Well families, we’ve reached the 7th and 8th tips for getting our kids eating more veggies! Altering the texture of veggies can be a help to many little ones. Options are always great to have, and when it comes to the intersection of kids and veggies, this is no exception. So, thank goodness; there are lots of ways to alter veggie texture :) Here are a few…
Cooking veggies
Cooking veggies obviously makes them softer and sometimes less tart. You could also serve them raw to keep them crispy, blanch them to get them in between raw and cooked, blend them into a puree, dry them (like kale chips; or dry and grind them like EasyPeasie!), oven roast them to caramelize them, and more!
Like many things with kids, there will have to be a little trial and error in figuring out which way your child will be most receptive to them. So play around with texture a bit! And don’t forget that the way you like them and the way your kids like them may be different.
Blending veggies
Lots of families these days accomplish their veggie texture change by blending those veggies into smoothies. Smoothies are a favorite of ours too!
Many of you have heard me say at the markets that one banana in a smoothie hides all manner of sin :) But not to worry! For the purposes of palate-priming, smoothies definitely give kids those flavor exposures. And they’re an easy, colorful way to get in some veggie nutrition!
Altering the temperature
Altering the temperature of veggies is another trick that pediatricians recommend and many families have figured out. Our featured photo is a perfect example of this. He ate this entire bowl of frozen peas after we were done snapping pics!
Would he have eaten a whole bowl of fresh or cooked peas? Who knows!? But go ahead and pique their curiosities by placing some frozen veggies in front of them. You never know!
Stay encouraged, PeaPod. We’re doing veggies the EasyPeasie way!
Sincerely,
The Peas