Hidden veg meals

[Misty9]

Please help me feed dd (4) something other than pasta and cheese! She will not eat anything with veg she can see (or obviously taste, like cauli mash) so spinach or anything green is out. She picks out onion from bolognaise...

She also won't eat anything crunchy/chewy or dry except biscuits . And she would rather go hungry than eat these things. My other dc eats anything and I love veg. We all eat together. Please help!

[Misty9]

Forgot to say, in principle I disagree with hiding veg but dd is having very painful poos and I don't want eating to be a battleground. I'm going to ask for lactulose but would rather get veg into her. She will eat fruit but only tinned peaches, strawberries and peeled pear. She won't eat skin...

[Blondie1984]

How about getting more veg into the sauce you make bolognaise (or other pasta) with - like this one www.healthylittlefoodies.com/veggie-pasta-sauce/

And some other ideas here www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-hidden-veg-recipes-kids

What sorts of foods does she like/currently eat?

Do you think she would eat something like banana pancakes? Or have smoothies that you could hide veg in alongside fruit?

Might also be worth seeing if you can sprinkle some linseeds/flaxseeds into her food to help increase her fibre intake - and make sure she is drinking plenty

[daphine2004]

I hide the veg from my DD and DH! I roast Mediterranean veg abd red onion, then add into a pan with tinned tomatoes, garlic and chilli, before adding mushrooms. Let it cook through and then blitz the lot. It’s just veg pasta sauce, but I use it for bolognaise too. So you only see the sauce and mince. It’s super tasty too.

A life hack also is I buy the root veg mash as it’s an extra two portions of veg. I even blend onions into gravy if we are having it with dinner.

It’s hard even they struggle like this. I had the Annabelle Karmel cookbook with toddler meals in and some were really tasty. Maybe something like that may help too??

[Brugmansia]

Get a good grater, i have a Joseph Joseph one. Then when making things like Bolognese, curries, casseroles, grate in veg early on just after the onions, like carrot, peppers. I mostly do it as it makes it very quick to cook a single child size meal but it also means the veg cooks down quickly into a sauce and is not visible.

[Noboozeforme]

Yep, grate all veg and stick it in a sause.

[Misty9]

I do need to remember to grate more veg into tomato based sauces but what else can we eat?! She will eat fish, cheese, risotto (with no bits), pasta, pizza (plain), skinless sausages, chicken (sometimes), cucumber (we get through a lot!), bread, mash, olives and gravy/sauces.

It's also complicated by the fact that I'm gluten free (not by choice) and we prefer to eat together.

[Ricekrispie22]

Burgers www.hungryhealthyhappy.com/hidden-vegetable-beef-burgers/
Carrot cake
Chocolate and beetroot brownies
Shepherds pie www.bbc.com/food/recipes/hidden_vegetables_05418
Meatballs realfood.tesco.com/recipes/sunitas-secret-veg-meatballs.html
Courgette muffins realfood.tesco.com/recipes/cheesy-courgette-muffins.html
Sweetcorn fritters www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/sweetcorn-fritters/
Stir puréed roasted red peppers into tomato sauce and use it in enchiladas and as pizza sauce.
Chicken nuggets kidgredients.com.au/the-tastiest-hidden-veggie-panko-coated-chicken-nuggets-ever/
Cheesy cauliflower garlic bread www.slimmingeats.com/blog/syn-free-cheesy-cauliflower-garlic-bread
Butternut risotto www.lifeasastrawberry.com/butternut-squash-risotto/

[Blondie1984]

When you make risotto try adding in some cauliflower "rice" - because it's the same colour and will absorb the flavour of the stock hopefully she won't notice - and along similar lines when you do pasta mix in some courgetti (you might want to peel the courgette if you think the green bits will give it away)
You can buy sausages now that have veg in them as well as meat as well as ones that are just veg (Sainsburys sell a range) so might be worth giving those a shot
And do you think she would try butternut squash waffles?

Have you tried to get her involved in the buying and making of food?

[delphguelph]

Is she influenced by food on TV? I. E. In Peppa Pig Mrs Rabbit makes carrot soup : so now DS always asks for carrot soup. As long as the soup is orange and blended I can put anything in it! Sweet potato, butternut squash, lentils, tomatoes, red and orange pepper, etc etc.

[FairfaxAikman]

Jamie Oliver's Seven Veg pasta sauce is awesome. We add sweet corn after blending to make it eight veg.
Tastes slightly sweet.
Word of warning though, it makes A LOT. Our freezer is full of it.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/seven-veg-tomato-sauce/

[delphguelph]

Banana bread, carrot cake and courgette cake is a winner too. Tell her the courgette is apple?

[Misty9]

fairfax yes my husband made that sauce and there was tons! Ended up chucking it out from the freezer a few months later as we just don't eat that much tomato sauce!

I have tried to get her involved in cooking etc and she loves to do that- but won't then eat the result and she doesn't really watch tv so that's out (I know, weird child!)

Thanks for the recipe links, I'm going to make shepherds pie this week and hide lots of veg in that. I can't remember which root veg she's unknowingly eaten in mash before though - celeriac or swede. Which one is most tasteless?

[Misty9]

Oh and she'll eat banana muffins but cake with "bits in" is out