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My princess and partner need to add more vegetables into their diets but they turn their nose up at the sight of anything colourful. How do other mums hide more veggies in food?


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  • What type of foods do they currently eat ?
    I stick veggies in everything. And when it comes to dinner, veggies are to main part in our house. You can hide a lot of veggies in pasta sauce and blending them, I take part of my fresh pasta sauce and use it for the pizza’s and as base for the taco sauce. You can put a lot of veggies in soups. Instead of hot chips you can do sweet potato chips. And even in your pancakes, muffins and cupcakes. You can use lentil flour, chick pea flour and cauliflower flour in baking.


  • I grate zucchini or carrot into pasta sauce, mine know its there though so not really trying to hide it.


  • I have managed over the years to grate & disguise veggies in many dishes! Spag Bol, sausage rolls, veggie fritters, pasties, & jaffles to name a few.


  • I grate carrot and or zucchini in bolognese sauce.


  • Yes! I grated carrot into bolognaise sauce the other night and the kids didn’t even notice. So good.
    Also, I made a zucchini brownie once, and my son didn’t know. Another yummy way of getting more veggies.

    I’ve also done macaroni cheese (Pasta cheese we call it here, which my kids LOVE), and I actually added pumpkin soup to it and they still loved it :) The pumpkin just blended in to the milky cheesy sauce.


  • I cook meals like spaghetti Bolognas and blend the vegetables so they can’t be seen. If I do mashed potatoes I also mash up other veg in there too and seems to do the trick.


  • If only it was that easy with some fussy eaters. The only way one Mum I know can get her 4 y.o. He will only to eat any quantity of vegetables is if they are roasted. His favourite is carrot and he often eats 2 or 3 whole ones but last time he refused them too. If she was allowed to he would live on chicken nuggets or similar or chips with BBQ Sauce. He is a “sweet tooth”. Personally I would telling him that he had to eat other food before he was given anything else but I’m not the parent.


  • As everyone else says – grate, blend, puree and mince.
    Also try getting them involved in cooking the foods. Kids seem much more likely to try and eat foods that they have prepared themselves. If possible grow some vegetables too. You could try lettuces, herbs and potatoes. Start off small and easy.
    Invest in a French garnishing tool to cut vegetables with crinkly sides. Interesting shapes may make the vegetables more appealing.
    Offer vegetables raw. One of my daughters detests cooked mushrooms, but will happily eat them raw.
    Good luck and happy eating :)


  • I grate anything and everything into mince based dishes and also add a tin of lentils to stretch it out. I also sometimes substitute mince entirely for mushrooms. You can use mushrooms instead of beef and chicken in a stroganoff as well. I have tricked my fussiest 2 year old into eating that and he HATES mushrooms (if he sees it going into a dish)


  • I have a 14 mo and am yet to face a “picky eater” yet, but I follow an account on instagram and she has facebook/website too. She is a dietician and focuses on children and picky eaters. Her account is kids.eat.in.color and her suggestions are AMAZING. She also just released a free guide for parents of picky eaters. I actually get excited about feeding my kid when I read her stuff!!


  • Puree, blend, grate and put spinach etc into smoothies! Deceptively delicious cook books have some great ideas in them


  • I used to mash it up and blend it in the meals . EG Mix Corn Kernels in the eggs and make it as an omelette and eggs in general is so versatile which you can make anthung with it but you might be in a jam if they are dairy intolerance which is a separate health issue altogther. Rissoles can be mixed with carrots and peas etc etc.


  • Grate your veggies and add them to sauces, they cook down and dissolve so you can’t see them. Another trick is to grate them and put them into patties or meatballs, sausage rolls, that kind of thing. Also see if there is a particular dip they like and especially for your daughter, have a rainbow dipping day where she gets veggies all colours of the rainbow and can dip them in her favourite flavour. You could even call it unicorn food to encourage her


  • I add lots of vegetables to family favourites such as bolognese sauce and burrito meat but I make sure the vegetables are small so they can’t pick them out.


  • Cook them down or blend them up and put them through the meals.


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