Kid friendly fiber recipes

hmhill17

Looking for variety. My daughter needs more.

She will eat whole grain pasta. She eats bananas. I might be able to trick her into eating some mixed into yoghurt. We made oatmeal banana pancakes, but that's only 1g per pancake. I was going to sneak some chia in it, but she caught me. Was thinking I could probably sneak in some ground flax or something else in the next batch.

Other ideas?

LyndaBSS

When I married my late husband, my stepson was 7 years old. He always ate what we ate. Very rarely would he fuss about food.

Do you have to feed your daughter foods separate from what you eat? Has her pediatrician indicated that she needs more fiber?

hmhill17

Yes, doctor did recommend fiber.

She eats what we eat for dinner, though she’s a little picky. Breakfast and lunch I don’t force too much because I’d rather she have food in her stomach for her day.

weatherking2019

does she like soup? you can pretty much blend any veggies and kids love it.

acpgee

Does she eat fruit and vegetables? Veggie fritters and vegetable lasagna are good ways to hide vegetables for kids.

hmhill17

I'm mainly concerned with things I can send to school for snack and lunch and things for her to have at breakfast.

She will eat a lot of vegetables, limited fruit. Dinner I may just giver her cauliflower every night, she loves it.

I've tried chia pudding with honey and strawberries. She said except for the chia it was fine... I've gotten her to eat whole grain pasta. She only eats oatmeal if it's mixed up as part of something like a breakfast bar or the banana and oatmeal pancakes we made today. She'll eat popcorn, but she prefers sweet to salty.

busyPK

Here are some ideas to send to school:
Apple
Popcorn
Carrots
Whole grain bread (sandwich)
Berries
Higher fiber cereal

Not a snack, but beans are also a great source of fiber.

puffbrat

What about beans?

For the oatmeal banana pancakes, try replacing half of the flour with whole wheat flour. My son loves the whole wheat, oatmeal, blueberry, zucchini pancakes we make. It still only comes out to 3g of fiber per serving, but that is at least a little higher.

hmhill17

I'm still working on beans with her. She'll eat baked beans, sometimes. She spit out the banana oatmeal pancakes today.

I've got breakfast bars with oatmeal I make for my son. She will eat those. But even if I replace the AP flour in that recipe with whole wheat flour, MFP says it's just 1g fiber a serving, and that's if I make big servings. I tried adding flax to those once and she noticed and wouldn't eat it. Probably should have used ground.

kosseychick

I use milled flax seed. It's the consistency of a powder. I use it in pancakes, scrambled eggs and smoothies. It's not noticeable at all.

Cahgetsfit

My kid is a pain in the *kitten* eater.

She will eat carrots though - a lot of carrot sticks. And I bake banana muffins/bread using oats, oat flour and whole wheat flour and I will try to sneak in chia seeds (but can't put too much or she'll notice and complain about it). I also make oatmeal cookies for her. Very little sugar in these baked treats btw.

She also eats a tonne of berries and apples.

AustinRuadhain

I have been making something like "ratatouille on pasta" for my teenager. It is quick (15 minutes?) and full of fiber. Finely chop half a red onion, and start cooking it in a skillet. Dice a medium zucchini and add. Cook until zucchini has started to be tender. While onions and zucchini are cooking, stir dried rosemary, oregano, basil, parsley and pepper to taste (I like a lot of all of these). Add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes or fire roasted diced tomatoes. Serve over a small helping of penne pasta, or other pasta of your choice. Variations: add some sliced dinner sausage, like chicken apple sausage; add some fresh spinach; add a handful of frozen corn at end and stir in.

All kinds of dishes with beans/legumes would be high fiber and can be very tasty. A few we like:

• Ricotta and Red Lentil Lasagna
• Black Bean Soup
• Mexican Pinto Beans
• Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
• Hummus and Baby Carrots
• All kinds of roasted veggies: sweet potatoes, red peppers, Brussels sprouts

babyluthi

Make a batch of mince. Pop the usual onions, carrots etc in AND also a couple of extra carrots grated on the smallest setting...they don't know it is in there:)

amyjmiddleton

This sounds like my daughter! Reaching school age and packing a lunchbox became hell.

So she eats carrots sticks
Grapes
Loves her popcorn also
She eats baked beans a lot and loves some high fibre toast that she uses to soak up the sauce.
She loves scrambled eggs but it took a while to get a good mix and we found not putting cheese in she preferred.
I have to force her to eat bananas as she also doesn’t like fruit so much.
She eats apple if I peel the damn skin off and some days I will to get it into her!
She likes cereal (she has sultana bran and finding the sultanas is like a treasure hunt) haha
She will eat chicken and bacon all day long
And peanut butter anything so we used that to move into satay chicken and rice etc and she is loving that.
She doesn’t like to eat things all together. She will eat the ingredients that go into a quiche veggies etc (she will eat corn and broccoli all day long so I laughed when you mentioned your daughter loves cauliflower!) but she won’t eat it all combined ? So weird! Deconstructed everything! She won’t eat a sandwich with fillings only a spread.
She won’t touch dairy! I think she is lactose intolerant because if I beg her to have yoghurt she dry reaches. She also hates cheese and never been a fan of ice cream.
I am able to sneak some yoghurt in as she is obsessed with smoothies and I put in some flaxseed oil, I make honey, banana and she puts in some peanut butter at times hahaha or berry ones.

