How to Sneak Veggies into Kids
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If you have a little one who won’t eat veggies, it suddenly becomes your greatest mission in life to get healthy vegetables into them. But how? My 17-month-old will not even touch vegetables on his plate, except to throw them overboard to the dog. I keep offering, of course, in the hope that one day he will start eating them – which I’m pretty sure is the definition of insanity.
I’m going to keep making myself insane, because when my daughter went through a veggie-hating phase, I kept offering and offering and one day she declared, “I love broccoli!” and cleaned her plate. And my jaw dropped. But until that happens (which will likely be the 4th happiest day of my life, after getting married and having both my children), I’m getting very creative with ways to sneak veggies into him.
The trick is that they have to be well-disguised so that they can’t see or taste them, and so small that they can’t eat around them. I made one of my favorite healthy pasta sauce recipes, which my 4-year-old loves and will eat all up, but my son somehow managed to eat only the spaghetti and leave all the tiny chunks of zucchini, carrots and mushrooms.
Here are my best recipes for getting the vegetables into my son, with him being none the wiser. I’ll keep adding to this as I come up with more, so check back – and please add any of your own in the comments!
Monster Mac & Cheese
Don’t be turned off by the gooey green image associated with this Green Mac ‘n’ Cheese recipe. My kids both love it (including the 17-month-old who will normally not touch anything green), and I agree that it is amazing! It’s packed FULL of spinach but doesn’t taste at all like spinach – just like your favorite mac & cheese.
I’ve also had success with mixing in very small diced broccoli into regular mac & cheese, and there are also butternut squash mac recipes you can try to see what your little one likes.
Broccoli Pesto Pasta
This is another ingenious pasta trick: hiding some broccoli in a traditional pesto pasta. You can make it from scratch using a recipe like this one, or you can simply add broccoli to any pre-made pesto (I love the one from Costco). To do the latter, chop up broccoli florets very small and sauté them in a pan until they soften, then stir in the pesto. Add your cooked pasta and voilà! You can also stir in some halved cherry tomatoes and/or baby mozzarella balls. To make this even easier, look for frozen “broccoli rice” at the store.
Turkey Meatballs
This is the famous Jessica Alba’s Turkey Meatballs recipe. Because if you’re going to make turkey meatballs, you might as well make Jessica Alba’s. (But seriously, they are amazing.) These meatballs are one of the few things I make that cause my husband to say “Wow.” And, as you may have guessed, they are packed with hidden veggies. I now shred the zucchini and carrots, which helps to hide them better (squeeze out the excess water before you add them), and I used a whole zucchini and two medium sized carrots, which were more than the 1/4 cup that the recipe called for. But keep the onion the same, because I made that mistake once, and it turns out that the more onion, the less merry.
Spaghetti with Bolognese
If your child will eat veggies in a pasta sauce if they’re chopped up very small, this Turkey Mushroom Bolognese recipe might work for you as-is. My husband & I both think it’s delicious, and my older child (who was never quite as picky about veggies as my younger one, but who still refused most of them from about age 1.5 to 3.5) ate the whole bowl and asked for more. My younger child, however, ate around all of the tiny veggies. It’s still worth making to me, in case some hitch a ride on a piece of spaghetti into his mouth by accident, and I will probably try chopping up the veggies even smaller next time. I followed the recipe to a T (minus the fresh parsley, which no one missed, and adding an extra can of tomato sauce) and used high protein spaghetti and served with grated parmesan.
Homemade Pizza
If you’ve never made your own pizza before, you’re missing out! It’s super easy and feels much lighter healthier than ordering pizza delivery. I buy the dough from Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods (WF dough is larger, so I separate it in half to make two pizzas), and I like any no-sugar-added pizza sauce (TJ’s, Whole Foods and Rao’s all make a good one). Then top with shredded mozzarella or a pizza cheese blend. The trick for your veggie haters is to small dice the veggies you want to use and hide them under the cheese. My 4-year-old was savvy enough to realize that there were tiny green specks in her “cheese pizza” but my 17-month-old ate up green peppers and mushrooms without even realizing it. I didn’t overload the pizza with veggies, and used plenty of sauce and cheese. I tried a piece of the hidden veggie pizza myself and couldn’t even taste the veggies. If your kids are too good at spotting them and picking them out or rejecting the pizza, you can even blend them up in the sauce. To make the pizza, I roll the dough out thin on plastic wrap with a little flour ( a trick my mom taught me is to start rolling, then let the dough sit for a few minutes, and it’s much finish rolling it out after that); transfer to a baking sheet rubbed with olive oil; pre-bake the dough at 450 for 6-7 minutes; then add the sauce, diced veggies, and cheese on top; bake at 450 for another 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and the crust is browning on the edges. SO GOOD. My son even likes eating it cold for lunch at daycare the next day.
