How do you get your children to eat all those vegetables?
This is a question I get asked a lot. The answer is pretty simple. My children eat what I, as the Mom, choose to bring home from the grocery store. And then, I calculatingly set it out when they will want it most, and be most willing to try it.
For example, as I chop vegetables for dinner, I never discourage them from grabbing a piece or two from the cutting board; raw carrots, celery, bits of bell pepper, frozen veggies as I put them into the steamer basket, salad fixings of all kinds. Sometimes they’ve had their full quota of vegetables before dinner is even on the table. I never complain about that.
Another “trick” I have is the vegetable plate. After breakfast I chop up a plate full of raw vegetables and set it out on the kitchen table. As we go about our homeschool morning I never have to worry about getting snacks out for Sophia. She can just go to the table and help herself. The nice thing about raw veggies is that they are a pretty non-messy snack so I don’t have to worry about the high chair and a bib. Everyone else snacks through the morning as well, even the older kids who do not normally feel a need for a snack. By lunchtime, without fail, the plate is empty. There are always favorites on the vegetable plate. The cucumbers and jicama are always the first things to go. Raw sliced yams/sweet potatoes (the orange ones) are another yummy not so common addition to our plate. But even more boring staples like carrots and celery, get eaten by the time lunch rolls around.
We always make vegetables a good percentage of our dinners. When kids take seconds of a more favorite part of the meal, they also are encouraged to take a second of one of the vegetables. We eat a lot of raw vegetables, even at dinnertime, but when we do cook them, I try to cook them just perfect so that they taste their best. It’s hard for even a vegetable lover like me to enjoy broccoli when it is soggy and floppy. I use a steamer basket with just a little water for cooking most vegetables, and try to take them off the heat a little under rather than overdone. They finish that last little bit of cooking with just the heat from the pot. And when we are having an unfamiliar vegetable, everyone needs to try at least a little bit. Every child it seems has one vegetable that he really doesn't like. But I still have him try at least one mouthful. For example, when I serve cooked winter squash, Emily still needs to have one bite. I also make sure that when I serve a vegetable that a particular child is not fond of, I serve a second one that that child really does like, so that he can take an extra big helping of that one.
This last bit of advice goes with getting your family to like any kinds of whole, natural, healthy foods. If that is what you buy, and serve regularly, that is what your family will enjoy and become accustomed to. I don’t serve a lot of processed foods, and I don’t slather our veggies with butter and cheesy sauces. My family is used to the pure taste of the vegetables. I can’t afford to feed our family lots of great produce and still buy all the convenience foods, cold cereals, chips and treats, that are found so readily in our grocery stores. The benefit of that is that we don't have those things around to tempt us. When we need to snack, we are usually reaching for fruits and vegetables instead of cookies and soda. We do buy or make those kinds of things occasionally for holidays, vacations and special occasions, and that is what they are to us…once in a while treat types of foods. But on a regular basis, we eat quite simple, homemade, fresh, and as close to how Heavenly Father made it, as possible.
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