Sneaking health food into recipes:
Superfoods that don't have much taste and that you can add to tons of recipes: hemp seeds, nuts, oats, medicinal mushrooms (maitake, shitake, any mushrooms are good- even button mushrooms), chlorella.
add carrot, sweet potato or butternut squash puree to any chilli or stew recipe and we are sure it will go entirely unnoticed. Your kids might even love the slightly sweeter flavour to their favourite food.
Soups are another easy way to smuggle veggies in. If you liquidise your soups enough to avoid chunks then it is often difficult to tell what vegetables are in them. Tomatoes are a very strong flavour so try adding a few different hidden veggies to your classic tomato soup recipe.
Add carrot or sweet potato puree to your chocolate chip cookie recipe and your child won't know the difference. The beauty of these veggies is their natural sweetness can be extremely useful for hiding in deserts.
Blend baby spinach into a fruit smoothing using raspberries or blueberries to mask the colours. The spinach is tasteless but it's also a superfood which means it is jam-packed with vitamins and healthy goodness.
You can also add carrots to any fruit smoothie and they will go entirely unnoticed. You'll find lots of multi-vitamin juices often include carrots anyway so if your child does contest then you can point them towards that fact. You can guarantee they will never be able to tell over all the fruit.
You can even sneak avocado into chocolate pudding! I know it sounds hard to believe but avocado isn't very strong so is easily hidden.
Add half an avocado to your kids' fruit smoothies for an extra creamy consistency and no flavour change. Your child will never know it's there and may even make their smoothie better. You'll be glad you did it!
Make some Super Sloppy Joes packed with veggies. While sloppy joes are usually associated with American mealtimes they are super easy to make a really good way to pack in those vegetables. This recipe includes onions, carrots, pepper and courgette (zucchini in the recipe) packed into a delicious burger style sandwich. Nutritious and delicious; this is the perfect family treat.
Include mashed cauliflower to your mashed potato to double your veggie intake and it will pass your kids by, hardly affecting flavour but enhancing the fluff. Also, feel free to add a bit of cheese to this to give your mash an extra bit of something to ensure it is extra special. These three ingredients work so well together to create the perfect side for your family meal.
For your kids who don't like vegetables; add puréed pumpkin to the Mac and Cheese sauce and blame the cheese for the funny colour - it will add a sweet little edge but will be hardly noticed.
Pureed carrot makes for a great addition to many meals - pop them in a risotto for extra creaminess without the overwhelming flavour or sneak it into a meatball recipe that will help you bind your meat together and will add the hidden veggie flare without the fear of your kids finding any chunks.
You can sneak carrot puree or chopped mushrooms to a ground beef recipe for burgers that will go almost totally unnoticed. The puree with bind and the mushroom will add some texture to your average beef burger recipes. This option works perfectly for kids who love hidden veggies and for kids who don't.
Marinara sauce can cover lots of things like pumpkin or even blended onions and carrots. It will enhance the flavour without giving it a particularly veggie taste. You can even try adding chopped mushrooms to spaghetti bolognese for a similar effect.
You can add hidden veggies to pizza chopped finely underneath the cheese or blended and put straight into the sauce. You can pack as many as you want to load up your pizzas with as many vitamins as possible. Use the 7-veg sauce for inspiration of what vegetables can go unnoticed in the sauce and try finely chopped mushrooms and other soft veg under the cheese to not disturb the texture. Of course, if your kids love veggies then pack your pizzas with as many superfoods as you can!
Make your chicken soup extra thick with some vegetable puree thrown into it. Keep the same old recipe that your kids know and love and add some liquidised veggies.
source: kidadl.com
Using mashed sweet potato, carrot, or avocado adds moisture to baked goods, which means you don’t need as much oil. Getting picky eaters to eat their favorite muffins or pancakes isn’t tough, which is why this is a great trick. You can also disguise other vegetables in muffins or pancakes, like shredded zucchini, or even spinach or broccoli by just using your food processor.
