What vegetable dishes do your picky kids like?

[snickelfritz]

My kids have a fairly short list of vegetables they will eat. Sweet potato, peas, carrots, tomato, green beans..... Um... That's about it. My older dd recently threw up after eating cauliflower, so I don't force it. I serve veggies they eat and keep bringing out new ones. Plus, I "Sneaky chef" them. Tonight, I'm trying Spanakopita.

 

If your kids are picky, what vegetables do they like and how do you cook them? Mine do not like ranch dressing....or any dressing. They do eat cheese and don't have any allergies.

[Julie Smith]

My kids have a fairly short list of vegetables they will eat. Sweet potato, peas, carrots, tomato, green beans..... Um... That's about it. My older dd recently threw up after eating cauliflower, so I don't force it. I serve veggies they eat and keep bringing out new ones. Plus, I "Sneaky chef" them. Tonight, I'm trying Spanakopita.

 

If your kids are picky, what vegetables do they like and how do you cook them? Mine do not like ranch dressing....or any dressing. They do eat cheese and don't have any allergies.

 

My kids are vegetarian, so it's different.

 

But they like to eat sushi wraps. You know paper sheets of seaweed. :ack2: They get all excited about being allowed some. :001_huh: I think it's the fact it's like crinkly paper they can eat.

[Crimson Wife]

This article has some helpful advice on dealing with a picky eater. I do have to say that since we went gluten- and dairy-free, the kids have gotten a LOT better about eating a variety of foods. I think there really is something to the opiate theory.

[ChristusG]

My kids will basically eat four veggies.....salad, broccolli, green beans, and corn (if you want to count that). Honestly, that's about all I'll eat as well, although I will eat peas too.

 

They prefer salad (just lettuce with some ranch dressing) so I try to give them that often. Sometimes they have a salad daily....even twice a day occasionally. Their next choice is broccolli, so I just boil it on the stove, drain, and add salt/pepper/butter. Steamed is good too. They like green beans and corn the least, but will still eat it.

[Baseball mom]

Mine will eat more veggies if they can put ketchup on them. I know :ack2: but they will eat a ton of them.

[lynn]

The simpler the better in my house. Steamed broccoli or cauliflower will go fast. My kids also like balsamic green beans, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, any kids of potatoes. They eat any color peppers ( I buy the bag of small ones), carrots, tomatoes. The boys will eat salad.

[MtnTeaching]

Mine love roasted asparagus. Lay them in roasting pan (or I use a clear pyrex casserole dish), drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with course Kosher salt and cracked pepper. Roast until preferred doneness (mine still prefer a crunch to the bite). Then I pull it out, grate fresh parm cheese over it and pop back in until melted. They love the cheese.

 

Carrots sauteed in a pan with a little chicken stock till softened, drain and toss with a little real maple syrup. May family would eat this at every meal.

 

Mixed roasted veggies - especially winter veggies.

 

In the summer, I can put any kind of veggie on the grill and they will eat them.

[J-rap]

Now my kids eat almost everything (more than I will, even). But when they were little, peanut butter with carrot sticks and mayo with broccoli did the trick!

 

In those days, we often had frozen mixed veggies, and I would add a little mayonnaise, thyme, dill, salt and pepper, and it always made it taste a lot better.

 

Other good veggie sides: fresh spring rolls. (Usually found in Vietnamese or Thai restaurants, but you can make them yourself.) They are not fried, just fresh, with fresh veggies inside. If you dip them in a peanut sauce, they are really good!

 

My daughter once had this next one at a friend's house, and we all fell in love with it and went through a phase of eating it all the time. (I don't remember ANY measurements, so just play around with it.) Melt butter in a frying pan. Add grated zucchini -- quite a bit. Cook it in the butter, and add salt and pepper. Add grated sharp cheddar cheese right at the end. The more the better! Serve and eat immediately. :)

 

Lastly, a friend of mine cooks cubed butternut squash and sliced carrots in the oven. She cooks them together in one pot, all afternoon, and then mashes them. I don't really care for either veggie too much alone, but mixed and cooked all afternoon like them gives them a completely different flavor. It is really delicious! We just add a little salt and pepper at the end.

[i.love.lucy]

Carrots sauteed in a pan with a little chicken stock till softened, drain and toss with a little real maple syrup. May family would eat this at every meal.

I'm going to have to try this! I happen to have a ton of carrots on hand and need something to do with them. I think my son might eat this.

 

My dd isn't very picky at all, in fact she really likes veggies. But my son would rather have a root canal than eat anything remotely like a vegetable.

 

He will eat corn if it has lots of butter and salt and pepper, and when his 2 front teeth come in I will get some corn on the cob for him too. He might occasionally eat a carrot stick or two if there is a ton of Ranch dip with it. He can be forced to eat a bite of salad if there are good giant croutons to go with it, and lots of Ranch.

 

Once in a while he will eat slice tomatoes with 1000 Island.

 

I can't get him to eat anything green at all though (except a teensy bit of lettuce on a crouton). I think the theme for him is lots of sauce or dip to cover it up or hide it. I do the Sneaky Chef purees and hide SO MUCH that he has no idea.

 

I think the key is to just keep serving it. Since dh and and I are veggie lovers, and dd is quite good at trying lots, then it's not a problem for me to make sure it's always on his plate and I do require him to take one bite. I figure eventually he will outgrow his aversion to veggies.

[cactus flower]

My kids started eating more veggies when they began helping in the garden. They planted the seeds or seedlings, watered, weeded, and harvested. They wanted to eat what they had worked so hard on--all kinds of greens for salads, carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers. We grew some herbs, too and added them to recipes. If you can grow a couple of veggies, even in containers, you may be able to expand their palates that way.

