Mar 12
Want to share your menu plans with others? Want to get some menu planning ideas? Share as a comment below!
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March 15th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I have a daughter who is 4 years old. She does not eat vegetables and frutis. I don’t understand how to make her eat them. I am looking for children friendly recepies with fruits and vegetables. I would also like to know if there are any menu plans which can be followed for little children.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Rekha,
Children’s likes and dislikes seem to change faster than we can keep up with them! I would encourage you to involve your daughter as much as possible in the planning and shopping process. You could put her “in charge” of picking out one vegetable side that everyone in the family needs to eat one night of the week. Or you could go to the grocery store together and pick out a new vegetable to try.
I have found that my son will eat some vegetables one way, but then not another. For instance, he would eat his weight in roasted carrots, but not roasted zucchini. The other great find that I have in my pantry are freeze dried vegetables that I found at my local natural food store (”Just Veggies”).
He loves crunchy foods, so this was perfect. I’m not really a fan of “hiding” vegetables, but I am a fan of boosting the healthiness of some treats, like folding in shredded veggies into cornbread.
My favorite kid-friendly veggie side…veggie potato pancakes. Shred a combination of veggies, whatever you have on hand in the food processor. Carrots, sweet potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, potatoes, you get the idea. Add one egg, a little flour to help it stick together. Fry them in a non-stick pan with a little canola oil. Serve with applesauce or sour cream or plain. My son and I fight over who can eat more of these!
March 15th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I forgot to answer your question about menu plans for kids. My son eats pretty much everything we eat, unless it is super spicy. But he has surprised us with what he is willing to try…the other night he desperately wanted to taste the mustard my husband and I were using for our brats. He loved it. Who knew??
Getting her involved in the menu planning process is the best way to make it kid-friendly. Why not let her choose the meal for one or two days out of the week? It will be a great opportunity for you to teach her about nutrition and creating balance in a meal. For the remainder of the days, if you start to build up a repetoire of meals like I have, you can always have a list that she can then choose from.
So much of toddler and preschool struggles are about power and control. For safety, we need to be the ones in charge, but we can still give them a lot of places and times where they can make choices about their daily lives, like what they eat.
If your daughter loves carrots, go with that. Go over the top with your search for the best carrot recipe, everybody should wear orange that night for dinner, and should say something nice about the carrot as a vegetable. Sure it’s goofy and silly, but she’ll be laughing and eating; and maybe next meal time when you try to introduce spinach, you can carry some of those giggles into it. Let us know how it goes!
March 15th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Tomato - Herb Chicken
1/4 cup fat free chicken broth
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts, skinless
1. In large nonstick skillet, heat broth over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic for 2 minutes or until tender. Add tomato sauce, syrup, vinegar, oregano, basil and pepper to onion mix. Bring mixture to boil and reduce heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Add chicken to sauce and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Turn chicken and simmer an additional 30 minutes or until chicken is tender, stirring occasionally. Serve hot.
Makes 4 servings; Per serving: 270 Calories, 3 Fat Grams