I have struggled and I feel your pain. And if she is stubborn like mine, they barely eat so I need to know there is something in her tummy to get through the school day!
She’s a pain for friends parties too because she won’t eat pizza or burgers....
I hope I have shared even one new idea for you to try!
We had constipation issues so she always has probiotic balls too with her chewy vitamins in the morning.

vim_n_vigor

If she likes popcorn, you can make that a sweet/salty snack - I used to give that to my kids when they were little with some dried fruit in it. You can also get the flavorings for the popcorn and they have a sweet kettle corn one that might make her enjoy it more. What about oatmeal raising muffins or raisin bran muffins? Those are sweet and have a lot of fiber.

weatherking2019

Beans! Chili, Refried beans, White bean blended into soup to thicken it up etc.

kenyonhaff

Carb balanced tortillas! https://www.missionfoods.com/products/carb-balance-soft-taco-flour-tortillas/

Tacos (especially if you put or puree some black beans in ground beef)
Wraps (your favorite cold cuts, cheese, PB&J, whatever)
Quesadillas

Luke_rabbit

I used to get away with a lot by putting it in muffins or cookies. I would keep the sugar low and add higher fiber ingredients. Baby prunes can replace some of the oil. For example, cocoa banana muffins made with at least half whole grain (or all white whole grain) with strained prunes snuck in. Pumpkin raisin muffins also worked. Best to cook when they can't watch, though.

Does she drink enough? Some of us are bad at liquids, so that can lead to constipation.

BTW, your kid doesn't sound more than just a little picky. The really picky ones ( with food phobia) will usually only eat about a dozen total foods. They will also go hungry rather than eat "what I put in front of them". Mine developed an ulcer and became seriously underweight when we tried that on the advice of a pediatrician.

hmhill17

I've been swapping in whole wheat flour when I can. Trying to find a chia pudding she'll eat but that has been a bust so far. Going to try making the pudding then putting it in the blender with some frozen strawberries. I did discover that her love of any plain pasta extends to whole grain/wheat pasta as long as there's a little parmesan on it so I've kept that for her to eat as a snack. And I've got her drinking more water so that has helped.

This week so far, for example:

Made their breakfast bars with bananas, oatmeal, whole wheat flour, and milled flax this week. 4g a serving
Monday was beef stew and the addition of frozen peas makes a big difference in the fiber count
Tuesday we made Fiesta Casserole - whole grain macaroni, corn, and black beans in it. 6g a serving

yayamom3

hmhill17 wrote: »

Looking for variety. My daughter needs more.

She will eat whole grain pasta. She eats bananas. I might be able to trick her into eating some mixed into yoghurt. We made oatmeal banana pancakes, but that's only 1g per pancake. I was going to sneak some chia in it, but she caught me. Was thinking I could probably sneak in some ground flax or something else in the next batch.

Other ideas?

There are lots of great ideas here. My advice to you, from a mom with three kids, one of whom TRIED to be a picky eater. DO NOT GIVE UP or GIVE IN! Keep reintroducing rejected foods after short periods of time. Require one bite of each dish served at a meal (with reasonable exceptions--we all hate some foods, and there were about 3-4 that we allowed him to hate and we didn't insist on them). He is now a 21 year-old man who will try and eat almost anything. He gets frustrated with friends and girlfriends who are picky eaters. And...wait for it...strawberries, grapes and tomatoes, all foods on his hate list...he eats them all now! Be patient and persistent, mama!

acpgee

I made this today for lunch and it struck me as a good way to get kids to eat lots of vegetables.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020550-vegetable-pajeon-korean-scallion-pancakes-with-vegetables?em_pos=medium&ref=headline&nl_art=1&te=1&nl=cooking&emc=edit_ck_20191028?campaign_id=58&instance_id=13395&segment_id=18307&user_id=5272784fb813c33124ea9098ec15f1b1&regi_id=76269163emc=edit_ck_20191028

rkhanson2014

My daughter is 5 and kinda picky too.

Recently I made savory roasted chickpeas using a parmesan garlic seasoning and she loved them! They turned out slightly crispy so very much like popcorn. High fiber with 2.2g per tablespoon serving.

I also made a black bean butternut squash chili (mild version!) that she really liked. Found the recipe in the MFP blog. Super easy and quick! Top with a couple avocado slices and dollop of sour cream/tofutti sour cream replacement and it was fabulous!!

littlegreenparrot1

How about porridge or overnight oats? Lots of toppings to choose from, you could try grating an apple or carrot into it.

Muffins are easy to make, make them with half wholemeal and half white flour, stir in some berries.

Is it a texture thing? The flavour? Sometimes it helps to get them more involved. Maybe at the weekend everyone tries a new fruit she can choose. Slices of carrot/ cucumber/ sweet pepper with flavoured hummous. Cherry tomatoes.
Wholemeal breads.