. How do we get kids to eat vegetables?

We tried the tough approach. “You can’t get down from the table until you eat your veggies”! All that did was upset her and frustrate us. Rewards for eating veggies didn’t seem to work either.

We are now trying a softer approach and it seems to be working better for all of us. She always gets veggies on her plate. We ask her to take bites but don’t push as hard. We call attention the veggies on our plate and make comments about how good they. Curiosity usually gets her and she’ll try it.

If we don’t make too big a deal of it she will try it on her own. If it’s a dessert night we make it clear that there is no dessert unless she eats veggies. And as we eat our veggies we’ll comment that we can’t have dessert either if we don’t eat our vegetables.

Raw vegetables seem to be more kid friendly too. Raw green beans are now a hit. It can be finger food and it’s crunchy. That’s perfect for a kid.

I’ve had advice to put sugar in the vegetables and personally I don’t like that idea. I don’t think it teaches a taste for vegetables; just a taste for more sugar.

There’s an Atkins recipe that seems to be a hit with kids. It’s easy too. Steanm or boil cauliflower. Then mash in a bowl woth a little milk, butter and cheddar cheese. it tastes a lot like mashed potatoes.

It is kind of cheating since it is a doctored up veggie but they’ll eat it. If oyu use low fat milk and keep the cheese to a minimum it can be a fairly healthy dish.

If anybody know of a good cookbook with kid friendly recipes or can share some good kid friendly recipes that would be geat.