[stripe]

I have a kid who only likes things plain. Plain, boiled beans with no flavoring whatsoever (yawn), boiled sweet potatoes, and so on. Sauce is enthusiastically eaten on pasta, but otherwise generally avoided. For a while even that was suspect, but I started mixing raw tomatoes (liked) with pasta and cheese, and also peas mixed in. I am the only one in my house who likes ranch dressing. Everyone else hates it.

 

My kids generally like sauteed brocolli made with garlic, and spinach pies ( which are flavored with onion, garlic, and lemon). That's the only way one will eat spinach.

 

I roasted a bunch if chopped veges in the oven and mixed with couscous, and that was a huge hit, even the eggplant (unidentifiable) was eaten.

 

I really like the book Miracle Foods for Kids. It is where I got the vege couscous idea from.

[In the Rain]

Roasted beets, carrots, onions and potatoes.

Raw bell peppers and English cucumbers.

The tiny bell peppers and cucumbers Costco sells.

Coleslaw, pickles, and sauerkraut.

[Cinder]

My pickiest eater doesn't like any vegetables unless you count french fries. :tongue_smilie: but he will eat asparagus sauteed with olive oil and garlic as well as steamed broccoli and salad made of romaine and carrots.

[sbgrace]

My picky one will only eat sweet potato. He drinks carrot juice but won't eat a carrot. I have him taste a bite of anything that doesn't make him vomit. He's been doing that for a year or more and still doesn't eat anything new. I know it's not the same but I have him eat all kinds of fruits. In the winter/out of season we get frozen berries, peaches, rhubarb (hey...thats a veggie I think!) along with available anytime banana, pineapple, apple etc. and blend different combos into smoothies. I mention this because I've often thought I might be able to sneak certain veggies in those drinks.

 

His twin will eat all kinds of vegetables. He loves them in fact any way they are made for the most part. His daddy loves vegetables too. Me...I like broccoli, tomato and asparagus and that's it. I remember throwing up as a child when made to eat certain things. I really think it's genetic.

Edited March 10, 2012 by sbgrace

[Greenmama2]

The simpler the better in my house. .

 

:iagree: yes, here too. Mine like most veg except potato lightly steamed or even raw. They'll eat pretty much anything that way except asparagus.

 

Oh & we all love to eat dry nori (sushi roll) sheets ;)

[kewb]

When mine were young I pureed everything and put it in tomato sauce. You would be amazed at what you can hide in a smoothie. That said, mine do eat a variety of vegetables and some of them even overlap.

They both love:

Seaweed-in salad form or roasted sheets

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Bok Choy

Cabbage

Carrots

Peas

Corn (Okay, I know that it is really a grain)

Turnips

Sugar Snap Peas

Green leaf lettuce

Red leaf lettuce

Romaine lettuce

Potatoes

 

Dd will also eat:

cucumber and tomato

 

Ds will eat:

Parsnips

 

Neither one will touch a pepper-green, red, yellow, or orange or celery with a 10 foot pole.

 

They love their veggies raw, roasted, and sauteed. For salad dressing I usually make a balsamic vinagrette or a lemon dressing.

[Crimson Wife]

I remember throwing up as a child when made to eat certain things. I really think it's genetic.

 

I don't buy that for a second. I firmly believe that the vomiting-rather-than-eating-X is purely psychological. You don't see starving 3rd world children having the same problem. :rolleyes:

 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is very successful in treating this kind of food phobia.

[MrsJewelsRae]

My kids love broccoli with a little cheese sauce.

A sprinkle of parmesan on broccoli, cauliflower or buttered green beans (fresh!)=delish!

Brussel sprouts mixed with a bit of cream cheese and topped with a sprinkle of Panko crumbs and cheddar cheese- my family loves this. (steam or microwave the sprouts first)

I often slip in sliced tomatoes on grilled cheese.

We put lots of veggies on our pizza, and we have a no picking off rule.

I always add extra veggies to spaghetti sauce, usually finely chopped peppers and onions.

Vegetable lasagna- chopped spinach, shredded carrots, chopped cauliflower/broccoli, chopped zucchini.

Homemade salsa with nachos or on a sandwich (with meat).

 

I guess we really like cheese with a lot of our veggies, but this is for a treat, most often we eat our veggies with a bit of salt. I also add veggies to a lot of my baking- shredded carrots or zucchini, etc to muffins or breakfast cookies. Jessica Seinfeld has a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" for slipping in veggies to your baking. http://www.amazon.com/Deceptively-Delicious-Simple-Secrets-Eating/dp/006176793X

[Slartibartfast]

My kids are vegetarian, so it's different.

 

But they like to eat sushi wraps. You know paper sheets of seaweed. :ack2: They get all excited about being allowed some. :001_huh: I think it's the fact it's like crinkly paper they can eat.

 

They sell big boxes of seaweed treats at costco. Might be cheaper. :lol:

[Tammyla]

Mine have always loved raw veggies of most any kind.

 

Growing veggies helped them try a bunch of new ones.

[Alice]

My younger son is picky. A few that he will eat:

Spinach in stuff (ravioli, quiche)

Salad, almost always if I let him pick the dressing

Baked potato with them picking the toppings (I provide things like bacon/ham/cheese but they have to also choose one veggie from a variety offered)

Broccoli

Peas

 

I was very picky as a child and this is way better than I used to eat so I'm ok with it. The one rule we have is that he has to have a veggie or fruit at every meal (fruit is not always an option) and that he has to try one bite of everything offered.