Disguising vegetables kids in meatballs is simple because meatballs are so versatile. Finely chop some veggies of your choosing (or better yet, let the food processor do the work), or roast and puree some carrots and mix them into your favorite meatball recipe.
source: yumblekids.com
Also see thrivinghomeblog.com and smoothies with hidden veggies
Superfoods that don't have much taste and that you can add to tons of recipes: hemp seeds, nuts, oats, medicinal mushrooms (maitake, shitake, any mushrooms are good- even button mushrooms), chlorella.
add carrot, sweet potato or butternut squash puree to any chilli or stew recipe and we are sure it will go entirely unnoticed. Your kids might even love the slightly sweeter flavour to their favourite food.
Soups are another easy way to smuggle veggies in. If you liquidise your soups enough to avoid chunks then it is often difficult to tell what vegetables are in them. Tomatoes are a very strong flavour so try adding a few different hidden veggies to your classic tomato soup recipe.
Add carrot or sweet potato puree to your chocolate chip cookie recipe and your child won't know the difference. The beauty of these veggies is their natural sweetness can be extremely useful for hiding in deserts.
Blend baby spinach into a fruit smoothing using raspberries or blueberries to mask the colours. The spinach is tasteless but it's also a superfood which means it is jam-packed with vitamins and healthy goodness.
You can also add carrots to any fruit smoothie and they will go entirely unnoticed. You'll find lots of multi-vitamin juices often include carrots anyway so if your child does contest then you can point them towards that fact. You can guarantee they will never be able to tell over all the fruit.
You can even sneak avocado into chocolate pudding! I know it sounds hard to believe but avocado isn't very strong so is easily hidden.
Add half an avocado to your kids' fruit smoothies for an extra creamy consistency and no flavour change. Your child will never know it's there and may even make their smoothie better. You'll be glad you did it!
Make some Super Sloppy Joes packed with veggies. While sloppy joes are usually associated with American mealtimes they are super easy to make a really good way to pack in those vegetables. This recipe includes onions, carrots, pepper and courgette (zucchini in the recipe) packed into a delicious burger style sandwich. Nutritious and delicious; this is the perfect family treat.
Include mashed cauliflower to your mashed potato to double your veggie intake and it will pass your kids by, hardly affecting flavour but enhancing the fluff. Also, feel free to add a bit of cheese to this to give your mash an extra bit of something to ensure it is extra special. These three ingredients work so well together to create the perfect side for your family meal.
For your kids who don't like vegetables; add puréed pumpkin to the Mac and Cheese sauce and blame the cheese for the funny colour - it will add a sweet little edge but will be hardly noticed.
Pureed carrot makes for a great addition to many meals - pop them in a risotto for extra creaminess without the overwhelming flavour or sneak it into a meatball recipe that will help you bind your meat together and will add the hidden veggie flare without the fear of your kids finding any chunks.
You can sneak carrot puree or chopped mushrooms to a ground beef recipe for burgers that will go almost totally unnoticed. The puree with bind and the mushroom will add some texture to your average beef burger recipes. This option works perfectly for kids who love hidden veggies and for kids who don't.
Marinara sauce can cover lots of things like pumpkin or even blended onions and carrots. It will enhance the flavour without giving it a particularly veggie taste. You can even try adding chopped mushrooms to spaghetti bolognese for a similar effect.
You can add hidden veggies to pizza chopped finely underneath the cheese or blended and put straight into the sauce. You can pack as many as you want to load up your pizzas with as many vitamins as possible. Use the 7-veg sauce for inspiration of what vegetables can go unnoticed in the sauce and try finely chopped mushrooms and other soft veg under the cheese to not disturb the texture. Of course, if your kids love veggies then pack your pizzas with as many superfoods as you can!
Make your chicken soup extra thick with some vegetable puree thrown into it. Keep the same old recipe that your kids know and love and add some liquidised veggies.
source: kidadl.com
Using mashed sweet potato, carrot, or avocado adds moisture to baked goods, which means you don’t need as much oil. Getting picky eaters to eat their favorite muffins or pancakes isn’t tough, which is why this is a great trick. You can also disguise other vegetables in muffins or pancakes, like shredded zucchini, or even spinach or broccoli by just using your food processor.
Disguising vegetables kids in meatballs is simple because meatballs are so versatile. Finely chop some veggies of your choosing (or better yet, let the food processor do the work), or roast and puree some carrots and mix them into your favorite meatball recipe.
source: yumblekids.com
Also see thrivinghomeblog.com and smoothies with hidden veggies