To hide, or not to hide

I recently (ie. 3 months ago) read an article in one of my parenting magazines about whether or not we should hide, or sneak, veggies into food for our kids. Basically I'm of the opinion that it's ok, but not always. I've been finding it very difficult to get either of the kids to eat veggies lately. Actually, Brennan will eat just about any fruit or vegetable as long as it's pureed and in a pouch. So, I do still feed him those little pouches occasionally but those things are flippin' expensive. I used to be able to count on Kaelyn eating carrots or cucumbers dipped in ranch, but not anymore. I don't know, maybe she just got sick of them. If I serve them she'll usually eat one and then claim she doesn't have to eat any more.

The truth is, vegetables are an afterthought for me. Not because I dislike them. I just put all my time and effort into the main dish of the meal. So I usually end up just throwing a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave to serve along with whatever else I made. This is a reason I love casseroles and one dish meals. But I can only eat so many casseroles. And the kids are pretty skilled at eating around anything green. Actually, Brennan's pretty skilled at not eating anything I cook period. But that's another story.

So I think if I have to sneak veggies in occasionally it's not the end of the world. I love the garden delight pastas for this reason and V8 Fusion juice. I feel a somewhat better knowing they've at least gotten a little veggie nutrition.

I've experimented with some "green" smoothies lately. And the kids love them. They're basically just some greek yogurt, a bunch of frozen fruit (Bren needs some help eating more fruit too, other than bananas that is), a splash of juice and then shove the rest of the blender full of spinach. Oh, and I add a little flaxseed or wheat germ too just to try to squeeze in as much nutrition as I can while I'm at it.

And I love how neat and clean they are while eating them.

He was sad it was all gone.

Begging for more. And if you're curious, no, those green stains did not come out. Now he gets to eat smoothies naked since he refuses to wear a bib.

Now I'm not exactly trying to "hide" the fact that I'm putting spinach in there. I mean the kids are usually up on chairs "helping" me make them. So there's really no chance I could hide it even if I wanted. Besides, I don't want to be caught hiding something. Then I'll lose their trust and they'll really think there's something wrong with vegetables and it'll be even harder to get them to try them. I also don't always come right out and tell Kaelyn all the vegetables in a dish, but if she asks what something is I tell her the truth.

I also recently discovered, after repeated failures trying to get the kids to eat avocado (yum!), Brennan loves it as long as I mash it up and put a splash of lime juice in it. I swear he would have eaten a whole avocado the other night if I hadn't eaten some of it first. Kaelyn wouldn't touch it though. But maybe I'll try adding some to my green smoothies next time.

On the other hand, I want them to actually like vegetables eventually. I'm not too worried right now because I know I wasn't fond of many veggies as a kid either. In fact, I recall many tension filled spaghetti dinners growing up because I never wanted the sauce on my pasta but my dad insisted I eat the sauce. And now I love the sauce! So I do need to work on some more yummy veggie recipes and then get over the hurdle of them actually putting it in their mouths. Our general rule with Kaelyn is that she has to at least try a bite of new food before she decides if she likes it or not. This actually paid off with an asparagus recipe I tried back at Easter. She actually couldn't get enough of it and now she'll eat asparagus. Woohoo!

If anyone has any good - and easy - vegetable recipes send them my way.