How to Ruin Food

Kids are great! They are silly, cute, and fun. They are also a giant pain in the butt; especially when it comes to food. As parents, we try our best to make sure they are eating nutritiously. As kids, they try their best to eat nothing but chicken nuggets, peanut butter, and cereal. Vin is a perfect example.

Now that he is two and a half years old he is getting much pickier about what he eats. When he was younger he would eat just about everything I gave him. He would eat egg & cheese omelets, veggie burgers, cheese sticks, bananas, oranges, etc. Now, not so much.

In order to combat this I have started adapting and modifying his “normal” foods into healthier alternatives. I have been doing this for so long now that I didn’t even realize it was an odd approach to nutritious eating. It dawned on me when my sister was here. While feeding Vin pudding one day she asked me, “so do you mix anything into this to ruin it and make it good for you?” It was funny at the time, but got me thinking…what foods do I “ruin”?

Now keep in mind that Vin has always eaten these foods this way and does not know the difference.

Yogurt – I add wheat germ
Applesauce – I add pureed green vegetables like peas, broccoli, or green beans.
French Toast – I add pumpkin and cinnamon.
Jello – I make it with decaffeinated green tea instead of hot water and boiled down and mashed blueberry juice instead of cold water.
Chocolate Pudding – I make it with boiled down and mashed spinach water/juice instead of water.

In addition, he eats whole wheat bread, waffles, and pasta. It is really easy to add pureed veggies to just about anything.

I have a cookbook called The Sneaky Chef that gave me these great ideas. As the kids get older it is packed full of everyday recipes that mix in healthy alternatives. I’ve learned to doctor up mac & cheese, chicken strips, and lasagna.

She even has a recipe to make Brawny Brownies that includes hidden spinach, blueberries, oats, and wheat germ. I’m going to try that one next. It will make me feel a lot better next time I polish off half a pan of brownies all by myself!