Little Kids and Broccoli

What’s the difference between boogers and broccoli? Little kids won’t eat broccoli! Or will they?

It can be frustrating getting kids to eat fruits and vegetables, especially if they have not been introduced to these foods at an early age. However, some kids, even with well rounded dietary options just will not eat a piece of broccoli or halved cherries. That’s when it is time to get a little creative.

You can take a cue from many of the canned meals available that are geared towards kids and sneak them into their foods unknowingly in the form of puree or simply mix them into foods they already love. What kid doesn’t like macaroni and cheese? Why not put a half pound of cut up broccoli into the pasta water halfway through cooking the noodles? Covered in cheese sauce, most kids won’t even notice, and if you eat it with them and they see you eating the green stuff mixed into the orange stuff without making a fuss about it they will probably think that they’re just green noodles.

In my limited experience kids will probably eat something if they see it in the garden growing or planted it themselves. The past couple days while we were watching our friends’s nephew, Josh, I would take him out to the garden with me to pick out some strawberries for breakfast. Of course it helps that this kid, while he doesn’t eat much, will eat pretty much anything or at the very least try it first. I thought sneaking the broccoli into the macaroni and cheese trick was, well, sneaky, but he ate it without even thinking twice. Then again, I should’ve know better as when we had stir fry with him a couple months ago he not only ate the chicken but the red bell peppers and onions too. Now, if we can only get him to eat cherries. Cherry pie?