9 Tips to Get more Fruits and Veggies into Your Kids' day

If your kids are like most, veggies are not the go-to food. All hope need not be lost though. Here are a few tips and tricks to get more veggies and fruits into their daily routine.

                 

     1)      Make it a game or a competition -  Try Today I Ate a Rainbow, a blindfolded tasting game (who can correctly name the most?) create veggie critters or mosaic works of art.

                 

     2)      Using a mandolin finely shred lots of zucchini, carrots, broccoli stalks (use the tops in #3) or other veggies into chili, stews, meatballs, meatloaf, soups or other recipes.

                 

     3)      Serve ‘appetizers’ before dinner- fresh raw or blanched veggies

 with hummus or peanut butter. Avoid high sugar dressings.

   

     4)      Create an ‘apple flower’ by cutting with an apple corer/cutter and setting on a small plate. Offer a side of peanut or almond butter, or cinnamon mixed with a little Sucanat or coconut palm sugar for dipping. Great while they’re waiting for breakfast.

   

  5)      Start with a ‘first course’ of salad. Add fun ingredients like craisins, slivered almonds, diced pears, berries or watermelon.

   

  6)      Make it fun, not a battle. Sometimes just changing your attitude will change theirs. Get excited about trying a new vegetable or cooking it in a new recipe, arrange colors and textures into a shape (fish, bird, house, dinosaur, turkey…) on their plate.

   7)      Get them involved. Kids love ‘grown up’ jobs like chopping, washing, mixing. Additionally it gives them some ownership and pride when it’s served.

  

   8)      Grow your own produce as a family (try the TowerGarden, with grow lights you can grow year round) harvest and eat it fresh!

  

   9)    Make fruits your sweets. For dessert try reducing the junk food portion and adding or increasing the fruit. Try berries and bananas over ice cream, a baked apple, or melt a little dark chocolate and drizzle over your favorite fresh fruit.

   And remember that the more fruits and veggies kids eat over time, the more they will crave them. Still need help getting the recommended 7-13 servings into your children's diet? Juice Plus+ can help you bridge the gap between what you know you should eat and what you do eat.