Happily Hughes | Atlanta Fashion & Lifestyle Content Creator

How to Get Your Kids to Eat Veggies

After last weeks Cookie Oatmeal Smoothie recipe, I got a lot of emails asking if I had any other fun ways to sneak veggies into kids meals.  Well of course I do, and I’m happy to share.  First, here are the 6 golden items I try to keep on hand at all times: 
*Frozen Chopped Spinach– a serious life saver!  Frozen and already chopped I just throw it in to my recipes and boom an extra vegetable serving!  Here’s a great resource on why you should be using spinach EVER DAY: Health Benefits of Spinach.
*Frozen Chopped Kale– ditto!  And here are Health Benefits of Kale.
*Sweet Potatoes– my favorite vegetable!  Health Benefits of Sweet Potatoes.
*Bell Peppers– Health Benefits of Peppers.
Obviously smoothies are a great way to hide those veggies- specifically the frozen spinach and kale.  Here are other ways to sneak veggies into your kids’ meals: 
*Frozen Spinach: I mix it into omlettes or scrambled eggs, sandwiches, rice, pasta, and stuffed chicken.  It’s very bland and many can’t even taste it so don’t be afraid to use a good amount.  I put in at least a cup!
*Frozen Kale: I personally don’t like the taste of kale, so I hide it in my more zesty recipes like chili, soups, or tacos.  If you like or are not bothered by the taste, add kale to everything!
*Broccoli: I steam a big bag of broccoli every week during meal prep and either use it as a side by itself or add it to my main dishes like omlettes, rice, pasta, quinoa mac and cheese, or any Asian-style chicken dish. 
*Zucchini: Another fantastically bland vegetable!  It’s very easy to cook up so I normally save making these until the day of.  It’s great as a side dish like zucchini friesmini pizzas, balsamic grilled zucchini, or zucchini bread (which you can add some AboutTime protein to for additional health benefits).  If I want it as part of the main dish I throw it in with our quinoa pasta, brown rice, on top of sandwiches and burgers, or hide it underneath this delish and healthy Chicken Parmesan.  
*Sweet Potatoes:  Replace regular potatoes with sweet potatoes! You can do mashed, hasselback, cubed, or just baked.  Some fun toppings are cinnamon, a little blue cheese, and if you have to: butter.  I  also add it to smoothies like the Cookie Oatmeal Smoothie mentioned above, or this Pumpkin Berry Spice Smoothie.  
*Sweet Peppers: I meal prep these each Sunday by finely chopping them in the food processor.  That way I can add them to any of our chicken dishes, eggs, rice, quinoa mac and cheese, and sandwiches without extra fuss.
So give these tricks a try.  And if the kids don’t like it, try it again. And again.  Because nothing is more important than your kids getting the nutrients they need to be healthy. 
*If you’re a new reader, note that I buy organic.  I don’t want to annoy people by putting the word “organic” in front of every single recipe and item so unless otherwise stated, it’s organic.

53 thoughts on “How to Get Your Kids to Eat Veggies”

  1. Really great tips! I lucked out because all of my kiddies love Broccoli and Sweet Potatoes. I need to start introducing a few of these other veggies into their diest soon though.

  2. I was so sad when my kiddo stopped eating sweet potato! He used to eat canned pumpkin with a spoon, too, and won't do that anymore.

  3. Forget kids, these are great ideas for me! Hahahaha. I know that sounds weird, but I really need to start buying more greens for myself. I don't know what changed in the past year but I used to love broccoli. Now I can't stand it. So I've been hiding it in my own eggs lol.

  4. These are great ideas. My kids love mostly all veggies. Each one has one or two they don't care for, and that's fine by me. I don't generally care for beets or turnips so I let them choose between two veggies at every meal.

  5. My siblings and I were picky eaters but mum always gave us gravy and veggies first then the meat and it worked for us, we ended up liking veggies so much that a meal without was no meal at all to us

  6. Thanks for sharing these ideas. My two year old started eating broccoli when we called it "trees" and he calls peas "balls" because he loves to play ball. Luckily, he hasn't thrown the peas like balls!

  7. These are all fantastic ideas! I don't care for the taste of kale either but really want the benefits of it so I mix it with other foods and can't taste it.

  8. Getting my kids to eat veggies is a challenge and it's harder and harder to be sneaky about it. One day I hope the decision to eat more veggies will be their own.

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