mars2kids's Journal, 14 March 2018

Sounds like my kids!! They hate veggies! If you find a good solution let me know because while I’m making myself healthier, I fear my kids are becoming more unhealthy! Haha they don’t like what I make so it’s Mac and cheese or cold cereal for dinner 😞 

Suggestion: get a spiralizer and make spaghetti, just don't tell them that you're using zucchini instead of pasta. Trust me, if you heat the zucchini in the sauce, they won't notice any difference in the taste, just the texture is thicker. There are lots of ways to change veggies to fool them into eating them. Check out some vegetarian recipes for dishes that you normally make, and you'll be surprised.  

My kids have texture issues so using zucchini noodles is a no go...they don’t even like wheat pasta vs regular. They know if I change brands of ketchup 😞 haha 

Riced cauliflower substitutes pretty well as a filler into casseroles with cheeses and ricotta and egg mixtures. LOL And it is very hard to figure out. Especially if you rice it yourself very finely. 🤷🏻‍♀️I also substitute it half and half in all my potato casserole dishes and my loaded potato soup now and the family hasn’t figured it out.🙋🏻 

Do they eat any veggies? Mine would eat certain ones. LOL Fresh or stir fry. Or they would eat sugar snap peas. Or broccoli or cauliflower if I lightly sprinkled it with garlic salt put just a bit of water (like a tablespoon or so) in the bottom of a glass loaf pan and then COVERED all the fresh florets with cheddar cheese and warmed it in the microwave for 4-5 minutes. It would be warm, but still crunchy. LOL That was my big secret for getting my kids AND husband to eat veggies. Crunch. And spices. None of us could or will eat over cooked vegetables. If they are slimy, uck. 🤷🏻‍♀️My mom boiled and steamed everything to death and served canned and if it was frozen she cooked it intil all the flavor was gone. Adding cashews or slivered almonds is another trick, along with onion salt and garlic or garlic salt and pepper. And making sure the bites are people sized, not giant sized. Most people don’t want a huge bite of one nasty 🤢 thing in their mouth. But a bite that mixes 3-5 interestingly blended flavors that they might not know what they are? LOL That’s different! Example: I hate green peppers. I will go out of my way to pick ANY kind of peppers out of any dish. BUT chili needs the taste of green pepper or it doesn’t taste right, so does Kung Päo Chicken, breakfast burritos taste better with a bit of red or yellow pepper cut very fine. (Blenders can be a godsend to add vegetables and flavor, especially onions!) 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

My family won't do the zucchini noodles, I've tried spaghetti squash, and the riced veggies, they just won't do it. Even if they don't know it's in there they say it has a funny texture or flavor and they hardly eat any of it. I do like those things though, so if I know we're planning spaghetti for the week I'll make them their regular noodles and I'll do zucchini noodles instead. I love the riced cauliflower too so I'll sub that in for rice for myself. Those are at least kind of easy things I can make for myself. They absolutely will not eat any broccoli, my hubby will, kids won't, they gag. I made a dish last night with spinach in it and they picked out the spinach. Spinach has no flavor when it's cooked in a dish, they're just being picky there. I'll keep trying though. I'm glad to have the suggestions though because even if I can't make my family eat it, I can try it and enjoy it!! Thanks all!! 

Some picky eaters eat veggies - my son, when young, wouldn't eat any vegetables but salad and carrots. Use romaine lettuce for better nutrition. Salad dressings make all the difference.  

It sounds like they're turning up the drama for your sake but a couple tricks I know for sauces are to add grated broccoli stems or riced cauliflower into meat sauce or to add finely diced celery to just about anything. If you use a crock pot you will notice virtually any fine diced veggie cooks down to a point of being undetected. 

There is a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" that has recipes for things like brownies and sloppy joes that have tons of veggies in them. You might take a look at it, it would be a way to get your family to eat vegetables and not even know it. I have heard that the recipes are amazing.  

Have you seen an allergist? I always had allergies but they became really bad when I moved to the area I live now. I saw an allergist and when I was tested I was basically allergic to everything. I started allergy shots, and now I am rarely bothered with allergies and only have to go once a month for the shots. As for the picky eaters and veggies don't have any advice. As an adult I am not crazy about vegetables either. I ground up broccoli really fine in a blender and then sprinkle into foods, soups, chili, etc. 

Try 'skinnytaste' website for some great ideas! 

Fritzy- I actually am doing allergy shots now, I'm on my 3rd vials, so not very far in yet. She told me it could take a year to notice a difference, so I'm glad to hear that you have had some success. I have to give myself the shots and am supposed to do it for at least 2 years, so not fun, but I'm willing to do anything to get through these allergies. Thanks to everyone for the site and book ideas, it's worth a shot. I do need to try to use my food processor and maybe if I grind the veggies up they won't notice, but they're terrible, if they see the veggies, and they are usually around when I'm cooking. These are teenagers, not small children so they're harder to trick.