| Moscow Food Co-op Recipes | |
Meals Kids Might Eat:
Eat Your Vegetables!
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| The author's son, Vilas, 7, some times sculptures out of his raw vegetables.. |
We all know that vegetables are good for us. But I was in my late thirties before I realized just how good they really are.
A few years ago, when my second child was one, I came to terms with the fact that I was not going to lose those last pregnancy pounds on my own. I joined Weight Watchers. In the process of following their program, I realized that my basic problem was: too many muffins, not enough vegetables!
Vegetables are so incredibly full of vitamins and minerals, and they have almost no calories. Twenty calories of spinach give you 130 percent of your daily requirement for Vitamin A, 45 percent of your vitamin C, and 15 percent of your iron. Wow.
Nowadays I make sure to mentally track the number of vegetable and fruit servings I have every day. And yes, I did manage to lose 15 pounds!
My kids will eat almost any kind of fruit. And fruits are great too. But in general, vegetables are the real nutrition powerhouses. The following are some tips on getting kids to eat vegetables.
Go Raw. My kids will eat many vegetables if they are raw: baby carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and those amazing mini sweet peppers the Co-op sells. My younger son likes to dip his veggies in Annie’s Naturals Cowgirl Ranch dressing or Goddess dressing, but my older son prefers plain raw vegetables with maybe some salt. Other ideas for raw vegetables include: peas in the pod (kids like to shell them), tender green beans, and celery. I often put raw vegetables on the table as part of the afternoon snack.
Cook them plain. Steamed broccoli or asparagus with butter or olive oil, salt and lemon juice tends to get eaten. Also, baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes, with butter and salt, are simple and yummy.
Let them eat frozen. Some children actually prefer to eat vegetables while they are still frozen! The Co-op can accommodate them with frozen peas, corn, green beans, broccoli, and mixed veggies. While you’re in the frozen section, pick up a bag of edamame (green soybeans), preferably the ones still in the pods. I cook them in salted water and my kids like to take the soybeans out of the pods and eat them.
Hide them in baked goods. My kids won’t eat cooked zucchini, but they went wild over my neighbor’s zucchini bread. The carrot muffins featured on this page have lots of carrots in them, and they are very moist and delicious.
Serve Veggie Booty. This is a puffed rice and corn snack, available in the chip/pretzel aisle. Each piece is dusted with dried spinach, kale, and other vegetables. It actually has quite a number of vitamins. The Co-op also carries Terra Spiced Sweet Potato Chips. They are a little peppery, but my kids liked them.
Open a can. My older son is fascinated by foods that come out of a can. He enjoys Amy’s Corn Chowder. If it clearly didn’t come from Mom’s kitchen, it must be good—right?
Carrot Muffins (adapted from Breads, Soups, and Salads! by Sharon Winstein)
Younger kids can help mix the batter. Older kids might be interested in grating
the carrots.
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded carrots
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in lemon juice. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until smooth. Stir in carrots. Fill greased muffin cups with batter. Bake for 20 minutes, or until dry on top and firm to touch.
Notes: Look for the “white wheat pastry flour” sold in the bulk section. It is whole-grain flour, but milled from a lighter-colored, milder-tasting wheat. We used ½ cup extra carrots, and it was fine. You might want to experiment with reducing the amount of sugar—our muffins turned out quite sweet. We made 24 mini-muffins – perfect for little hands and mouths—and baked them for 15 minutes.
Jyotsna Sreenivasan loves getting fresh vegetables from the Washington State University Organic Farm Project’s Community-Supported Agriculture program.
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