Topic: Help with veg meal ideas please

[Inky]

I want to start trying some new things with veg, other than just the same old culprits boiled, or stirfried.
I want to eat my dinners that don't revolve around meat and bad carbs, like pasta and potatoes.
A lot more vegtable dishesthat can make up the bulk of a meal, as at the moment both my kids hate most veg, and gthere is no way we hit our 5 a day.
My only problem is I work full time so I only have about 1/2 to do a dinner in, otherwise the kids are eating to late and close to bedtime.
Im looking through all the old posts in this section, but would love further ideas please. Im going to start up a whole recipe book with them all.

[Hyacinth]

Hello! It will be lovely to see the recipes that will be posted here; there are many veggies on this forum, and I'll put up a couple of my own fave recipes if they don't get covered, later...

Two things to help, tho - 1) which vegetables do your children actively dislike and won't eat in any form? 2) pasta and potatoes are 'bad carbs'? I'm wondering what makes you think that and do our recipes really have to ignore them? Fine if we do, but I'm wondering if we really really have to...

Thanks, and I hope that we can get together a selection for you which will help.

PS A cook-in evening is a good idea + full use of a freezer when time is short, so I'm sure there'll be hints on Achieving the Seemingly Impossible..how to put on the table a lovely meal within 30mns of coming home 8) ;D

 

[Deb P]

One thing my kids will always eat are pitta bread pizzas.

Use wholemeal pittas for the base, make a topping with onions/shallots, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, mushroom, black olives ( if they don't turn their noses up at them), saute them together in a bit of butter or olive oil until softening a bit, add a veg stock cube and a teaspoon of red pesto, and season with salt and pepper. Take off the heat and add some small cubes of edam cheese or similar. Pile on to the pittas (or can use stale french bread up), add some slices of mozzerela of some grated cheese, put in the oven for 15 mins and serve with salad. I make a tray at a time and they all disappear rather quickly.....quick and easy supper that I have no trouble getting down most kids!

[lewic]

Gillian McKeith has lots of recipes online http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/Y/yawye/recipes.html
You can't go wrong nutritionally with these. And you can always add a bit of cheese if your kids won't eat it without!

Also check out books by Jane Sen, she is the chef at the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, and all the meals are really healthy.

Bill Sewell's 'Food from the Place Below' has some great recipes. I ate in his veggie restaurant in Hereford and it was some of the nicest food I've tasted (though probably quite high in calories!)

[Inky]

Hi thanks for your responses. I have got a Gillian McKeith book but didnt really like her recipes, all veg and nothing else, and weird stuff!

In terms of what my kids eat, well one eats no veg unless its a tomato based sauce with pasta, and the other is much the same apart from he will eat carrots and sweetcorn too. Im hoping if I can produce some veg stuff in a different form from just boiled they might go for it. Im going to do baked sweet potato tonight with sour cream, cheese and chive and bacon. And I have also bought some tomatoes, peppers, courgets and red onions which Im going to grill with some herb goats cheese sprinkled ontop. Stuff like that.

I dont have anything against potatoes or pasta, just would like to make some meals that dont rely so heavily on them, as we do all eat a lot of refined carbs in our household. would like to do something with lentils as I have never eaten them before, but dont really know what to do.

[pippy]

Inky, how old are your kids?

Mine are still quite little (6 and 4) and I find introducing "new" veg and meals can be a bit of a long process!  However, I have a stepdaughter of 18 so have seen a fair bi of the older end of the spectrum.

What I find is that it seems to go in phases.  Sometimes there is peer pressure to say "yuk - vegetables" and you have to work with i t and around it a bit.  Also getting 2nd teeth can put them of crunchy foods for a bit.  What I found with both my step daughters (eldest is 26 now!) is that at about 16 as they come thru adolescence they get a lot more open to trying things.  Likewise they are fairly open until they get to 8-10.

A couple of suggestions are:  Do a roast at a weekend when you have time and do some different veg with it.  If you present a roast dinner in the middle of the table so they can help themselves, you can encourage them to choose something to try.  If they try and don't like it, don' push - just do the same another time.  I've read it can take up to 20 times to get them to accept new things.

The other suggestion is Pitta pockets.  We lay out a selection of raw veg and meats/cheese etc, even cooked veg sometimes, and let them make their own sandwich.  Sometimes we joke about trying different options.  It works well with stuff you grow at the lottie too.

Finally, do any of them like soups?  There are lots of lovely veg soups and you can liquidise them - my eldest loves carrot and coriander or carrot and red lentil.  Or finger food, or eating with chop sticks is all a bit different and fun.

Don't get too despondant about it - just encourage them to try.  Best of luck!!

