Denver, CO (PRWEB) August 10, 2011
Many families are trying to eat more vegetables these days, says Carol Fenster, author of 125 Gluten-Free Vegetarian Recipes. But getting the kids to eat their vegetables can be challenging, so here are some tips to make vegetables more appealing to them:
*Make veggies accessible. Kids are more likely to eat veggies if theyre easy to get at and ready for eating. So, have a stash of washed and ready-to-eat veggies in the fridge such as kid-friendly baby carrots, celery sticks, bell pepper slices, broccoli flowerets, and zucchini sticks.
*Offer veggies as after-school snacks and lunch-box options. Have a plate of raw veggies ready for the kids when they come home from school, rather than calorie-laden, trans-fat packed cookies, chips, and other processed foods. Raw veggies pack well for school lunches, too.
*Have veggies for breakfast. Add veggies to morning smoothies. For example, a blueberry smoothie is already dark purple, so additional items like beets, bell peppers, and broccoli in small amounts will not be noticeable. Start out slowly, gradually making veggies a larger proportion of the total smoothie.
*Make veggies an addition, not a substitute. Nobody wants favorite foods taken away. If your kids are meat-lovers, keep the meat but use meat as more of a condiment. For example, tacos can still contain a small amount of ground beef but offer other veggie filings such as saut