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Getting kids to eat their veggies seems to be an age-old problem for parents.

The old “you can’t have dessert until you have finished all your vegetables” works from time to time, but believe it or not, convincing them to eat their greens doesn’t always have to be an uphill battle.

Here are some creative ways to help you ensure they are getting their essential nutrients from vegetables each day.

  • Try out some ninja vegetable placements, like sneaking in spinach or kale in smoothies, thickening gravies with pureed vegetables or including finely chopped broccoli in your pasta sauce.
  • Most kids can eat an entire bowl of dip using a single carrot stick, so try to get one step ahead of them and make a vegetable homemade dip using cooked mashed pumpkin, cauliflower or avocado and treat them to wholegrain crackers.
  • Include at least one nutritious vegetable in a lunchbox sandwich filling: grated raw carrot, a slice of beetroot, tomato or cucumber, and a lettuce leaf. When my kids were younger, I loved making “open face” salad sandwiches with carrots for hair, cherry tomatoes for eyes, cucumbers for noses and capsicums for smiles!
  • Make salads more appealing to kids by serving it with a low fat creamy dressing and cut things into very small pieces so that they are easy to get in their mouths and chew.
  • Get the kids involved in your kitchen. Because they are part of the entire cooking process (including going to the supermarket to purchase the ingredients), they are much more willing to eat what they have been a part of making.
  • Kids can’t get enough of potato chips, so instead of serving them deep-fried, try oven-baking pumpkin or sweet potato and serving them as ‘French fries’.
  • Remember that vegetables don’t have to be just a savoury food. Carrot and ginger cake and sweet recipes that include zucchini and other vegetables in the ingredients list will work a treat!
  • Hide a variety of chopped or blended vegetables in fritters, savoury muffins, pizza toppings or in meatballs.

These are just a few creative ways to get your kids eating an assortment of vegetables, and hopefully over time, their young taste buds will evolve to love them!

Good luck! Susie

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Infographic courtesy of Together Counts

  • Thank you for sharing these great tips

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  • Cut different shapes and not big chunks if they like home made hamburger grate carrot in it there is sneaky ways if they like quiche you can do spinach cut very fine put in it or whatever you think they won’t taste it.

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  • Good tips! One thing my kids love is mashed potato spread on the plate then heaps of different veggies for them to make funny faces with.

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  • Great tips!! I use the old hide all veggies in pasta sauce.

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  • Lots of great ideas here for those fussy eaters

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  • Thanks for the tips, always looking for ideas to get kids to eat more veggies and fruits.

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  • Ninja serving placements!! Love it. Will have to try a few of these other tips as well

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  • l really love reading these it s so greet

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  • looks nice

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  • Great ideas :-)

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  • this article is so so good. i am vegetarian and we never had anything non veg. some time its hard for a mum to feed their kids a good nutritional diet. thanks for the information this will definitely help me

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  • Love these great ideas! My youngest daughter who is the fussy eater has of late been wanting as well as me encouraging her to help out with dinner, lunch and breakfast prep as well as make the school lunches for everyone.mthisnhas broaden her food intake and liking of foods. Will try the other tips as well and see how much more I can get her to eat!

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  • Thanks for the tips. They surely help!!

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  • thanks for the great tips!

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  • Oh yes, these tips are MADE for our family of fuss-pots!

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  • Love some of the ways to get kids to eat veggies I am please to have 3 great veggie eaters

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  • Love these tips, my kids have all been fussy at some point

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  • some terrific ideas here… love it

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  • I have tried to hide silverbeet in my spag bog sauce but one child flat out refuses to eat it and the other tries her hardest to avoid the little bits of green. I have had some success including brussell sprouts into casseroles and the kids have devoured it lol

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  • I find cute and interesting presentation also helps.

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