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Getting your children to eat healthily and be mindful of how much sugar they’re consuming is easier said than done.
Most parents are too exhausted from working all day or keeping the household from burning down to have that fight, and so, often, any vegetables on the plate go untouched by kids who are pretty feisty when it comes to their eating choices.
While avoiding the fight seems to be the way out, there are other ways to encourage your littles to get their share of nutritious foods.
Cape Town nutritionist Arianna Cottino shares the following creative strategies to help parents circumvent this challenge:
The wonder blender: Veggies in disguise
Cottino suggests making use of a blender to cleverly puree veggies which can then be added to your kids’ favourite dishes.
"Using a blender to seamlessly incorporate vegetables into children's meals is a smart strategy for enhancing their intake of vital vitamins and minerals. By pureeing vegetables and blending them into pasta sauces, soups, or smoothies, parents can cleverly conceal their presence while still reaping the nutritional rewards, " she says.
Cottino also shares some examples of meals that can be blended and added to other foods:
"Whether blending spinach or cooked broccoli into a pesto for pasta, incorporating cauliflower into a cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, or adding cooked carrots or spinach to a blueberry smoothie—where the colour hides their presence—these techniques not only enhance flavour and texture but also introduce a wealth of nutrients into a child's diet.
"This approach not only promotes healthy eating habits but also enables parents to effortlessly enhance their children's overall nutritional intake, " she says.
