Keeping Your Children Healthy by Getting Them to Eat More Vegetables

So, you want to broaden your family's eating habits. But, your children won't try those vegetables that you continue to bring home from the store. With some reluctance, they might choke down some baby carrots or a thin stalk of celery(As long as you have the desirable condiment to dip it into). But, 1 it gets old quickly and there is only so much vegetable dipping that your children will do. and 2 you can't seem to get them to eat vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower or spinach. You won't even make an attempt at turnips, cabbage, Bock Choy, Cassavas, avocados, squash or beets. Here are some good ideas to help your family cook and eat vegetables. I have purposefully left out drenching the vegetables in butter or cheese. Similarly, I will talk about raw vegetable salads in a later article. Not all of these ways are extremely healthy, however, overtime, you can continue to modify the recipe to make it more healthy.

One tip that has nothing to do with actually cooking the vegetable is to start your children early on trying new things. When you go to the supermarket, make it a habit to try something new. Often we buy the same old things each and every week. When I ask children about the vegetables that they eat: many report eating corn, green beans, tomatoes, potatoes, peas and cucumbers. Onions and green peppers are diced and put into various dishes. Children are now eating more beans, thanks to the popularity of chili and the burrito. If you start your child eating new things early in their life, they will be more likely to try new foods and new recipes that you attempt. It is also important that you don't give up on a vegetable if the first time did not yield the results that you desired. Try fixing it a different way. Get your children involved in selecting and preparing the new vegetables. If you try new vegetables, you will probably only find them in the fresh or frozen section. In this way, you are forced to eat more healthy. Note: this should also be a practice with fruit.

First, I have many friends who puree their vegetables and hide them in a thousand different dishes such as spaghetti, chili, casseroles and soups. This seems like lots of work and after the pureeing, I am not sure if they actually do retain any of their nutrients. for this reason, I don't recommend this method. Besides, the truth is: we want our children to "like" and "appreciate" those vegetables. Hiding them in foods is a form of deception. Furthermore, when they learn to cook themselves, they will learn the truth about that secret recipe. It is much more advantageous to help them realize that they actually can enjoy eating vegetables, if the right recipe is found.

We will start with broccoli and cauliflower. These vegetables seem to be interchangeable in many recipes. These vegetables can be boiled and mashed, much like potatoes. Butter and garlic can be added to make them more flavorful. There is an indo-pakistani dish called "Pakoras," which requires the vegetables to be battered and fried. The batter is a mixture of flour, cornmeal and spices such as salt, pepper, curry powder, masala, turmeric and chili powder. Adding different spices to the batter will change the taste. I imagine that one can have Cajun style Pakoras, fried curry pakoras and even barbecue flavored pakoras. You could also bake these appetizers for a more healthy snack. Broccoli and cauliflower can be chopped finely and added to most stews and soups for flavor and nutrition. Bacon is a good flavoring for both broccoli and cauliflower. Broccoli also is a nice addition to a baked potato. Broccoli goes good in rice casseroles and in Alfredo dishes.

Mushrooms can be battered as well as sautéed. Chopped mushrooms, as well as broccoli and cauliflower can go into a meat or vegetarian stir fry to enhance its flavor. Mushrooms are often chopped up and put into Italian dishes. Adding mushrooms to an omelet or a rice dish will also give it flavor while providing some nutrients for your children. Stuffing the mushrooms is one of my favorite ways to prepare them. Not only is it simple to do, but they do not take long to bake. They can be stuffed with other thinly sliced vegetables such as onions, spinach, green peppers or celery. Many people stuff their mushrooms with bacon. In order to stuff them, the stems must be removed. Mushroom stems can be saved for the next day's omelet or soup. Sometimes mushrooms are stuffed with different types of cheeses. It is a good idea to experiment to find the right combination of vegetables cheese and meat for your family. Of course, you can use those mushrooms to go over a steak. You could make a Philly Steak smothered in fresh mushrooms and cheese. Since most people cook with "Cream of Mushroom soup," you can make your own. By using milk, salt, flour, cornstarch and a bit of water, you can make the cream and then add slices or large chunks of mushrooms. Your soup will be better than the manufactured kind because you can put more mushrooms in it and it will be fresh. You can also put this creamy mushroom mixture over beef patties and pork cutlets. .

Spinach is one of the most difficult vegetables to get your children to eat. Many cheese spreads and dips can be made with spinach. Remember that A little spinach goes a long way. You can wrap it in pasta or calzones. You can put a bit of spinach on pizza or in lasagna, as long as it is shredded. Spinach can be mixed with or replace any recipe that calls for greens, chard or any leafy vegetable. A quick search on the internet will give you thousands of quiche recipes which involve a mixture of spinach and eggs. There are breakfast quiches, meat quiches, vegetarian quiches and so on.

There are many websites which will give you lots of good recipes for a variety of vegetables. Even those lesser known vegetables such as chayote, radicchio, kohlrabi, Daikon, manioc, Jicama and Rutabagas can be fun to try, provided that you find a recipe that you think your family might like. And, if you have found a dud, then, discard it, remember the experience and move on. The trick is to get your children in the habit of trying new vegetables and eating more healthy. For recipes, try the links below.

www.eatbetteramerica.com

fooddownunder.com