I remember when my brother was a little kid, my parents could get him to eat almost anything by telling him that it tasted like hot dogs. I've tried this trick, and James does not fall for this at all. (Well, he's never even had a hot dog, but what I'm saying is that it won't work with any food that he likes!)
I have discovered a few things that have helped, though...oh, and trust me, we still have a LONG way to go with this kid...
1.) You can hide almost anything in a smoothie...
2.) Fish sticks look like chicken nuggets. hey, maybe still not the healthiest thing but they are another form of meat that my kid will now gladly eat, bringing his meat repertoire up to a whopping total of 2 things.
3.) James LOVES pancakes, but doesn't like anything ON them, he just picks them up and eats them - same with french toast. So, what do I do? I add some kind of fruit (like applesauce and/or bananas) to the batter, and voila! He (unknowingly) gets some extra fruit in his diet. hehehe.
4.) Thanks to this great book, my family has been eating more vegetables than usual. James even tried a little bit (he will now begrudgingly try one bite of whatever mommy makes him - hey, I am happy, it is one more bite than usual. Our favorite was his bite of mac and cheese - he put a huge bite in his mouth, gagged on it, but continued chewing and swallowed anyway - what a champ!!)
But seriously, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld is a pretty awesome book. It is all about adding fruit and vegetable purees to recipes, making them much healthier for your family. All of the recipes we've tried so far have been awesome, and you can hardly tell there is squash or sweet potatoes in your food! Thanks to this book, our family has recently enjoyed several new yummy, healthy recipes, such as:
*mac and cheese with cauliflower
*sloppy joes with red peppers, sweet potatoes, celery and carrots
*chicken quesadillas with butternut squash
So, friends, how do you get your kids to eat healthy? I'd love to hear your brilliant ideas!
