Veggie Troubles.

Meggabaee

So my issue is not only is it hard for me to find quick and easy ways to make veggies, but also to get my LO to actually eat them. I try to sneak them into things, Stoneyfield makes a yogurt with veggies in it. Gerber makes a dehydrated fruit and veggie drop. At dinner time I always provide a veggie but she doesn't seem to want it. She ends up eat a bit then throwing the rest on the floor. Not sure if anyone has any suggestions or even recipes to help. Anything is appreciated.

valeriegp

I try not to stress about it too much (with the pediatrician's blessing not to), but some things I do are:

1. Pouches. My son loves pouches, so I get the ones with lots of veggies in them. He gets one every day as his morning snack at day care (really, breakfast, but he eats that at home) and then when we are out and about they are good transportable snacks.

2. Muffin fritatas (sp?). He also loves eggs, so I make these for the week, usually, and put spinach or finely chopped carrots and broccoli in them and he gobbles it up. This is the recipe I work from: https://www.food.com/recipe/muffin-frittatas-439092, but I just eyeball cheese and whatever veggies I'm adding. I refrigerate them and then heat up a few for breakfast.

3. Add veggies to mac and cheese, though recently he has started shaking the veggies off the noodles!

4. Roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash. He loves these, and I splurge and buy the already chopped up ones from the store.

lana22

I serve them with (almost) every meal and don't usually stress if they don't eat at one given meal. I try to look at their food more by the week than daily. I'd try serving them different ways (pureed, "fries", sauteed, in quesadillas, etc.) and keep at it. Friends of friends were having this problem and the pedi told them to continue offering veggies with every meal and not make a big deal if the kid wasn't eating them. they did this for about a year and it took that long before their kid finally started eating veggies, and now he eats lots of them.

lastly, in my experience it makes a big difference if your kids see you eating them at the same time. i've put brussels sprouts on my son's tray and he doesn't touch them, but then he devours them when he sees me eating them.

HisChamaoleGirl

my daughter LOVES pasta with sauce. I have found if I mix the sauce with pureed carrots she gets the nutirion of the vegetable and it doesnt effect the taste of the sauce too much. Good luck!

cyprissa

Lots of good advice. We always serve veggies with dinner and the kids eat what we eat. I do however, allow dips...i.e. salad dressing, ketchup, mustard or hummus are the favs at my house. My kids love dipping and will eat their veggies that way. 

michelle7482

We do smoothies. Both my girls love them.

Meggabaee

Thank you everyone! I will try many of these. She does eats the same meal at the table with us. I just hope I find something she likes other than sweet potatoes!

fusionbride

zucchini, avocado, butternut squash, white beans, and broccoli are the ones that always go over well.  Veggie lasagna and spanikopita are other winners. 
Other veggies are hit-or-miss, but I keep offering them.  I also allow dips sometimes (low-sodium terriyaki, applesauce, marinara sauce, and ketchup are the main ones we offer)

I steam, sautee, or roast large batches on the weekend and again one weekday.  Easy veggies are tomatoes, cucumber, and tomatoes that you can just slice & serve raw.
If you are serving veggies as part of your regular meal anyway, shouldn't be too much extra work.

I think pouches are fine for occasional convenience, but do not consider them true vegetable (or fruit) substitutes as they are pretty processed.  Keep offering the real stuff at meals and I hope your little one comes around soon! 
(and sweet potatoes are super nutritious, so consider that a small victory that she will eat those!)

73jewels

I have found these vegetarian nuggets that are stuffed with broccoli and carrots (from here https://www.veggiepatch.com/products/veggie).  I swear, he could eat those 3 meals a day.  And it's easy for a quick dinner or lunch at Day Care. 

Also, we buy ravioli stuffed with cheese and spinach.  Served with Marinara, he gets 2 servings of vegetables in that dinner.

I also try to offer a vegetable as a side dish with most meals, and until recently, he loved them.  About 2-3 weeks ago, he suddenly stopped eating them.  I do supplement with a pouch or yogurt with veggies mixxed here and there just to be sure, but I try to give him real vegetables at least 1 meal a day

Crawfish88

Even though my kids were a bit old to be eating Gerber veggies, I still gave it to them to get their veggies in. I think they got so used to the flavor the transition to whole veggies wasn't hard at all. Also, try to determine if they prefer hard or soft veggies, and try to stick w that. Give them a choice, then they feel like it's their decision on what they're eating. One of the more popular dishes I made to hide veggies was shredded carrots in the pasta sauce for when I made pizza

Jesse C.

*edited by mod*

GracefulStar

Hm you can add spinach to pasta sauce. Does she like soup? Pea soup with carrots (puréed soups work nice), lentil soup with carrots and celery, potato and leek soup - you can mix in a carrot.... Chicken soup with onions, carrots and celery. Good luck!

smileybabyboy

I put pureed veggies in everything...pasta dishes, meatloaf, muffins, pancakes, smoothies, pizza sauce, etc.  I have also found if you cut them differently LO might enjoy eating them.  Right now my son likes the long skinny cucumber "snakes." And he slithers them into ranch dressing. You can get a Veggetti and see if LO will eat spaghetti shaped veggies.  You can see if drying veggies helps or buying these