Monday, September 13, 2010

Vegie boost for fussy eaters - sneaky but.



Children get fussy with foods and drive us all spare. Starting a power play at the dinner table every night just raises parents blood pressure and provides excellent entertainment for the kids.

Here is a very easy way of booting the vitamin and mineral intake of even the fussiest of eaters.


Roughly chop -

2 carrots
1 onion
1 leek
4 stalks celery (yep,leaves too if you can fit them in)
4 sprigs parsley (including the stems)
2 bay leaves
1 bouquet garni (from the spice section of the supermarket)
4 black peppercorns

Throw it in a pot with 1.5 liters of water. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

Cool slightly then strain it through a sieve, discard the solids (hopefully into the compost).

Simmer uncovered until the liquid reduces by half, cool and pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

How to use

Stir into a white sauce or bechamel instead of milk (or a bit of both)
Add it to pasta sauce
Use as the liquid in a risotto
Use it with water (50/50 mix) to cook rice or pasta

*from Feeding Fussy Kids by Julie Maree Wood.


Hiding vegies is a great way to ease your mind and make sure the little fussy pants kids are getting enough nutrition. I always present vegetables on the plate at dinnertime anyway. Most of the time I find they WILL end up trying out new stuff if they see mum and dad eating it, and there is no pressure to do so.


Cheers

5 comments:

Liz said...

ooh that is sneaky! It might even fool DP

Anonymous said...

Mmmm - not my cup of tea. I have major issues with deception in food. I am all for veggifying things, but with honesty involved.

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh good idea! I have a heap of different vege purees in the freezer to toss into things, but this is a great idea using it as a "vegetable" stock...

Astrid, I wish I didn't have to be deceptive. Unfortunately, super kids tend to hate different textures and tastes and you can't get beyond it for months on end... deception gets some goodness into them when you wouldn't otherwise.

I always serve veges, but they always wind up in the dogs bowls...

Lulu said...

Well aren't you the lucky one to have children that eat all their vegies and fruit all the time?
It's not like I'm suggesting hiding OFFAL in meals, and most western diets are WOEFULLY inadequate in nutrition anyway.

But each to their deceptive own....

Anonymous said...

Look I tend to be one of the first to always say there is an exception to any rule (I thought you knew that Lulu ;))

I am not "lucky" with kids that eat their fruit and veg. In fact they are fussy little shits. I just don't like to lie about what is in their food. I may lie about who likes to eat their food. "Fairies like to eat it" is a good one when used sparingly to get them to try something a bit different, and I will tell them there is sweet potato in it.

I spent most of my childhood feeling ill, I used to put it down to the crap family I was in and yes part of it was due to that. The other part was due to my mother's obession with onion, she would not respect that I did not like it, so she would smuggly hide it. As an adult I now know that I have an intolerance to onion, whilst I can small amounts, I cannot have large amounts. It really does make me feel ill.

Ok, will stop now, I am kind of passionate about this topic, it has been on my "to blog about" list for awhile now.