How many families have issues with getting their young ones to eat great things?  

I know we do. Albeit, our kids will eat things like fried eggplant; and broccoli smothered in cheese. Most other vegetables don’t go over well.  They will eat my moms spinach casserole.  It’s basically spinach mixed with a can of cream of mushroom soup and covered with bread crumbs and cheddar  cheese. I love it!  It takes me right back to my childhood every time I eat it.

All else though, was a complete flop for years.  

Back in December my wife and I made the conscious decision to clean up our food act.  We are not dieting, but making healthier choices, brown rice instead of white, using things like couscous, less butter and more olive oils, basic easy changes to lower our calorie intake.  We are also severely limiting the deep fried foods and exercising portion control.  Part of that process is eating more vegetables.  

This awakened a sleeping issue in our house.  Some things I’ve done to make sure they get into the kids food are caramelizing onions to put on top of burgers(I put my patty on a salad), slipping in mushrooms with any red meat dish or other vegetable, and making more vegetable oriented sides.  One thing that my picky eater does apparently like are roasted Brussels sprouts.  I roast them until they start to char, then roll them in a bowl with olive oil, garlic and spg then drizzle some balsamic on top.  He likes them so much that I cook 2 batches, one for him and one for the rest of us. Another big hit was carrot fries.  Cut the carrots into a French fry, cover with oil and spg and then airfry them at 380 for 15 minutes.  

The only other way I’ve found to successfully slip in a vegetable for the kids was to make stuffed jalapeños.  I find it amusing since they don’t like spicy food, but if you take a jalapeño and stuff it with cream cheese, cumin, paprika, chili powder and bacon they don’t notice the heat. They will  eat them so fast that you feel like you’re watching a pride of lions tear apart an antelope. 

For my wife and I; we eat just about any vegetable you can think of.  This evening, for instance, I sautéd some onion, garlic, mushroom and red bell pepper then added in baby spinach, a touch of red wine vinegar and a bit of parm cheese. We also eat a lot of salads, or  soups.  

What do you do to keep those green things in your kids diets?