Try These Tips to Encourage Your Kids to Love Their Veggies!
Crunch Your Lunch – A veggie crunch doesn’t have to come from a potato chip. Crunch and munch on crisp, fresh veggies, like carrot and jicama sticks, cucumber and radish slices and strips of colorful bell peppers.
- Take an Adventure – Explore veggie varieties from other regions around the world, and discover the taste and nutritional value they have to offer. Once a week, create a family dinner themed around a new country and feature a dish made with veggies native to that region.
- Go for a Dip – Pair favorite veggies with a cup of low-fat ranch dressing, hummus or peanut butter
for a quick and tasty treat.
- Veg-Out Sandwiches – Enhance deli sandwiches with veggies, such as avocado and tomato slices, red onions, Romaine lettuce, and roasted red peppers. Toss finely chopped sweet pickles, celery, green onions or grapes into a tuna or chicken salad and serve on a whole wheat English muffin.
- Play With Your Food – Make veggie-eating a game. Spread a whole-wheat bagel half with low-fat cream cheese and let kids create their own fun faces with pre-cut veggie pieces that resemble eyes, noses and mouths.
- Veggies on a Stick – Grill up delicious veggie kabobs. Give kids chopped-up chunks of assorted veggies, such as summer squash, red onions, mushrooms, asparagus and green peppers, and allow them to create a customized BBQ veggie creation.
- Shop and Explore – When you're at the grocer's produce aisle, let your little ones pick out a veggie they've never tried before for a fun taste test at home.
- Plant a Backyard Garden – Make veggie eating an experience from the "ground" up! Kids will love the fun and interactivity they'll get from picking out the seeds and planting their own veggie garden -- whether it's in a pot indoors or a large space in the backyard. The fun continues with harvesting the veggies and ultimately making a delicious recipe from the fresh produce.
- Shake and Bake – Stir together bread crumbs and seasonings in a resealable plastic bag, let your kids shake the bag to coat the veggies and then bake the creation for a new twist on veggies.
- All Roads Lead to Broccoli – Moms often worry if their little ones aren't interested in many veggies. Relax. If your kids have a favorite, serve it often. Sneak new veggies into soups and casseroles where you can, but realize tender taste buds will evolve over time. Before you know, the kids will be munching wasabi spiced bell peppers.
- Start With a Salad – Start every dinner with a salad so kids get their veggies before they get too full.
- Noodle Around – Schedule a lunchtime play date by inviting young children to each bring a veggie. Combine all veggies into one colorful veggie salad or soup that everyone helped make. If you make a soup, play up fun noodle shapes to enhance the homemade soup party.
- Monkey See, Monkey Do – While carrots, peas and corn are typical favorites for children, kids are also curious about what parents are eating. Experts say it can take ten or more tries before a child's tastes adjust to a new food. So: try, try again. Spinach, bell peppers and even fennel will soon be favorites.
- Be Involved – Behavior change is most effective when your children learn good habits from you at home and at school. Engage kids in grocery shopping, menu planning and meal preparation while encouraging healthy food choices each step of the way.
Additional Tips from Produce for Better Health
For additional tips, facts and information on Produce for Better Health,
visit www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org and check out these fact sheets:
Recipes from the Gerasole Girls and Produce for Better Health
Isabella “Belle” and Olivia “Liv” Gerasole, ages 12 and 10, are both winners of the
prestigious James Beard Award for their Web site, Spatulatta.com. Being kids
themselves, they know all about how to make veggies more appealing to their
peers. Here are their recipes to get kids to love their veggies:
Produce for Better Health Foundation also Offers These Two Veggie-licious Recipes
©2007 Hidden Valley Ranch®