Recipes to encourage veg-hating toddler...to eat veg....

[MyRealNamesBernard]

I know I am probably asking the impossible.... but I have run out of ideas. DS is 2 and used to love his veggies, but in the last few months he's gone right off them. He literally doesn't even touch them! I can't really get him to eat any fruit except blueberries.

I've got a few hidden veg sauces in the freezer and he will eat things like bolognaise (which is obviously superb for hiding away veg). But I can't feed him this every day. Besides, I've got two older DDs who are fed up to the back teeth with hidden veg pasta sauces for dinner any night.

Can anyone provide me with some inspiration....?

"any night"? Should have been "every night"!

Mac and cheese with peas and sweetcorn is quite a good one, or you can put spinach in too.

Spinach cubes in the freezer are brilliant for adding to anything actually.

Have you tried creamy risotto with finely chopped veg?

A strange one with Ds is coleslaw which he loves... Even though he hates carrots and cabbage!

Carrot and potato mash or swede mash - all are quick to do and hide other root veg in.

I also do baked sweet potato with cheese and salad.

If you make shepherd's pie, fish pie etc, then finely chopped veg hide well in there!

I have one of these too. It's not good! I try and give soup before he has dinner then I know he has some veg. I add pureed fruit to custard, weetabix and porridge. Offer fruit and vegetables at every meal.

Thank you for these suggestions! I have just been out and bought ingredients for coleslaw... that is such a good idea!

We struggle with fish pie, as he picks out the veg, but I am going to try and - as you suggest - chop (possibly even grate) very small so the veg is barely noticeable.

Creamy risotto.... genius. I am going to look up some recipes. And then I am going to dust off my soup recipe book...

I often use leeks as a base with onions for.things like risotto. I also put leek into Mac cheese and it goes unnoticed.
I sometimes put spinach in Mac cheese, and tiny cut up carrots in fish pie.

soup, or spread for sandwiches (like a very thick smooth pasta sauce I guess, but can be used cold too).
Use veggies for other games, like colours (find the green, find the yellow etc) or craft, so he gets used to having them around again rather than just having them about at meal times??

Chill...chill...chill. No matter how much it bothers you, make it appear a non-issue.

For some meals serve hidden-veg dishes, for some meals serve visible-veg dishes, and for some meals serve veg-on-the-side dishes. Whatever he eats, he eats. Whatever he leaves, he leaves. Never comment, never persuade, never praise.

Harder said than done, I know!

Frittata/ omelette with some veg in, my DS loved omelette with onion, cheese, peas and sweetcorn in, though he would not eat the veggies on there own

Carrots/swede/parsnips/sweet potato mashed with potato.
Shredded cabbage in pork meatballs/burgers.
All kinds of soup.
Carrot cake.
Shepherds pie with veg in
Chicken pie with veg in

Quiche is also good for putting veg in: onions/leeks/asparagus/tomato/broccoli/sweet corn/peas...

I grate veg into.things, and make.loads of soup. Exactly the same issue here, though it.might cheer you that my ds is now 3 and trying hard to.like veg- he.sees it as more.grown up.

I make sweet potato chips, parsnip chips, carrot chips - you get the idea!
Multi veg muffins are also a winner usually
Frozen chopped spinach goes in everything - scrambled eggs/omelette, pasta sauce, curry sauce etc
Brocolli or cauliflower can be crumbled up so its barely noticeable and put in rice or sauces

My fussy DD loves pesto with spinach blended in. We didn't have much spinach left last time so I added cauliflower and she wolfed it down.

I also add cauliflower to cheesy pasta.

If there is any visible veg, for example grated carrot in a cheese sandwich she refuses to eat it. It's the same with peas or sweetcorn, if she sees them she doesn't eat.

Stupid question but what fruit can I puree to go with natural yoghurt? She won't eat much fruit but used to like the innocent fruit tubes with yoghurt.

Sorry for hijacking your thread :)

Amelia buy frozen fruit for pureeing, most supermarkets do bags of mix, Waitrose obvs the naicest . They do a good tropical one, think they call it smoothie mix. And summer fruits, a mix of rasberries, blackberries, red and blackcurrants. Frozen fruit is nice and soft when defrosted so you could probably just mash. And the flavour is better than fresh. Plus you don't have to have it all in one go, I keep a stash in the freezer and just defrost a wee pot here and there, only takes about an hour.

Thank you I will have a look out for those. Unfortunately Waitrose is about 10 miles away with at least 6 supermarkets in between :)

We make a grated veg pizza which they love for some strange reason. Simplest way is to use a wrap for the base, spread with pasata or tomato paste, then sprinkle with grated carrot, grated courgette, and grated cheese. Goes down a treat.

Sainsburys also do a variety of things, a mix of summer fruits, bags of blueberries, raspberries, cherries. I'm sure all the supermarkets have their own version.

I am apparently something of a frozen fruit afficionado!