Are my vegetables attractive?

RBrigzy
RBrigzy Posts: 152 Member
in Recipes
Last nights vegetables I cunningly disguised as cherry cakes :-

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If you have any ideas for making healthy meals LOOK yummy for kids - I would be interested ....

Thanks very much

Replies

  • nerakma
    nerakma Posts: 77 Member
    My cousin bakes chocolate courgette and chocolate beetroot cakes to get veggies into her kids without them noticing!
  • RBrigzy
    RBrigzy Posts: 152 Member
    My cousin bakes chocolate courgette and chocolate beetroot cakes to get veggies into her kids without them noticing!
    Ooooo love to find recipe ..
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    You didn't fool me...but that's ok cuz I :heart: my veggies! I was introduced to fruits and vegetables as soon as I could eat. Camouflage was never needed - unless it was something like okra. Too slimy and hairy. :sick:

    ETA: My husband told me his dad used to chop up veggies into tiny, tiny pieces and mix them into whatever they were eating (casseroles, etc.) so little sister would eat them. Maybe you could try that?
  • NarneyK
    NarneyK Posts: 264 Member
    Hi,
    I'm always promoting this site but it really is good. She has a kid friendly section that might be worth checking out. Really healthy meals and everything I've tried has been good and easy to tweak to fit your fridge/pantry. She also has some good zucchini breads that might be checking out. She makes little zucchini pizzas and zucchini lasagna that are nice as well :)

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/search/label/Kid Friendly Meals

    Also, if you throw your veggies in a food processor, it makes them easy to disguise in pasta sauce. The sauce becomes a little chunky looking but if you can look past that, it will get the veggies in :) I've done this with zucchini and carrots a lot.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    make spaghetti bolognaise style sauce with plenty of tomato in it, then blend. Then you can put whatever veggies you like in it and it's still red and tastes like bolognaise sauce. Also, adding barbeque sauce to it makes it taste like pizza sauce. My kids aren't too bad when it comes to eating veggies in stuff, but they like pasta sauce better if I call it pizza flavoured sauce and put barbeque sauce in it. So that may work, either blended or not.

    I find that my kids will eat spinach if it's in something and finely chopped, but not if it's in big leaves. It's the texture of the leaves they don't like. Some kids may feel the same about other veggies, so chopping them finely or blending them as part of a sauce would work for kids who have texture issues with veggies. Kids who are super-tasters may still be able to taste some veggies even when they're blended.

    Also how you cook veggies makes a difference.... as a kid I always loved brussel sprouts cooked by my mum, she steams or boils them for max 3 mins and they're quite crunchy. However I've had cooked half to death brussel sprouts that taste absolutely vile. Also, I can't stand tinned veggies, they have to be fresh or frozen. Tinned, salted or boiled half to death veggies taste vile. I think a lot of people who think they hate veggies because they were cooked too much or have only had tinned veggies. If that's the case then maybe cooking them more gently without salt and getting fresh or frozen would help. If you're already doing that, then find other ways to get veggies in them.
  • RBrigzy
    RBrigzy Posts: 152 Member
    All very useful so far - thank you very much.:smile:
  • nerakma
    nerakma Posts: 77 Member
    My cousin bakes chocolate courgette and chocolate beetroot cakes to get veggies into her kids without them noticing!
    Ooooo love to find recipe ..

    http://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/chocolate-courgette-cake

    Chocolate Courgette Cake




    We like to use this recipe to persuade children of the virtues of vegetables. It is a regular feature on the lunch menu we prepare for Landscove Primary School and the children seem to love it.


    Category
    pudding & cake recipes


    Ingredients
    120g softened unsalted butter
    125ml sunflower oil
    100g caster sugar
    200g soft brown sugar
    3 eggs, lightly beaten
    130ml milk
    350g plain flour
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    4 tablespoons cocoa powder
    450g courgettes, peeled and finely grated
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract


    Method
    1. Put the butter, sunflower oil and both sugars in a bowl and beat them together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and then the milk.
    2. Sift the dry ingredients together and fold them into the mixture. Stir in the courgettes and vanilla, then spoon the mixture into a 20 x 35cm baking tin lined with baking parchment. Place in an oven preheated to 190°C/Gas Mark 5 and bake for 35–45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cut into squares whilst still warm.

    :bigsmile:

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