8 Simple Ways to Make Veggies Look Good to Kids

Lets face it, kids care about presentation. My own daughter will often push away vegetables if they are presented in a lumpy soggy mess on her plate. Sure, I am a little irked by it sometimes, do I look like a magazine food stylist to you, but I know that how things look on the plate sometimes make a difference to me. While vegetables may be some of the toughest things to teach kids to like they are, at least, extraordinarily easy to present attractively. When chopped up and arranged in rainbows or little faces it can spell the difference between kids viewing them as intriguing and approachable and pushing them away without hesitation. Here are eight simple and fun ways you too can make vegetables look good to kids. Which one will you try?

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  Colorful Crudite in the Fridge

  Sometimes it can really help kids to see that simple raw vegetables are bursting with color and flavor. By keeping a crunchy assortment of veggies in a rainbow-like arrangement in the fridge they can reach in for a yummy snack whenever they like. Leaving it in the fridge also gives them the independence to make healthy snacking choices. If a particular vegetable is gone first you'll know it is a family favorite!
  Make colorful crudite in the fridge
  /family-kitchen/2012/09/17/8-simple-ways-to-make-veggies-look-good-to-kids/colorful-crudite-in-the-fridge
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  Combine Vegetables with Favorite Fruits

  A muffin can make a great lunchbox snack because it is so portable and is just the right size for little hands. This muffin is completely nut free and is even given a healthy boost by the It is always good to remind kids that vegetables can be combined with other things like fruits or grains to make delicious, nutritious food. This yummy grape salsa is both savory and sweet and is a fun way for kids to taste the terrific contrast between flavors. It can also be festively served on chips or pita bread for a lighthearted look.
  Make grape salsa
  /family-kitchen/2012/09/17/8-simple-ways-to-make-veggies-look-good-to-kids/combine-vegetables-with-favorite-fruits
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  Use Vegetables at Containers

  Vegetables can be so much fun to use as containers! Kids will flip over this fun way to serve a favorite nutritious dip, then they can eat the bowl too!
  Make guacamole tomato boats
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  Make it Mini!

  Sometimes mini is a really good thing. A regular sized baked potato can look enormous to a small child. These smaller ones are more their speed and can be dressed up with all kinds of fun toppings to fit the mood.
  Make mexican potatoes
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  Play with Your Food

  Show kids that vegetables are accessible by letting them dressing up stuffed peppers and pumpkins with pieces of cut up vegetables. They'll totally dig the fun faces and learn about flavors in the process.
  Make sloppy goblins
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  Use Veggies from Scratch

  If your kids want to start from scratch making their food getting them involved with something vegetable based like this cool veggie sushie. They'll be able to transform their vegetables into something pretty and fun to eat making them all the more accessible.
  Make vegetable sushi
  /family-kitchen/2012/09/17/8-simple-ways-to-make-veggies-look-good-to-kids/use-veggies-from-scratch
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  Get Imaginative

  Never understimate the idea of using your imagination to present vegetables in an awesomely fun way. These cute vegan bento boxes are chock full of great ideas for turning vegetables into figures familiar to your kids!
  Make cute vegetable bento boxes
  /family-kitchen/2012/09/17/8-simple-ways-to-make-veggies-look-good-to-kids/get-imaginative
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  Go Seasonal!

  With Halloween coming up this vegetable skeleton is the perfect way to intrigue your kids! Do they prefer ribs or femurs? Maybe for Christmas you can do a vegetable present and for Valentines day a vegetable heart!
  Make a vegetable skeleton
  /family-kitchen/2012/09/17/8-simple-ways-to-make-veggies-look-good-to-kids/go-seasonal

Some more interesting posts:

7 Snack Breads for the Lunchbox

Captain Crunch Cookies

Apple Pies Baked in Apples

Read more from Kelsey on Kelseys blog!

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Photo: Angie McGowan

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Zucchini Noodles with Sausage Marinara: A Fresh Dinner Idea!

Any time you can swap out a carb for fresh vegetables and still end up with a delicious meal, youre doing pretty well for yourself. Thats what we did with this zucchini noodle dish in which thin-cut sauteed zucchini takes the place of noodles in one of our go-to pasta dishes. The result was a dish that had all the comfort of the original in a much more healthy form.

This is also a great way to get kids who are less than enthused about vegetables to them to give them a try. Youre dont have to trick them into eating a vegetable by disguising it, you can simply present a vegetable in a form thats more palatable to them. Our daughter does reasonably well with vegetables for a child of her age, but shes definitely not a zucchini fan. But when we set these zucchini noodles down in front of her, they didnt last long.
for the marinara

Marinara with Sausage over Zucchini Noodles
serves 4

For the marinara with sausage
1 lb. Italian pork sausage, sliced into 1/2 wide coins
1 red onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
1 quart whole peeled tomatoes
1/4 cup minced fresh herbs such as basil or parsley
drizzle balsamic vinegar or wine

Heat a wide, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage coins, and cook until they are browned nicely on both sides, about 7 10 minutes. Remove the sausage from the skillet and set aside in a bowl, pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat. With skillet still over medium-high heat, cook the onion until translucent, then add the garlic, and cook for 1 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes, squeezing each whole tomato with your hand as you add it. Add the sausage. Heat everything until bubbling vigorously, and then turn heat to low.

Continue to cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for at least 30 minutes, but up to 2 hours for optimal thickness and flavor.

Just before serving, add the minced herbs (saving just a few for garnish), adjust salt levels, add the splash of vinegar or wine, and a few twists of fresh ground pepper.

