Ways To Sneak In Vegetables Into Dishes

[Jade]

My nephew hate vegetables and I worry that they aren't getting the proper nutrition from only eating hamburgers, pizza, and nuggets all the time, so I've been looking up some ways to sneak in some vegetables into ordinary dishes. My favorite one so far is putting squash puree on mac and cheese, and I like it because I think it the cheese will cover up the squash taste. Do you guys have any other recipes like these that you've tried, and please do tell me about your experiences on how well these recipes are able to incorporate or cover up the vegetable taste.

 

[crimsonghost747]

Very very simple: Make those hamburgers and pizza yourself.
Might not work so well with pizza since they will notice the vegetables, but you can easily add things like bell peppers and onion onto a pizza.
With hamburgers the vegetables area already a part of it, and there really isn't anything unhealthy about a properly made hamburger. It's basically bread, meat, cheese and vegetables.

You could also see about improving their desserts. Just substituting chocolate/candy etc with something made out of fruits will do wonders.

 

[clairebeautiful]

I very often put pureed squash, pumpkin, or banana (not a veggie, I know) in my pancake batter. For me, it is one of those easy ways to use up all the dang zucchinis that the summer garden tends to dump on us. As for pumpkin, I can add pumpkin to almost any baked good in winter and instantly improve the dish... I love pumpkin.

This topic comes up frequently among moms with young kids because so many kids are picky eaters. Luckily, my kids are not picky eaters, so I'm not forced to hide veggies and I tend to subscribe to the parenting belief that kids should simply be taught to eat their vegetables. But since this is your nephew and not your son, I totally understand that you'd rather be the cool aunt than the mean mom. A few common things other people do are the following:

• hidden veggie pasta for spaghetti and mac and cheese (found at the store)
• puree almost any veggie and add it to spaghetti sauce
• add spinach, kale, or other greens to hearty bean soups and chili (this one I do and you can't really taste the greens)
• add veggies to homemade chicken nuggets (seems like far too much work to me, but some moms swear by it)
• SMOOTHIES

 

[lizzief79]

This is a common problem with children. Any soup or sauce can contain vegetables and because they are in a different form children will often not know they are in the food. There are other ways to get children to eat vegetable without disguising them. Try involving him in the cooking process in a fun way. For example, get a pizza base and then give the child a variety of different pizza toppings to choose from. Get them to create a face with the ingredients or to simply create an abstract design with them. Children love the process of creating something and are more likely to eat the food if they have been involved from scratch.

 

[MyPaperBleedsInk]

Adding them to ground beef is a really easy way - especially if you're making a meat loaf. Mushrooms are great for ground beef try recipes because it'll match the consistency of the beef.
Black bean brownies - you'll never know they're made with beans.
Smoothies - in fact, let them pick their own and they'll probably have a lot more fun and be a lot more willing to drink them.
Find out what produce they DO like, and try to incorporate that a lot more into your meals in a variety of ways.
Combine some veggies with the pasta sauces you make. Finely chopped.

 

[OhioTom76]

You can hide all sorts of vegetables in a tomato sauce, then put it on pasta, pizza or chicken parmesan or as a dipping sauce for bread sticks. You can also add a lot of veggies to home made stuffing as a side dish. You can use sauteed veggies as part of a base for a meat filling for enchiladas. "White pizza" is good too with a veggie assortment on it, just put them under the cheese and chop them finely. You can hide stuff like roasted red peppers into a hummus dip, or even use that dip as a spread on sandwiches.

 

[kamarsun1]

My nephew hate vegetables and I worry that they aren't getting the proper nutrition from only eating hamburgers, pizza, and nuggets all the time, so I've been looking up some ways to sneak in some vegetables into ordinary dishes. My favorite one so far is putting squash puree on mac and cheese, and I like it because I think it the cheese will cover up the squash taste. Do you guys have any other recipes like these that you've tried, and please do tell me about your experiences on how well these recipes are able to incorporate or cover up the vegetable taste.

You can also add some spinach power to pasta. It will mix right into the sauce and he will never know it's in there. I use something called spirulina, I mix it into homemade bread, use is in sauces it really works good.