recipes for picky kid

leomom72

i was wondering if anyone else had picky eaters at home. i have 2 boys, 8 and 9, and my oldest will eat almost anything (including veggies:happy: ) but my youngest could live on chicken nuggets, pb&j, and pancakes..he hates almost all fruits and veggies, and the only meat he will really eat is hamburger..anyone have any dinner ideas for such an eater..when i ask what he wants to eat, its usually nothing more that the listed..im tired of making the same dinners over and over again, so im trying to expand..any ideas ?

mgalsf12

Will he eat spaghetti or pizza? If so you could use the trick I used to use and blend the steamed veggies into the sauce...he won't even know that they are there!

KatjaO

Sneaky chef. Hide the veggies, or if you are in favor of also teaching the habit of eating veggies (knowingly), hide some to increase variety, and let the kid pick a small set that he's willing to eat. My picky on has agreed to eat soft carrots, few leaves of lettuce, peas and beans, and just now as he is has a birthday again, a new veggie, Kailan ( cooking green, similar to baby bok choi). Ge also eats tomato sauce and tomato soup, zucchini and pumpkin breads and does not mind parsley bit sized thing of most thinfs ( usually onion, parsnip, zucchini, spinach). Rest I hide. Add some to e erything you make. Match the color and think of the taste a bit too. Think of it as mixing colors, do to get brown ( for sloppy joe's for example) add green and red veggies and blend well. Immersion blender is you friend!

Few of my standard tricks are:

For pasta sauce, leave carrots big since he eats them. They will also distract from other things too. Add onion, zucchini and/or eggplant and puree it. Add carrots last since those were not blended.

For baked potato soup, make leek and potato instead, can also add any whitish mild veggies. Parsnip works well. If you add too much green, adding yellow such as butter nut squash will hide it and add sweet flavor too.

Add or Replace fat in pancakes with mashed fruit. Banana and apple sauce are the easiest. In the fall I make pumpkin pancakes.

That sloppy joe ( also works as a hamburger based pasta sauce) , cook meat first, take it off the pan. Saute oinions on the same pan to get meat flavor. Put into slow cooker. Add tomato sauce, and almost any veggies. Once I had a napa cabbage left from a csa box. I chopped the entire thing there. Other good things are carrots, celery, parsnip, zucchini, eggplant, the stalks of broccoli. Just think of the colors as you mix and add them to keep it thr right color. Let me as long as you need to on hi or low, again depending how long you need to leave it for. Come back. It should all be mushy. Puree or mush by hand. Taste and check color. Fix color by adding other color, if too light ot green, tomatosauce or ketchup is an easy fix. If bland, add stock cube or similar. Add meat. Serve.

And sorry, but do not buy chicken nuggets. When that is not an option, he will eventually eat something else. If the nuggets are an option, he will always choose that. Or alternatively, no nuggets until he eats the veggies. It it a struggle, but eating good is for his own good. Both bad and good habits start early.

Good luck!

brittrose33

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/healthy-baked-chicken-nuggets.html

Actually, this site in general has alternatives to lots of kids foods. I love skinny taste!