We’ve all been there as parents. Your stubborn kid; the modern O.K. Corral aka the dinner table; the big wheedling, cajoling, outright threats and ultimately the stare down over the vegetable portion of the plate.
Then the bargaining trades of extra fruit to compensate the lack of veggie love (it does not) as Junior eats the mac and cheese or the nuggets…and the green beans stand alone until they are dehydrated green twigs. Kid – 1, Parent – 0.
I became a food ninja, a veritable lying manipulative sneak in my own personal war to get my two sons to eat vegetables. I blended Tofu into pancake batter. Spinach was juiced and then blended into fruit smoothies, as I told Porky pies (lies) about why the color was green. “It’s St Patrick’s day” only works one day a year.
As my “sneaking” became more sophisticated, I used more manipulation and honed my technique thanks to easy to find spiralizers, the Beastie Boy of all appliances…the USA made Champion Juicer and a solid blender as I flash fried zucchini sticks and made carrot bread (less cake-y and more savory), noodles from zucchini mixed into real spaghetti and clever “milkshakes” made with broccoli and pineapple, ginger and other masking fruits to get that cruciferous veggie down their oblivious gullets.
Yes, I was serving up vegetable Mickey Finns with the very best maternal intentions.
In California, there’s a restaurant chain making it easier on all of us. Fresh Brothers is a pizza joint with benefits. The owners are also parents who feel your pain trying to feed children vegetables. Adam and Debbie Goldberg, along with Adam’s brother, Michael, launched Fresh Brothers in June 2008. Adam and Michael’s brother, Scott, owns Miller Pizza Company in the mid-west, and Adam and Michael based their core menu on that restaurant, then gave it an LA tweaking for health conscious California. Fresh Brothers has a greater emphasis on gluten-free crusts, fresh salads with a myriad of veggie varieties and baked (not fried) wings.
Adam Goldberg, CEO & Founder of Fresh Brothers, worked with his brother, Michael Goldberg, COO, to help expedite the free sample promotion.
Fresh Brothers’ salad appeal is that they go beyond the Iceberg lettuce and stringed carrots, boasting incredible Greek salads, avocado, hearts of palm, pepperoncini, Chicago giardiniera, fresh boiled eggs and a variety of dressings.
The star of their menu is the Fresh Kids Special Sauce, a mix of finely-ground veggies blended into their red sauce. It’s delicious and many adults order this sauce in lieu of the regular.
I asked Debbie Goldberg, Co-Founder, CMO of Fresh Brothers Restaurants, what was her secret to upping the vegetables in kids’ foods they offered at the restaurant:
Debbie said, “We begin our menu development well before we opened the first Fresh Brothers in Manhattan Beach in 2008. At that time, our twins were very young, and many of the children’s cookbooks focused on blending veggies into recipes. We thought about adapting this concept to pizza, and we thought it would be a popular menu item. This idea because our Fresh Kids Special sauce, a blend of five veggies mixed into our pizza sauce. The kids can’t tell they are eating healthier, but we (the parents) know!”
Here are my ten best sneaks you can try – and please talk back and share your “tried and true” sleight of hand cooking tricks below!
Re-Texture
Kids are all about texture. Smooth is usually good, seeds and chunks in sauce usually bad. Using a veggie spiralizer make thin “zoodles” from zucchini, yellow or green. First, cut off each end of the zucchini, then slice downward to create the zoodles. Toss with butter or sauce and perhaps real spaghetti so the two “noodles” blend together. If you are wearing fat pants, this is a great way to lower your carb intake and still get that pasta experience you might be craving.
Chip and Dip
Most kids love ranch dressing (I still do). Create a chip plate of uniformly cut and julienned veggies along with nuts and cubed cheese as a post pool or beach snack plate. Also this is a way to insert homemade nut butters and veggie-based dips like hummus, baba ganoush, edamame hummus. Make the plate look amazing. Keep the pieces small and uniform for smaller hands to pick up. Arrange artfully.
Puree It
The failsafe is blending or juicing the veggie to a liquid state (or even the juicer fiber that is expelled can be snuck into batters for cakes or sauces). It’s hard to turn down a tantalizing smoothies for dessert. So what if cauliflower is in there? Only you need to know. The dreaded Kale and Spinach blends up nicely with blueberries making a sort of chocolate-y looking thing. Make sure to garnish with whip cream and keep the lies going.
Magical Cauliflower
I made that!
Finished Cauliflower Pizza Crust with fresh tomato, mushroom, basil and fresh mozzarella topping- no wheat carbs! Photo by M&C 2014
Cauliflower is magic. And by magic I mean you can actually make a pizza dough crust or bread stick out of it! How cool is THAT? The secret is not telling anyone. Just follow thesedirections and you will be in the cauli catbird seat.
“Meatballs”
This is the perfect way to shove in the veggie “sawdust” that comes out of the expeller of a Champion Juicer. You make carrot juice, or broccoli, cauliflower or whatever combo of vegetables and you are left with the pulp and fiber. Perfect to add to any meat or non meat vegan swap to make meatballs with. Fry them up in olive oil after seasoning and dinner is on.
Original Post – http://www.monstersandcritics.com/five-stealthy-ways-to-get-kids-to-eat-vegetables/