[pippy]

Just one last thought - if they like mashed potato and you are desperate, you can mash all sorts of veg in with spuds. ;D  We sometimes do carrots or celeriac but a friend of mine confessed she even mashed cauliflower into it to get her kids to eat veg!!

[Inky]

My boys are 1 and 3, so very young. They either stuff it in there mouths immediatly or if they dont like the look of it the plate is pushed away or in the youngest' case thrown onto the floor!

Its very hard to work out there decision making process when it comes to new foods, sometimes they stuff it in without question, and sometimes they just look at it and make the decision its horrible.

[Busby]

I thought young goats were vegetarian anyway?

[pippy]

Inky - they are still very little, much patience and perseverance and I do feel for you!  

My eldest would hardly eat anything until he was 2 - just bottled milk and a bit of toast, soups and stuff.  I found the second one was more interested in finger food so gave him carrot sticks, slices of cucumber and pepper and little broccoli "trees".  We use to laugh and joke that he had eaten a whole baby tree and I think this helped the older one get interested too.  They both eat broccoli trees in abundance now, but back then we were talking 3 or four bite sized pieces!  You have to remember, a portion is a handful and they have very little hands!

Sometimes you also have to go with a more decadent version of introducing a food to get the basic taste over too, for example, get them to eat jam and they will go on to try a strawberry or raspberry.  Sometimes what they eat can be downright odd - one of the first things my eldest liked in the veg department was frozen peas - actually while still frozen!!  

However, what I said about tasting things is still very true.  Make a big fuss of them if they will just try something - don't make a fuss that they don't like it.  Eventually they and you will find a pattern that works and has what they need!  Don't worry if they aren't always eating the same as you - your example comes in as they get into late teens and start to want to try things.  We have discussions with my 18 year old step daughter about how her tastes are and have changed even now.  She has just decided she likes coffee (!).  A year ago she discovered raw tomatoes.

It's a long road but believe me you are not the first to struggle on it.  Take care and laugh a lot ;D ;D ;D

[Inky]

I think Im just really watching diet now as in just over the last year, my eldest has been admitted into hospital on 3 separate occasions with pneumonia, last time was last month with he got it in both lungs and both lower lungs collapsed and he was put on a ventilator for 2 weeks and we nearly lost him. He has asthma and a weak immune system making him very suseptable to illness. So Im trying to do all I can to make sure he is eating all the right food and giving him immune boosting suppliments. I guess its make me look at all our diets and want to improve a bit, as there is no way I get my 5 a day either.

[pippy]

Oh Inky, that must have been awful!  I think kids go through some tough times as they grow - my eldest had loads of ear infections and now has grommets, but they say it is just the strange growth surges boys go through - sometimes one bit of their body doesn't grow as quickly as the rest of them!

The other thing to get them interested in is fruit.  We found making smoothies fun, or counting the segments of oranges, or finding a star in the middle of an apple (by cutting it cross-ways).  If you can just get them to sip a bit of orange juice in a morning it helps!  Or make pancakes at the weekend and have lemon and sugar on them and orange juice with it, or honeyed yoghurt and blueberries for a treat.   Even good old bananas and custard gets something fruity in them!.

Anyway - better go and feed mine (pasta bake - tomato sauce with onions, carrots and peas, pasta on top and cheese sauce, them baked for 20 mins).

Best of luck - looking forward to hearing your progress!
Pippy xx

[THE MASTER]

i don't cook with or add any salt wotsoever in any of the cooking i do
i also do not boil , I steam . steaming keeps the flavour of the veg

i can cook allsorts, infact I've just gone around the world with different dishes , cooking a different meal each night

travel the world in your own kitchen . print out a world map go from country to country and do a dish from each , then when you get near home meat and two veg :P pie and mash :P ;D

think i might pop off to Mauritius tomorrow and have a meal from there
 ;D
sorry I'm not a veg,
 i do eat meat but i also like me veg . there are loads of recipes on the web

[PurpleHeather]

Well you do need a blender. If you have not got one even a stick blender will help and they are about £5 at Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda

Kids usually love spag bol. I always put spinach  into the sauce. You could use a drained tin if you do not have fresh. Other veg will do like cauliflower or broccoli.

Pretty straight forward this.

Wilt a well washed spinach in a the pan with no water.

The blender bit

Stick in a large raw onion, Carrot too if you want and blitz well then add the spinach and a tin of tomatoes.

Now that horrible mush goes into a pan with the raw mince about a pound and you stir every thing together. It looks even more disgusting.

Now gently heat it stirring all the time. Add a couple of beef oxo cubes and a table spoon of tomato ketchup....Keep stirring.

You need to taste to see if you want to add things like salt pepper or a touch of sugar.

