What are your top recipes and tips for getting your DCs to eat more fruit and vegetables? Tell Tesco and you could win a £200 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Tesco have asked us to find out what Mumsnetters' top tips and recipes are for getting their DCs to eat more fruit and veg.

Here’s what Tesco say, “Studies show that 90% of 7 – 14 year olds do not eat their five-a-day. Our Farm to Fork Trails allow children to touch, smell and taste a wide range of fruit and vegetables - some make fruit kebabs. Parents and Teachers tell us that children are more willing to try new varieties after the visit. We’d love to hear what you’re doing at home to encourage your DCs to eat more fruit and veg.”

So, what are your top tips for getting your DCs to eat fruit and vegetables? Perhaps you hide mushrooms in pasta sauce? Or maybe you have another method for sneaking peas and carrots into meals? Do you have any fail-safe recipes that your DCs love?

Whatever your top recipes and tips are, Tesco would love to hear them!

Everyone who adds their comments to the thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 Tesco voucher.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Tesco in further marketing material (anonymously, of course).

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Maybe if Tesco didnt put the price of grapes 50p from one week to the next I'd buy more

blended veg in an omelette always does the trick :)

My number one tip is to hand out any kind of fruit and veg they want to them while I am cooking their dinner and they are pestering me because they are hungry. I usually get two portions in them that way. It also takes the stress out of dinner time because I'm more relaxed about them objecting to veg as I know they have already had some.

Sometimes, when the toddler is having a stubborn day, he will go mad for tomato pasta... Thanks to the food processor, he is getting tomato, courgette, peppers, onion, garlic, broccoli.... Tastes good too!

All of our sauce/casserole type meals are based on a generous helping of diced fried onion, carrot & celery, so if I'm making spag bog, for instance, there'll be those veg, plus the tomato in the sauce. And I also add frozen veg in with the pasta in the last few minutes of cooking. It's usually just peas but because it's mixed in with the pasta, there's a good helping on everyone's plate.

My DD is 4 and knows that eating fruit and vegetables makes you big and strong. She loves most fruit but can struggle with veg. She's getting better and is inspired by seeing athletes and gymnasts and the like as we tell her they eat lots of vegetables to be big and strong. A recent hit was a roast pork dinner where she drowned EVERYTHING in homemade apple sauce. All veg got eaten that day .

I don't tend to hide things in sauces - I find it makes my children too suspicious! I put big chunks in, and they can leave them at the side of their plate if they want. I make pasta sauce with big bits of carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms, courgettes, olives and tomato. They used to eat round all the veg, now they eat it all (except DD2 still leaves the olives)

I find they sometimes eat more veg if they are separated on the plate and look attractive. So I serve several types of veg with each meal, all with space round them so they don't touch the others, and neatly cut up. DD2 likes to dip, a bit of ketchup on her plate will have her dipping most of her veg.

If I'm serving salad or raw veg with a meal, I often put it on the table first - they are hungry and eat lots of the veg while they are waiting for the rest of the meal, rather than filling up on meat or pasta and leaving the veggies until last.

They love fruit anyway, but they are more likely to eat, say, a whole apple if it is sliced and cored, rather than if they just embark on it whole.

Eat it in front of them.
Only offer fruit and veg between meals.
Put fewer carbs on the plate and more veg so he is hungry enough to eat it.

Mine have never been anti veg per se, but if I want to introduce a new one that I think they might take against for some reason, I usually put it in a soup. They help me make soup, and they'll eat pretty much anything that has been souped.

That, and growing veg ourselves. They are so proud when they eat some veg that we've grown at home.

I use roasted butternut squash to bulk out a bolognese.
I make ratatouille and puree it to use as a pasta sauce or pizza sauce.
Roast Chickpeas in oil served as a snack.
Apple slices with peanut butter
Toast with chocolate spread and chopped banana.

In other words they can have what they like but it must have some decent food included.

Sometimes as a treat I take them out to lunch for Vegetable Soup - this is all the cafe serves (or so they believe). They now think that Veg soup is a huge treat.

Keep trying, they'll generally eat it eventually.

Lead by example!!! I know so many parents who try to get their kids to eat fruit/veg yet it is the parents that turn their noses at it, lol!

