How can I introduce more fruit & veg into my daughters diet?

[MuppetsMuggle]

Title says it all really.

my daughter has had tonsilitus 4 times in the last 2mths. meaning she hasn't recovered from it properly.

i want to get more fruit & veg into her diet, to build up her immune system. but shes quite a fussy eater.

any tips i will be grateful.

Hide it in food? I put a fruitpura type pot in DS's porridge in the morning (counts as 1 portion). He mainly gets his veg within meals eg, tomatoes in spag bol etc, he's rubbish at eating a separate portion of veg at a meal. DS also likes to eat fruit chopped up in a little tub / bowl that he can carry about. Raisins count as fruit, does your DD like them? What about fresh juice?

Thanks for replying.

I only have fresh orange juice or apple and blackcurrant squash, or milk in the fridge.

She loves raisins, grapes, peaches and apples. she loves other fruits but is going thru the stage I don't like them anymore even tho shes been eating since 4mths old.

Spag bol is her fav meal so has tomatoes in that. She likes carrots also babycorn occasionally.

Loved brocolli & cauliflower but again going thru phase where I she doesn't like it.

Is getting really hard to get her to eat dinner at the moment.

how old is she?

I can sympathise, my DS is going through a not eating dinner phase too for about a week. Argh!

4.8yrs MrsB.

You can grate carrots/courgettes into spag ol and it just kinda blends into the mince.

DD (6) will eat almost any vegetable if it has cheese sauce on it.

My DD has never liked cheese and is quite observant about whats in her food iykwim.

Give it to her when she is really hungry - e.g. my dcs will have a little pot of frozen peas or edamame while they wait for supper to be ready.

What sort of food does she like? Soups are a good way of getting lots of vegetables in.

If there has been a limited range of vegetables that she has always liked she might be bored of them now. Maybe try cooking them in different ways - roasting carrots, steaming broccoli with garlic and butter, cauliflower cheese. Try some really different things (my dd does not like peppers at all but for some reason loves them pickled). In fact as long as you're not worried about her weight, I'd add butter and garlic to all the vegetables you give her.

My ds would leave all his vegetables if given the choice. I tell him he should eat them because they are good for him, and it works to an extent - he will eat the ones he doesn't dislike. He is 3.5.

We have garlic with most things which is good.

DD has to be in the mood for soup too. Maybe if I take her shopping and get her to choose some veg and then cook with it together.

I try and mix swede in with mash which she seems to eat.

Neither of my DSs are lovers of vegetables..

I batch cook a lot. For any tomatoey based sauce I add carrots, onions (red and white), mushrooms, courgettes, garlic, extra tinned toms, tom puree & peppers. I chop these in a pampered chef chopper, but have pureed in the past. This gets made into lasagne, spag bol, chilli or mediterranean chicken/pork dishes.

Stews are also good for hiding veg. Parsnips, carrots, swede, onions, peppers...

My other options are baby corn, corn on the cobs, peas, school bars, raisins, fruit juice, smoothies, houmous, baked beans, spaghetti hoops with hidden veg (Heinz), frutapura in porridge, carrot cake, sponge cakes with lot of apple in the mixture, nuts & seeds... (I've been doing this for years!)

I buy frozen pre-chopped garlic from Morrisons. Under £1 for a massive bag. Great for adding to everything, and much more cost effective than fresh.

Ooh, you can also buy ready made mash from M&S with carrot and swede in which is delicious, and ice-land do frozen mash with veg in, which is really nice, and microwaves quickly (good for a sore throat).

I seem to recall when I had almost constant tonsillitis, I lived on pancakes and spaghetti hoops! Had them (the tonsills!) removed at 7 though! According to my mum we all fattened up a bit after the op (my sisters had the same problem), as we'd always eaten v.little due to sore throats. We passed tonsillitis between each other all the time!

Yeah i've thought about batch cooking stuff and adding extra veg etc and chopping up quite thinly so its disgused.

Will look at buying those heinz tins with hidden veg. She already loves baked beans.

thanks

Soup mashed up with potatoes
smoothies frozen into ice cubes.

They won't take my DDs tonsils out as they consider her to young. I suffered when I was a child but didn't have my tonsils out till I was 20.

Maybe get her involved with the cooking? If she's made the food herself, she might be more keen to eat it...

some cooked sweet potato in tomato based sauce is great. Tastes sweet and adds a nice thickness to the sauce.

DD is allergic to banana, which is a bugger tbh. How do i make a smoothie without banana?

will try grating things into dinner with the chunks. i like that idea

make home made ic lollies with fruit juice, layered with mashed up kiwi and raspvberry. Nice colours and they are getting the fruit.

sounding dim now, how do you layer an ice lolly?

well, tbh, it is a bit of a pita...
You put in layer of kiwi and freeze for 1/2 hour, then layer of orange juice (and freeze, then say, rasp coulis. Worth doing if you ware making lots. Total faff for say, 2 or 3

My rubbishly picky boys think a home made ice lolly is a great treat so it is worth my while to do it occasionally.

Hmm might try that MR thanks

I am a master of making cake with fruit and veg too

recently my kids have eaten and enjoyed choc and beetroot cake, pumpkin and ginger cake and courgette cake

See thats the trouble i'm not very good when it comes to baking cakes, and I really have to be in the mood to make em.