Picky eaters and THRIVE

Hiding vegetables in foods was something I thought I would never have to do. In fact on some levels I disagree with the theory behind it. Like shouldn’t kids EAT their vegetables and understand they are doing their body a good thing?

I have 3 boys. A 7 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old. My first boy was pretty much born in love with vegetables. I “thought” I must have done something right as a parent. Then my second boy was a little trickier. I had to hide broccoli under his rice bites and be a little more creative. He eventually figured out he still had to eat his vegetables and he’s a pretty good eater too. It took effort but not THAT much. Well now I’m being humbled. My third boy can spot a speck of green from a mile away and will run away screaming. He barely even likes fruit let alone vegetables. I’ve had to resort to some of the following methods to even get nutrients in him. This isn’t my forever plan. As he gets older and has a vocabulary I’ll be able to do a little more reasoning with him, but for now we’re sneaking….

Here are some of the things I have been doing. Do you have any other ideas?

Pancakes:
I put my pancake batter in a blender and add in freeze-dried bananas, freeze-dried apple slices, and even freeze-dried butternut squash. If I don’t feel like putting the batter in my blender I add the freeze-dried apple sauce because the apple pieces are so tiny you don’t even need to blend them.

Oatmeal:
I put any variety of freeze-dried fruits in oatmeal. This kind I don’t have to hide as much. I do however do the freeze-dried apple sauce apple sauce trick in this too. I wrote a post about it once here.

Noodles:
This is one I’m pretty proud of. I make my lasagna noodles with freeze-dried spinach and since there aren’t “specks” or “chunks” of green in them my boy doesn’t notice. We call them “HULK” noodles in our house. Full instructions and recipe found here.

Macaroni and Cheese:
Powder freeze-dried cauliflower or dehydrated carrots and add them to macaroni and cheese. The taste isn’t that strong and the colors just right.

Sweet Breads:
Use freeze-dried zucchini powder or freeze-dried butternut squash in any of your favorite sweet bread recipes.

Spaghetti Sauce:
Use any vegetable powder in your spaghetti sauce. If you would have been the vegetable in the sauce go ahead and powder it and then it can be disguised from the pickiest of eaters.

Soups:
One of our families favorite soups is this Potato Soup. I think my son might be okay with seeing carrots and celery in there but the broccoli would have him running. I’m thinking of adding freeze-dried broccoli powder to this and see if it works. He’s okay with the green noodles, so maybe an entire soup of green would be okay? Just not chunks?

Smoothies:
I use freeze-dried spinach and any other freeze-dried fruit I have on hand in smoothies. I put the smoothies in a sippy cup that’s not see-through and he will drink anything!

Like I said… this isn’t my forever plan. The little guy is going to have to learn to eat his vegetables like his brothers sooner or later. Probably sooner. However here are some ways I thought I would share in case you too have a picky eater.