My very independent (just turned) 3 year old loves to eat pear now that I let him peel it himself... Well he holds the peeler, then has a guiding hand from mummy.. With most children involving them in the process whether it be the growing of fruit and vegetables, the preparation, and/or the cooking goes a long way to get them to try more fruit and veg.

A boring selection of everyday fruit, apples, grapes, bananas, satsumas which they will eat daily in lunchboxes interspersed with more exciting fruit like blueberries and pomegranate seeds occasionally which they'll demolish. Growing some fruit and veg, peas raw straight from the pod, raspberries, foraged blackberries.

I hide vegetables in every meal: mushrooms and peppers in pasta sauces, beans in vegetable chillies, butternut squash in curries, peas and sweetcorn in risotto. I still serve separate vegetables like sprouts, carrots, green beans, broccoli, spinach with the meal and encourage my children to try a bit.

With the fruit I buy fruit bars, mixed fruits pots and I always suggest my children a fruit like an apple or a satsuma as a snack.

I great thing is serving them humus with carrots and cucumber, they seem to like it.

Re cucumber (ugh!) in particular, remember that the child may like vegetables that you do not!

My kids love fruit loads and veggies ( they like the usual junk food too but have never objected to fruit and veg so guess I am lucky).

Some evenings I make them a fruit platter with chopped apples, bananas, grapes etc and they wolf it down; have an apple cutter is hugely useful as sliced Apple so eatable.

We also have fruit on porridge in the morning such as sliced banana or grated Apple amd raisins. Yum.

We are all big vegetable fans too. Kids love stir fry or veggies on the side such as frozen peas or veggies steamed with little butter and sprinkle of salt such as tender stem, mini corns and mange tout.

One tip is I let them help to do the online shopping sometime so they pick out the veggies and fruit they want and then they would usually eat that as they have picked it :)

My 2 year old is averse to every fruit and vegetable known to man. He knows by the texture it would seem that it belongs to the fruit and vegetable family and refuses it which given how much fruit and vegetables he sees me in particular eating is surprising. With respect of this I serve pureed fruit in his weetabix and yoghurt/custard. He has soup before his evening meal which I make with carrots, leeks, sweet potatoes and turnip and always has some sort of vegetable on his plate which he always whines at that he "not like this" and discards it from his plate. I offer him fruit throughout the day every day and when I go to eat fruit or vegetables similarly offer him them. One day it will work??

Leading by example is definitely the key. Talk enthusiastically about fruit and veg and they too get interested in it.
At my sons school the after school club leader walks through the coridoor with the most enormous platter of fruit including strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, melon, grapes etc and they are all washed and cut into bite size pieces and she enthusiastically walks into the main hall and presents this colourful platter to the children and they practically dive in and eat it all.
It has become a bit of an occasion now. Every evening when they have a break the platter appears!

I make a game up with fruit smoothies where we make magic potions with fruit so one potion might be a strawberry and banana smoothie which will give us magical powers.
Veg is more difficult but I find if I explain what each veg does and get my child involved with preparing and peeling then she will eat it or at least try it. We also bribe with dessert of their choice!

Take off the pressure.

I expect my dc to try anything new, or anything that they haven't tried in a year, but do not make them eat it. I try never yo have more than one challenging food on his/her plate. There is always something in the meal that I know s/he will eat. If they don't want to eat something then I want no fuss: just leave it.

Seems to help.

i make fruit kebabs with the little ones and they love it. this gets my oldest eating fruit whereas usually she wont let it past her lips. my youngest are fruit and veg lovers so i dnt have any issue there.

i always offer fruit after school instead of crisps quite often they will chose the fruit. I put extra veg in spaghetti bolognese to make the meat go a bit further and increase their veg intake. They are quite good at eating veg but i do try to encourage more fruit such as pineapple which they love cut in chunks.

I don't find it is a battle, though having said that the main hit of the stir fry last night was the strips of beef. We offer lots of vegetables at each meal - and just expect them to have some. Also when we make spaghetti bolognese or cottage pie, we chop up lots of vegetables to go in the sauce.

We cook together and I encourage Ds to try everything as it's being prepared and cooked.

I always put three veg on his plate - he knows he needs to eat at least two.

He has always loved soup and I make a vat of it at the weekend so we have some throughout the week as well.