Like most parents, I am always trying to encourage my boys to eat more vegetables. TJ is often willing to at least try new food and enjoys cucumber, carrots, corn and bell peppers. I know that isn't to varied but he's expanding his variety as we go. MJ on the other hand won't touch a vegetable even when he is hungry. I have never been able to spoon feed him and he has refused veggies since he first started eating.
My solution is to include purees into as much as possible. There are many great cookbooks about sneaking vegetables into food. The most common veggies I use are carrots, sweet potato, spinach, zucchini, bell peppers, cauliflower. I also sneak ground flax into everything too.
Some uses for purees:
Smoothies - I've used spinach, sweet potato, or carrots depending on what I have on hand.
Popsicles - Whenever we make a smoothie I make extra to freeze for popsicles.
Muffins - again use what you have, we often freeze left over smoothies and use that too.
Cookies - same as muffins just add to the mix or replace some of the liquid ingredients.
Pizza sauce - my boys always pick off the toppings so I pureed everything into the sauce.
Pasta sauce - my sauce is packed with veggies, some finely chopped and some pureed.
Potatoes - I sometimes add cauliflower to mashed potato.
Loaves - we like zucchini or carrot. I also add some in my bread machine loaves too.
To make my purees I most often steam my vegetables in a large steamer (a wedding gift from years ago). I then use either my food processor or blender for large batches or my hand blender for smaller amounts. I try to store my purees in Baby Cubes for quick access and smaller amounts. If I am planing a soup or loaf I'll use 1 cup servings in freezer bags.
These are the most common places I sneak in some extra veggies.
I'd love to hear your suggestions and recipes!!
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