For the zucchini noodles
3 4 large zucchini
1 2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt

Trim the top and bottom form the zucchini. Using a sharp vegetable peeler, mandoline, or julienne peeler, shave or slice the noodles from the zucchini up to the seeded core. You will have quite a bit of the seeded section of the zucchini left over, as well as a meaty part above and belowset them aside for another use.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Place two large handfuls of the noodles in the skillet, sprinkle with a big pinch of sea salt, and saute for 2 3 minutes, removing the zucchini just before they release their water. Continue to cook the remaining zucchini in batches, until is is all cooked. Cooking in batches will keep the zucchini from getting too soggy or releasing too much water. You may need to add an additional drizzle of olive oil between batches.

To serve, place noodles in a large, wide bowl, and ladle several spoonfuls of sauce over top. Finish with a sprig of fresh herbs and a twist of pepper.

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13 Stress-Free Ways to Get Kids Eating Healthy Food for Life

Parents, do your kids gladly eat vegetables and shun pizza? If you said yes, congratulations. If you said no, join the club. My husband and I eat a diet rich in farm-fresh seasonal vegetables, but our 5 year old is not quite as keen. Never fear! There are a few simple, low-stress ways to encourage even the pickiest of eaters to hit the healthy stuff, and shape a lifetime of good eating habits.

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  Try Again, and Again, and Again

  Repetition works (serious repetition--as many as 20 times). Kids will often shun the unfamiliar, but, over a really long period time, what was once strange and vaguely disgusting, can transform into a delicious dinner option.
  More ways to get kids eating healthfully from Babble
  Image: USDA
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  Make One Dinner

  We all want our kids to eat dinner, and no parent wants to send a hungry kid off to bed. But it's important to only serve kids one dinner. Catering to kids' picky tendencies only reinforces bad habits. Make one dinner, and be clear with kids that that's all there is. Avoid struggle at the table, and let kids make their own choice. The dinner mantra in our house is, "The next meal is breakfast."
  Image: USDA
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  Bribe 'Em

  That's right. Studies show that bribing kids, either with stickers or effusive praise, is a great method for getting them to eat their veggies over time.
  Image: USDA
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/bribe-em
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  Offer Only Fruits or Veggies As Snacks

  As Michael Pollan says, if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not that hungry, and that's sound advice. Try setting up a station with carrot sticks or fresh fruit, and allow kids free access to these foods between meals.
  Image: Kander
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  Limit Sugar

  Sugary snacks and treats are foods that should enjoyed only occasionally. I try to really limit my family's intake of sweets and candy, and am continually shocked by the amount of junk strangers, friends, and schools are pushing toward our oldest. But, limiting the sweet stuff will reduce sugar cravings overall, and frequent consumption of sugar is most definitely not great for us, so it might be worth seeming like the crazy health-nut lady (or gentleman).
  Image: USDA
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/limit-sugar
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  Offer Two Vegetables with Lunch and Dinner

  Making a commitment to, and habit of, offering varying vegetables will instill good eating habits in you and the kids. And the frequent rotation will ensure they are exposed to a wide variety of flavors and textures.
  Make green bean and tomato salad
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  Don't Use Food as a Reward or Punishment

  It's tempting to use the promise of sweets as a reward for good behavior, but doing so can contribute to unhealthy attitudes toward food, making unhealthy foods even more appealing and making kids feel like they deserve empty calories for doing good work. On the other hand, using healthy foods as a punishment makes it almost certain they'll never seek those foods out on their own.
  Image: USDA
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  Get Kids Involved

  In the kitchen or garden, empowered, knowledgeable kids are more likely to opt for vegetables and fruits. Help kids to understand where food comes from and how it's made; visit a local farm even! They are way more likely to try something they've made, picked, or grown than something that effortlessly appears before them.
  Head out to the farm!
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/get-kids-involved
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  Ketchup Works

  Recently, a good friend whose healthy eating prowess I greatly admire, mentioned that her kids sometimes have their veggies with ketchup. Mine too! Like, all the time! You know what? It's OK. Let them have the ketchup -- it's all about establishing healthy habits, and eating veggies with ketchup is better than no veggies at all.
  Make your own ketchup
  Image: Julie Van Rosendaal
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/ketchup-works
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  Water Is Important

  Basically, over the course of a lifetime, the main thing we should all be consuming is water. Get kids accustomed to drinking the healthiest beverage of all by limiting daily drink options to water or plain milk.
  Image: Derek Jensen
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/water-is-important
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  Play with Color

  Kids love color, and vivid, brightly colored foods are especially appealing to them. Get them trying healthy foods by opting for vibrant veggies and technicolor fruits. You can even play up a favorite color -- purple peppers anyone?
  Eat the rainbow: 11 healthy, colorful foods for kids
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/play-with-color
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  Keep It Positive!

  There are lots of delicious foods that are also healthy, so it's important to keep the emphasis on all the great foods that are great for you rather than focusing on what foods you shouldn't eat. Healthy eating is about making good choices, not depriving yourself.
  Image: iStock Photo
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  Live a Little

  Since eating healthy should be fun, offer healthy treats, and even not-so-healthy ones, now and again. Smoothies, whole grain fruit muffins, or even sweets shouldn't be contraband. Situations will also come up where the food on offer, whether it's at school or a friend's house or somewhere else, is not the food you would choose -- do your best to relax and let your kid be part of the fun.
  Make a strawberry watermelon frosty
  Image: Kathy Patalsky
  /family-kitchen/2012/08/09/13-stress-free-ways-to-get-kids-eating-healthy-food-for-life/live-a-little

Image: iStock Photo

More from Brooklyn Supper on Babble:
Baby Food Gets Lively: Spiced Moroccan Carrots
10 Easy Ways to Green Your Kitchen (And Save Money Doing It!)
Chill Out: 20 Cool and Fruity Treats You Can Make with Kids

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