4 Genius Ways to Introduce Vegetables to Your Kids
A vegetarian diet can be a great way to eat healthily. Yet, it can be difficult to introduce this way of eating to your child without scaring them away. Therefore, it may concern you if you are a vegetarian and want to introduce vegetarian meal options to your child without turning them off.
As a vegetarian, you want to meet the nutritional needs of your growing child. Yet, you also want them to enjoy the same vegetarian cuisine that you enjoy. Here are four ways to help introduce vegetarian dishes to your child without scaring them away.
1. Veggie Pizza
Pizza is a wonderful way to introduce vegetarian dishes to your child. It is also a perfect dish to introduce them to new vegetables. The best part is that you can make a healthy veggie pizza in 10 minutes if you have a ready-made pizza crust.
Veggie pizzas are colorful and packed with many nutrients. It makes introducing new vegetables to picky eaters a little easier than you think. You can also try different types of sauces for the pizza. Explore different options, such as cheese sauces or ketchup sauces as alternatives to regular pizza sauce. Then you can cover everything up with lots of gooey cheese.
2. Veggie Soup
Adding vegetarian dishes to your child’s diet is easy if you include your children in the meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking process. It is also a good idea to start by removing meat from dishes your child already likes. For example, if your child likes chicken noodle soup, all you need to do is remove the chicken and add one or more of your child’s favorite vegetables.
3. Oatmeal
Oatmeal is a naturally vegetarian breakfast meal that is healthier than regular cold cereal that comes in a box. You can add flavor to the oatmeal by cooking it in a vanilla-flavored non-dairy milk alternative. Cinnamon or a pinch of nutmeg can also add some flavor. Plus, you can sweeten the oatmeal with honey or plant-based sweeteners like stevia or monkfruit.
4. Salads
Salads are an obvious choice for vegetarians, and kids generally like salads. You can get your child involved in preparing the salad by having them add the vegetables they want on top of the lettuce. Then you can have them top off the salad with their favorite dressing.
Getting your child to like vegetarian dishes is not difficult if you know the vegetables they already like to eat. However, it helps to get them involved in picking the vegetables and preparing the dish to create a lifelong lover of vegetarian meals.
By Dixie Somers
Freelance writer
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