Veggies and Velociraptors

 

Who said you can’t play with your food?

I’m ever on the lookout for how to cram more veggies, veggies, veggies down my kids’ throats -- with the least amount of resistant.

Dinner will offer some results, with a ratio of 5 “please eat your vegetables” comments to 1 consumed bite of vegetables.  Given a plate filled with the option to choose something other than vegetables, the peas and carrots are going to lose every time.

So I’m trying to get creative.  And I’ve resorted to dinosaurs.  Meticulously placed at the edge of the table chomping on cucumbers and green peppers.  Reeling them in like a fish to bait.  And it worked!   Bait taken!  They giggled at the dinosaurs then pretended to be dinosaurs themselves, complete with chomping.  I couldn’t have scripted it better myself.  Until the dinosaurs started flying through the air and veggie bowls were spilling to the floor and AH!  enough!   Not the most thought through idea.

My other ridiculous, but somehow successful ideas include:

*Synchronized eating
We came up with this last summer during, you might guess, the Olympics synchronized swimming.   We all grab a veggie and on the count of three chomp on them simultaneously.  We tried this on cousins on two separate occasions.  The first loved it and wanted to participate at each meal.  The other, my four year old niece, gave me a look that said it all: “Do you think I was born yesterday?  You think you can make up some ridiculous game and expect me to suddenly eat that.”  Well, it was worth a try.

*Movie muchies
There is something about sitting watching a movie that allows humans to keep sticking things in their mouths with no thought to what is being consumed.   Which is why many of us can end up eating an entire bag of chips without noticing.  So when my kids are engrossed in a show, I know it is the perfect time to plop a bowl of snap peas on their laps.  They eat them without giving it a second thought!

*Creative Play
Just this week we were able to get my two year old to eat a brussel sprout when Daddy suggested they were frog eyes (not completely unlike their resemblance).  Granted, he didn’t eat any more after that, but it was a success nonetheless.  We’ve pretended to be giraffes reaching tall into the trees to eat broccoli leaves and pretended grape tomatoes are volcanoes exploding in our mouths when we bite them.  

*The Recipe Sneak
Pumpkin muffins and spinach in smoothies (really, with enough sweet fruit, you can't taste the stuff) have both made the list of "sneak-it-in-without-them-knowing-recipes."  While I am not sure  it is the best long term way of giving them culinary appreciation for vegetables, it succeeds in pumping in the veggies.  At this stage in life, I'll take any "sneak-em-in" recipes I can find. 

This is all not to say I am always successful at getting my boys to eat veggies.  If anything, it’s admitting that I hang upside down from the ceiling fan trying to figure out how to have them actually get some nutrition into their bodies.  Because, in my opinion, it really does matter what they eat.  It certainly isn’t the end all, be all.  But it does matter. 

A dear mentor told me that I, as the mom, am responsible for shaping my kids’ palettes.  I am the gatekeeper for what food comes through the doors of our home and I am in charge of introducing my kids to the world of healthy food and preparing them to be healthy, world saving, supermen.

So what have you tried?  Any sneak-em-in recipes you would recommend? 
I’d love to borrow your ideas.