Beef Tacos
Everyone loves beef tacos, right? Try mixing in some riced cauliflower next time – it takes on the color and flavor of the beef and seasoning, so it’s hard to tell and impossible to pick out. My kids have a hard time eating full-size tacos in a shell (I mean, let’s face it, so do I – not a first date kind of food), so I put the meat into Tostito Scoops for them and sprinkle a little grated Mexican blend cheese on top. They’re a hit!
Quesadillas
Quesadillas is another food that I’ve been able to sneak veggies into, since they’re hidden in the middle of two tortillas and a lot of cheese. The nice thing is that you can experiment with different types of veggies and meat/cheese combos to see what works, and since they’re cheap and easy to make, you’re not out a lot of time or money if they full-on reject it and can always have one plain cheese quesadilla on reserve as a back-up.
Chocolate Muffins
You read that right. Chocolate muffins? But that can’t possibly be healthy! Enter Kodiak Cakes. A nutritionist friend turned me onto these mixes and they are soooo good. They’re like delicious pancake/waffle mixes made with whole grains and extra protein – but they just taste like delicious pancakes/waffles. I picked up the dark chocolate flavor at Target recently and thought I’d try making muffins out of them. I didn’t have the ripe bananas that the recipe called for (bananas never seem to last that long in my house these days!), so I looked up what substitutions I could use – applesauce, Greek yogurt, avocado – and then I went way rogue. I subbed 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt for one banana and a whole mashed avocado (also about 1/2 cup) for the other banana, and then I added a shredded zucchini while I was at it (with the excess moisture squeezed out). They did come out VERY moist, which was a little alarming, but the kids loved them. My 4-year-old declared them to be “the best muffins ever” and “even more better than a brownie” and my 17-month-old has been eating them for breakfast at daycare all week.
Superhero Muffins
With a name like that, who wouldn’t want to eat them? These muffins are packed with goodness – and veggies. I add raisins (iron!) but not chocolate chips as shown in the photo, because if my kids knew that there could be chocolate at breakfast, it would be all over.
Monster Muffins
If Monster Mac works, why fix what ain’t broken, right? You can also call these Hulk Muffins if your kid knows who The Hulk is, or Dino Muffins. Whatever you call them, these Sweet Spinach Muffins are a great and healthy snack or breakfast for your little one.
Egg Cups
My son will not eat eggs (whhhhyyyyyyy) but these were a great way to get veggies into my daughter when she was going through a refusal phase. The Baby Foode recipe has four different versions you can try to see which ones go down the easiest – or you can customize them with whatever veggies you think your child might possibly like. If my son WOULD eat eggs, I’d probably try cauliflower chopped up very small and cheese, because he wouldn’t be able to see the cauliflower. And if you try these but they’re a fail, the good news is that they will make a great breakfast for you – warmed up or cold, while you hold a baby in one hand and stuff these into your mouth directly from the fridge with your other hand.
Smoothies
And of course, there’s always the old standby for sneaking in veggies…something cold and sweet and fun to sip…that’s right, smoothies. You can get creative with the veggies you add and mix things up. Or, if you’re like me and can’t seem to wing a smoothie recipe, this one comes out great every time: 1 cup oat milk, handful of baby spinach, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana, 2 Tbsp almond butter. Blend and enjoy [watching your children eat vegetables without their knowing it].
Raw Veggies
This is not exactly a trick for sneaking veggies into kids, but at some point when my older one was going through a vegetable strike, I realized that she would eat raw veggies. Just watch for choking hazards (e.g., I cut baby carrots in half or even quarters the long way). My daughter loves those mini sweet peppers and mini cucumbers.
Got more favorite recipes or tips for getting veggies into your kids? Add them in the comments below!