Picky Eaters, Parts 7/8 – Alter texture!
Contents
Last 10 Articles
- Picky Eaters of All Ages: How to Make Mealtime Easy for Toddlers, Kids, and Adults
- Green Powder vs. Fresh Vegetables: What’s Best for Your Kids?
- Wind Down: Effective Family Stress-Relief Techniques
- Veggie Delight: Sneaky Recipes for the Picky Eater
- Recognizing and Managing Common Childhood Allergies
- Garden Harvest: Fun Vegetable Picking Activities for Families
- Unlocking Better Sleep: Bedtime Tips for Kids and Parents
- Exploring Food Textures: A Guide to Feeding Therapy
- Bridging the Gap: Nutritional Needs from Toddlers to Teens
- Parent’s Night Out: Planning Essential Alone Time with Your Spouse
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
The Peas
EasyPeasie was created and is owned by two sisters — two Peas in a pod! Between us are two doctors (a pediatrician and an engineer), a mommy, and an auntie. We care about kids’ nutrition, and are in the business of providing families simple, natural, convenient, and fun ways to improve every meal with added vegetable nutrition. Send us your thoughts and questions on babies, toddlers, veggies, veggie palate primers, being parents, being patients, doctoring, being doctored, or anything else! Comment on our blog, drop us a note on Facebook or Instagram.