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Hidden veg suggestions please

14 replies

Breatheslowly · 17/06/2013 18:03

DD is not keen on fruit or veg. She eats sweetcorn, baked beans, strawberries, grapes and occasionally melon or banana. She will happily eat bolognese made with loads of veg and very little meat - this includes carrots, onion, celery, pepper and lots of tomato. The veg isn't exactly hidden, but it somehow it passes her veg filter. She can't even be bribed to try other fruit or veg. She is also not keen on potato.

Do you have any other ideas for meals that have hidden veg in them?

OP posts:
apatchylass · 17/06/2013 18:47

Hi

This is my best plan as it gets in the greens without a fuss:

Take chopped onion, finely chopped fennel, defrosted and drained spinach nuggets (start with about 4 per 500g minced meat, build up to double that.) Blendthem all together with an egg until the mixture is frothy and then stir it into minced meat to make burgers. Add wholemeal breadcrumbs if the mix is too soft, then form into burgers, grill, stick in a burger bun with a small handful of chips on the side and a serving of corn or beans, and they have no idea they've eaten two of their five a day.

I also use a similar mix of veg to the ones you use in your Bolognese, reduce the sauce until it's very thick, and blend it into a very fine puree then spread it quite thickly onto pizza base and top with mozzarella or cheddar. That gets onions, peppers, courgettes, mushrooms, tomatoes into them.

If you mince leek, celeriac, parsnip, mushroom and butternut squash, cook very gently until soft and add them to the meat when making shepherd's pie, they become almost invisible. Not ideal if she doesn't eat potato, but if she likes pastry you could put the mix inside a homemade pie or pasty.

For my fussy eater I introduced tiny amounts of new things into food he already liked, or put together things he liked then added new things to the mix. So you could make a cowboy casserole of baked beans and sausages or bacon. If she eats that, add some onion and finely chopped red pepper and mushroom next time.

Make a milkshake of milk, a banana, some strawberries and a bit of sugar or honey and vanilla essence.

Bake banana bread? Or apple and cinnamon muffins? Or raspberry and white chocolate. For a while I got away with chopping dried fruit, such as mango and apricot onto ice cream and pretending they were chewy sweets.

Breatheslowly · 17/06/2013 18:55

Some great ideas - thanks. Strangely she doesn't like cake, except apple cake, so that is definitely an idea. She would love to help me make muffins.

OP posts:
iwantavuvezela · 17/06/2013 18:56

Fritters? I make the sweetcorn ones, you could perhaps do other combo's?

nextphase · 17/06/2013 18:59

Veg and savoury muffins,
Grating up veg and adding to stew / mince based dishes
Smoothies
Ice lollies with blended fruit/smoothies as the base.

Would he help you cook, and try little bits/lick fingers as she's cutting them up?

Good luck!

velvetysquirrel · 17/06/2013 19:00

Could you try veg soup and blend it? My DS eats all sorts of veg that way that he would normally pick at/refuse Grin.

Facebaffle · 17/06/2013 19:17

Sauce made of tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery with added garlic and pesto for flavour (you can experiment with other ingredients). Puree and the pour over pasta and sprinkle with cheese.

ChutesTooNarrow · 17/06/2013 19:44

My DS had a horrible fussy phase, many sympathies!

I did:

Apple grated into pancake batter to make pancakes
Wheatabix moistened with apple juice instead of milk
A veg tomato sauce like yours for spaghetti but also as a pizza topping
Root veg, carrots, leeks mashed with potato
Carrot and sweet potato fritters
Courgette bread (I just twanged a grated courgette into normal dough mix in bread maker and added flour until it wasn't too wet)
Banana ice cream (freeze peeled bananas, then chuck in food processor)
I reckon I would have got away with spinach in pasta pesto if I had finely chopped in food processor.

Thankfully DS has now started eating more!

BikeRunSki · 17/06/2013 20:00

I second fritters or fruit in pancakes. We do Sunshine fritters (sweetcorn and grated carrot) or Traffic Light fritters (+ grated courgette)

Carrot and courgette muffins recipe on CBeebies website

"Red sauce" sweet potato and onion cooked in passata and blended smooth. Bit of spinach too, buy not enough to show. Use on pasta with meatballs and as pizza base.

Apple crumble

Baked bananas (stick choc Buttons in banana, bake for 10 mins).

Veg kebabs with chunks of chicken

Fruit kebabs with greek yoghurt to dip into
(My DC will eat most things off a stick)

Get them really interested in getting 5 a day, keep a tally, decide what you are going to have next. At tea time say stuff like "Oh no, you've only had x, that means you need to have y before bed time" and make it a challenge.

Sweet potato wedges

Try stuff raw. Try the same stuff roasted. And steamed.

Blend green veg into pesto.

Fruit, squirty cream, meringues.

eatyourveg · 17/06/2013 20:04

The blender is a godsend. Have you tried traffic lights?

If she'll eat mashed potato you can put tomatoes and red peepers in the first one, sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot or orange pepper in the second and spinach, peas, green beans, cabbage, green pepper etc in the third. My dc loved them

Tieni · 17/06/2013 20:05

Grating veg into sauces really works.

DS loves broccoli quiche but refuses to eat broccoli on its own Confused I've not actually told him it's broccoli in the quiche

Spookey80 · 17/06/2013 20:11

Bump

Drladybird · 17/06/2013 22:11

My nephew will not go near a vegetable so I've been trying to think about new recipes to get him to eat some. I just blogged these Multi-Veg Muffins which are super tasty and contain 4 different types of veg. My daughter loved them.

My daughter will eat any kind of veg (spinach and all) if it is in a curry sauce (not spicy) or creamy/ cheese sauce. Could you sneak some veggies into a flavour combination that your little one really enjoys?

Bedat10 · 17/06/2013 22:25

I have a fruit and veg refuser. However these things he will eat:

  • peas (if he's in the right mood!)
  • soup - as long as its vaguely orange/red he'll eat it all up
  • pasta sauce made with butternut squash, tin tomatoes, tin kidney beans, onions, carrots, a potato, veg stock cube
  • chickpeas and kidney beans - no idea why these pass his filter, I put them in passata with veggie sausages ( he thinks they're real) and he loves it
  • apple/rhubarb/blackberry crumble - although this is beginning to get hit and miss
  • dried strawberries, cranberries and banana
  • humzingers and some Ella pouches.
  • if you put mushrooms in a processor they look like mince so I add them to all mince dishes! And sometimes omelettes...
That's about it! But with a combination of these he vaguely gets his 5 a day! It's soo annoying. I love fruit and veg so no idea why he's like this! Hoping he'll grow out of it someday
BriansBrain · 17/06/2013 22:40

Some great pasta sauce recipes and I didn't think of using them for pizza.

I normally roast red pepper, onion, sweet potatoe, courgette and Aubergne with a splash of balsamic, blitz and add to passata for spag Bol/lasagne sauce.

I've recently learnt that I need to add more greens to our diet so will try and sneak some spinach in there as well.

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