Other ideas for hiding veggies in food?

I recently had a chance to talk with Mollie Katzen, the author of the Moosewood Cookbook (a great veggie cookbook). She said that the best trick she has found to get kids to eat veggies is to give them things to dip the veggies in. i.e., give him a bowl of dip and he can dip baby-carrots or string beans in peanut butter, low-fat ranch dressing, hummus, melted cheese, etc. For what it’s worth, when I was a kid my parents used to make us smoothies and milk shakes…I didn’t find out till I was older that they were putting tofu (the silken kind) in the milkshakes to make sure we got protein! That wouldn’t really work for vegetables…but the trick is to get the “healthy food” to change form, so the kid doesn’t realize it’s “good for you” and just thinks it tastes good. :)

Steamed, mashed cauliflower slipped into mashed potatoes, small, peeled, boiled and cubed parsnips or turnips will look like potatoes in stew or goulash (make sure to include potatoes in the same shape). Spaghetti squash mixed in w. spaghetti and whatever sauce you usually use.

Oh! Jessica Seinfeld( Jerry’s daughter) has an ENTIRE cookbook devoted to this! She created the recipes to get her children to eat their veggies.

Try here!

Jerry’s wife. There was an article in today’s NYTimes about this issue. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/10pick.html?ref=health

That’s just a testament to…err…how great she looks!

Thanks so much for all the answers. I will jot down and try all.

I have memories of my brother, about 10, being forced to eat one pea at dinner. He cut the pea into four equal pieces and ate each quarter with a slice of white wonderbread. I wonder whether he changed his mind about green vegetables as an adult.

LOL Gailcalled

When I was little, I would eat anything as long as it was in pancake form. My mom perfected the art of turning veggies into pancakes – basically, find a good recipe for potato pancakes, or one for corn fritters, and substitute away! You can make really good carrot pancakes, zucchini pancakes – basically, any vegetable that you can grate or chop into small pieces is easily hidden in all that batter… =)

Also, what about soup? If your kids will eat blended soups, you can put just about anything healthy in and blend it…if it isn’t in vegetable form, they might not suspect it!