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.

If your DD loves curry then I'd sneak as many veg into that as possible! Really easy...and it's possible she won't taste it because of the strong spices.

i baked a lovely cake today from hugh FW's allotment handbook - it was bursting with carrots, courgettes, apples and raisins and ds would eat the whole one if i let him! it is quite time consuming to prepare all the fruit but prob easier if you have a food processor.

it is worth doing because you simply cannot buy anything like it from a shop or even from a farmers market

I've come to this a bit late but here are some ideas off the top of my head:

Smoothies - if you can't be bothered to make one then Innocent do a kiwi one with no bananas. Expensive but good.

Ricotta pancakes. These are great for when DD isn't in the mood to sit down to eat, or when we're out and about. 2 eggs, 5 tablespoons of flour, a 250g tub of ricotta, plus a handful of oats. Then add veg of choice - defrosted frozen spinach is good (squeeze thoroughly to get rid of all the water first) along with peas or sweetcorn. Today I did some with blitzed leftover steamed green veg (cauliflower, broccoli, leek and savoy cabbage). Fry in dollops in veg oil, blot on kitchen paper and cool before serving. This is a also a good way of getting dairy in if your DD doesn't like cheese. And you can do sweet ones with some sugar and blueberries.

Egg-fried rice is another good way of getting cooked veg into a meal - stir fry leftover cooked rice and veg, then crack a beaten egg into it and stir until cooked. You can sprinkle some soy sauce on once you're finished if you're not worried about salt.

Hope that helps?

DD loves pancakes so will def try those.

And she loves rice so will def try those too.

One thing that my DD loves doing is smelling things from the kitchen cupboards - spices, herbs, different kinds of tea, etc are all good. Her favourite is raw garlic which I keep chopped up in the freezer: she eats little bits of that straight from the bag. I think this game has helped her become more adventurous about food. Might be worth a go? Try to include some good fruit smells when you can, eg ripe melons or mangoes etc.

shome made smoothy

Banana
soft froozen fruit (tesco doing three for two atm )
ice cubes
liquidizer
coctail umbrella

Wizz it all up and put in a glass with a coctail umbrella and pretend its all grown up adult cocktail

My two used to have theirs in the bath

Mashed potato - mash in some parsnip and swede. This is good for mash as a potato portion as well as on things like cottage pie.

Cook up some veg - I usually do peppers, mushrooms, courgette and onions - puree them with the handblender and then mix into minced meat. Especially good for spag bol as the tinned tomatoes hides the extra veg and and can be used to explain any unexpected lumps!

Make a casserole and chop up sede in the same way as potato. The gravy will disguise the colour and you can say it is potato.

Can you tell I have a child that doesn't eat veg!

Oh and there are lots of recipes around for chocolate cake with either beetroot or courgette in. Again disguised by the chocolate colour...

Thanks I'm making notes of everything

Shes over my mums at the moment, so will be doing some stuff tomorrow and see what happens

It sounds to me like she is pretty run down which is why she is probably off her food. Can you give her the childrens chewable multivits until she feels better? or Floridax (sp?) mixed into something she does like. I would also try to make a really decent chicken stock and give it to her as a drink. My LO loves to drink gravy from her dish but I like the thought of her getting all of that goodness.

Actually it's possible that she might not be able to taste much ATM either if her throat has been bad.

My DD loves to drink gravy too.

I agree she is run down and has gone off her food esp knowing shes got a scratchy throat.

If you have a good receipe for chicken stock i'd be really grateful

I have just seen that she loves rice - could you make her a rissotto with the really good quality chicken stock? it's creamy and satisfying too.

I actually buy the waitrose organic chicken stock as mine always comes out a bit cloudy and tasteless - maybe someone else will have a recipe for her...

never made risotto before,can you just chuck anything in?

I do have on my shopping list for the week risotto rice.
Will also have a look for chicken stock.

DS is dreadful with veg. I batch cook a hidden vegetable sauce, freeze it in ice cube trays and then bag it up.

It consists of a carton of passata and a selection of veg including carrots, leeks, sweetcorn and onions. Boil it up for about half an hour until everything is soft, then puree using hand blender, may need to add a teaspoon of sugar and some tomato puree to make it to taste. DS happily scoffs that on pasta, but it would go equally well on rice, in fact I'm sure I have a tomato rissoto recipe where you use half stock and half made up sauce to add to the rice.

RM thanks I'll try that. do you vary the veg you use?

I'd appreciate it if you could share with me the tomato rissoto receipe pls.

Thanks

Yes you can vary veg, DS is a vegaphobic so I have to make sure it still looks red, looks nervously around hoping certain censurious mumsnetters aren't around to berate her for not just feeding her child a plate of brussel sprouts and telling them to like it or lump it.

Ok recipe is 8oz risotto rice, 1/2 pint tomato sauce, 3/4 pint veg stock ( I use the Marigold)

• Put rice in saucepan stir in one third of sauce until rice is coated
• Add stock, bring to the boil, Turn heat down to minimum, cover pan and leave for 20 mins
• Remove from heat and stir in remaining tomato sauce

Have made it once can testify it is nice with some parmesan on top, DS fussy little darling that he is firmly rejected it and staunchly refuses to eat rice.

Thanks everso much

DD loves rice and would eat rice everyday tbh.

Also I think other MNetters may give me a talking to as I wouldn't eat a plate of brussel sprouts either

Also another thing is, your DD is nearly 5, up until now your strategy of just giving her normal plates of food has worked. Wish we had stuck to that when DS was younger as its a pita trying to get him back to normal eating now ( he is 3.5 and very fussy)

It might be best just to keep doing and use the veg packed recipes as additions to what you are doing otherwise your DD will get less accustomed to seeing veg on her plate and less used to eating it. So I wouldn't do anything too dramatic.

Maybe vitamin tablets would be a good idea too, DS gets them under the guise of being treat to keep him healthy.

Will keep that in mind - No dramatic changes.

Thought about Vitamin Tabs, which would be best or does it really matter?!

I agree with Rookiemater, if she is feeling a bit under the weather I wouldn't really start all of these new recipes just yet, just let her eat what she wants with additional vit tabs (no idea of brands - sorry) until she feels better.
I used to always suffer with tonsillitis so I really sympathise, it can make you feel really lousy/lacklustre and tired all the time.
I'll look up some risotto recipes and stock ones and get back to you...

Thanks I really appreciate it.

I suffered as a child and used to knock me for six. Hate seeing her like this as she normally loves her food.

Will have to look at vitamins, might pop into Holland & Barrett as they normally have good advice.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3522/roast-chicken-risotto

i never use wine in my risotto - prefer to drink it!

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/easy-chicken-stock

looks like a good recipe - no mess no fuss!

I'm with you prefer to drink it

Will try those in the week, they look yummy.