This can also be frozen. See if they like it. You can also use that vegetarian soya mince instead of beef.

Kids do not like 'bits' notice how the yoghurts they sell for kids are smooth. It is because they blend every thing up

Making soup using a blender is ideal for them too. If it looks like baby food then mix some cornflour and half a pint of milk to make a better texture.

Vegetables blended will make a good gravy poured over mash. Just get a bottle of gravy browings to make it look browner.

Batch cooking when you have a couple of hours to do so, helps.

If you make a cottage pie, chop up loads of vegetables in it. They can't push them away then. Use blended veg in the gravy too.

Smoothies are good for getting fruit into them and if you freeze the fruit, it gets icy cold like ice cream.

Kids like sweet stuff so I do not mind putting in a bit of sugar or honey even. But you can use artificial sweeteners if you prefer. They can get bitter though if you heat them. So add when the food is getting cooler.

Make it look attractive when you serve too. A tiny dash of that tinned aerosol cream with a pinch of hundreds and thousands on top is not going to ruin their health.

Jellies can be mixed with tinned fruit if you have none fresh, they do sell it in fruit juice, use the fruit juice to mix with the jelly and chop the fruit small. A three year old, supervised can mix the jelly, that way they are making the meal and will eat it better.

Kids like dips too. will often eat vegetable sticks if they are dipping them into something they like.





 

[JJane01]

If it helps, a glass of orange juice, a glass of apple juice... they all contribute to 5 a day.  We're lucky in that our son (aged 7) loves fruit and veg, although he knows what he likes and doesn't like (a big stew can hide the don't likes  ;)).   Raspberries are a fab fruit, they can be sat perfectly on the end of a child's finger, like thimbles, ready to be eaten.

I would say if your family likes pasta, incorporate veggies within pasta dishes and then go to cooking pasta with a serving of veg on top, so they're separate.  One of my son's favourite meals is pasta with pesto and peas.

I would echo the sentiment that your children are very young.  Their tastebuds will be changing all the time.  What is appealing one week can seem completely offensive the next.  Try to go with the flow, make the food fun, encourage them to try, praise them.  Also experiment with raw, blanched and cooked vegetables; flavours and textures differ, so some may be preferable over others.  Think also about cutlery food and finger food - I've found children at that age love finger food over cutlery food.

I think this is a great time of year to start experimenting; there are so many bright and colourful fruits and veg on their way, I really think that helps with the appeal.

Hope this helps, good luck, and let us know how you get on.

[Susiebelle]

Bill Sewell's 'Food from the Place Below' has some great recipes

I would agree with lewic on this one, tastes so good no one ends up looking for the meat on their plate.
Lots of meat eaters are turning to Quorn mince or Vege Mince which you will find in the freezer in resealable packets as a meat substitute in mince dishes. Another good option to try is to use a few puy lentils and bulgar wheat together, they both absorb the flavours of the dish and again end up resembling mince.
Do try if you like the taste you will find any of these options have a much lower fat content.

[littlebabybird]

Inky,
please dont worry about fat in your childres diet, they need the fat in non reduced fat products
at their age for healthy growth and development.

lbb

[reddyreddy]

I agree with LBB, children do need fat in their diets. Mine are 2.5 and 4 and I sneak veg in all over the place, as per previous posts I chop very very fine and add it all over the place, my spag bol has very fine aubergine, courgette, grated carrot, celery and cannelini beans in as well as the regular onions, meat and toms. I also make lentils by frying an onion, garlic and finely chopped celery in butter (not oil) then add finely chopped courgette and grated carrot add brown lentils pour over chicken stock (I use Kallo Organic chicne cubes - all supermarkets have them and they are so yummy - taste home made) cook for 30-40 mins, yum. Good luck!!

[carrot-cruncher]

I have some bread recipies that incorporate veg and/or pulses etc.   I found them useful for sneaking things passed the niece & nephew.   When the niece went through her pink phase a couple of years ago I used a bread recipe that incorporates beetroot.   This turns the bread a lovely shade of pink, which she totally adored.

When another work mate had trouble getting her little boy to eat certain food, she found it was due to the fact that he didn't like the colour.   To get round it she started using food colouring to dye the food to his favourite colour, at which point he started eating everything.

CC

[GrannieAnnie]

Our youngest son had many food dislikes. He was adopted at age 2 and would only eat cereal, banana and some milk so we had quite a time working on his diet. One thing he took to was a small measuring cup filled with frozen peas.  Those he would happily snack on for some reason!

Now he is a muscular 38 yr old and eats well except still cannot abide fresh tomatoes for some reason though loves spaghetti, pizza etc. ::)