Sneaky Veggies

When it comes to eating habits, kids can throw you for a loop.

One day they gobble up everything on their plate, then the next time you make them the same meal they barely touch it.

Or even worse, you go to the extra trouble of making a very special meal and they turn their noses up at it. For instance, my homemade mini beef pot pies; hubby and I gobbled them up and the girls barely touch theirs. I could’ve just made mac and cheese and I’m sure it would’ve been more well received.

Whether it’s to do with teething, sickness or attitude; I’ve almost given up trying to understand the reasoning behind it, instead I just roll with it.

The only problem is that as parents, we want to ensure our kids are eating a healthy combination of all the food groups. I know for my girls, if they had a choice they would eat bread and yogurt for every meal. Well, that’s not going to fly with me, so what’s a parent to do?

I know that throughout the day they’ll get most of the food groups covered; finger foods consisting crackers, cheese and meat for lunch, yogurt or apple sauce and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and things like beans and ground turkey with their dinner, oh and don’t forget the fruit, they love their fruit.

But what about the veggies?

Here are a few little tricks to sneak some veggies into your meal that works (so far) with our girls.

1) Fruitsations with Veggies. They taste just like fruit but have a variety of vegetables in each serving. The girls think it’s apple sauce and I’ll be the last one to correct them about it. Just watch the sugar though, each cup has 12 grams of it.

2) Veggies in sauce. This isn’t always a good portion for my girls since they’re ‘dippers’ (they would rather dip their tortellinis instead of having them covered in sauce), but you can puree up many different veggies and mix them into whatever pasta sauce you like.

3) Cauliflower bread was recently introduced to me by a friend and I can’t thank her enough! If you don’t like cauliflower then you might want to steer clear of this one, but in my house it’s a hit. It has more of a quiche-like texture than bread. Tip: in my opinion it tastes better the second day so when you cook it the night before leave it in a ziplock in the fridge overnight. Day two top with shredded cheese and bake for ten minutes. Delicious!

CHEESY CAULIFLOWER BREADSTICKS

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups of riced cauliflower (about 1 large head of cauliflower)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese (or whatever cheese you have handy)
• 3 tsp oregano
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (garlic powder works too)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 to 2 cups mozzarella cheese (for topping, I prefer cheddar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees. Prepare 2 pizza dishes or a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Make sure your cauliflower is roughly chopped in florets. Add the florets to your food processor and pulse until cauliflower resembles rice.
3. Place the cauliflower in a microwavable container and cover with lid. Microwave for 10 minutes and then let it cool. Place the microwaved cauliflower in a large bowl and add the 2 eggs, 2 cups of mozzarella, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. Mix everything together.
4. Separate the mixture in half and place each half onto the prepared baking sheets and shape into either a pizza crust, or a rectangular shape for the breadsticks.
5. Bake the crust (no topping yet) for about 25 minutes or until nice and golden. Don’t be afraid the crust is not soggy at all. Once golden, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
6. Slice and serve.