How to get kids to ABSOLUTELY LOVE greens 🌱 (and eat the rainbow 🌈 )
Do you struggle to get your kids to eat enough green leafy vegetables?
Spirulina, what?!
Do they turn their noses up at broccoli, kale, spinach and salads?
Let me tell you a little secret, it is as simple as YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS when it comes to your kids’ response to the good stuff, [especially the good greens].
There is a lot of programming out there that makes it seem normal for kids to refuse to eat vegetables, so much so that parents start to believe through commercials, movies, books, and other programming that it is normal for kids to push the healthy foods off their plate and opt only for bland white pastas and chicken tenders (real or vegan).
If you believe this narrative to be true, it will 💯 be true for you when you put the plate down in front of your children.
If you believe that kids can LOVE and even vehemently request greens, guess what will ring true? 💫
It is true that the norm of which we present to our kids will be how they live their lives.
In your household, what is the narrative around greens? Vegetables? Are these necessary evils that you must stomach through before you get to dessert? Or is is exciting to try new ways to cook vegetables? Is there variety and excitement around which veggies to pick? Do your kids come to the store and help pick up new vegetables to try? Help look up new recipes and learn to steam, stir fry, bake, broil, grill?
Or do you say things like “if you just finish your broccoli you can eat ice cream” Pleading “please, please just take a bite” (as the child looks at floppy overcooked and bland veggies on their plate)?
If you look to cultures in which kids are exposed to a variety of tastes-sweet, salty, umami, bitter, sour, spicy, astringent, pungent…the kids eat right alongside the adults. There is no kids platter or “kid food", just smaller serving size versions of what was made for the family.
Imagine how much easier meal prep would be if you did not have to make separate bland foods for your littles!
Here are the steps to take!
Forget all of the social programming around kids not liking greens, veggies, and healthy foods. It’s simply BS marketing to sell your family junk food.
You are your child’s best influence…so looking at your belief system is incredibly important. Take some time to jot down what feelings, attitudes, and thoughts you have around them eating greens.
Use fact-based nutrition information for your kids. Kids respond really well to exact information. “Kale is an amazing source of Vitamin K, Vitamin C and A. Spinach is chock full of iron, Vitamin A and can help with eye health and reduce blood pressure, kohlrabi is an awesome source of Vitamin C.”
As you prepare the foods, hype it up-chat about how savory, bitter, pungent, sweet, crunchy, soft, colorful the foods are.
Eat greens often, and switch it up. Eat greens for breakfast!
Have your kids help in the kitchen. You can grab kiddo safe kitchen knives and they can help chop right alongside you!
Bring your children to the grocery or the farmers market and have them pick out the vegetables themselves. Let them know they can choose, this can be very exciting for kids! If they pick the veggies and help prepare them they are much more likely to eat them.
If you can grow your own veggies, do so, get the kids involved in the process with either a windowsill herb garden, or if you are fortunate enough to have any access to outdoor land- have them help to plant seeds, seedlings, and garden with you!
Some more ideas:
🌱 Change up where you eat! Can you throw a blanket down on the floor and have a picnic? What about eating outside or at a park?
🌱 Take common meals and make them green! Green oats for breakfast, green pesto pizza, zucchini noodle pasta, green potato pancakes!
🌱 When presenting new food, let your children know what kind of taste they are about to experience. I often say something like “Okay this veggie might taste a little spicy, if you don’t love it at first bite, that’s perfectly okay. I want you to take 3 polite bites and see how your taste buds react!” If my child takes three bites and still finds that this particular food is not for them, that’s fine. “Nice job trying new things! What did you notice about its taste?” Then we chat a bit about the flavor or what the child likes or did not like about the taste. If after three bites, they like it…great, have more. If after three bites they do not prefer it, no problem-great job trying something new! (That same item will make its way back to the plate another day).
At one point, my daughter Luna did not like mashed potatoes. She said she would rather have a Japanese sweet potato and asked me to make that for her instead. This is a great pivotal moment. I know she loves the sweet potatoes and they are great and healthy no doubt, but if I cave then we play the game of you eat differently than I do, and I create more work for myself as mom-chef.
Instead, I said, oh I know you love those but we are having golden potatoes with cauliflower today (my mashed potatoes have cauliflower mixed into them-great way to increase the nutritional value). I will have you take three polite bites and if you don’t prefer it, no big deal.
Long story short. the 8th bite or so…so the third time getting these mashed cauli-potatoes on her plate and the second bite into that, she liked them! Now she even requests it! It is perfectly fine to play the long game my friends!
If your children are particularly prone to requesting pretty bland foods, and their palate needs to adjust, do not be surprised if it takes a new food a few rounds of tries before the new taste sticks.
🌱 Try a buffet style meal where your kids build their own plate! See who has the plate with the most colors! 🌈
Kids respond to the look of their plates. See if you can create colorful meals for them. Use whole foods for most of the colors, they pack a ton a nutrition and are easy on you, just wash chop and plate!
For Luna’s plate below, she made the avocado toast, and I made the tofu scramble. The strawberries and blueberries just needed a rinse and to be cut. The whole meal came together in about ten minutes.
Leo is 1 year old, and so I add some extra fats for his brain development, hence the flax seed oil. He also loves to use beans as a scoop to eat his tofu scramble!
🌱 Variety variety variety! The more types of vegetables you put in front of your kiddos, the more likely they will gravitate toward exploring and eating a plethora of healthy foods.
Check in with your kids, find out what they love, let them eat veggies raw, steamed, in a dip, with a dip, baked, broiled, crispy, sweet, savory, pureed, and stir fried!
If you need more support, feel free to contact me and set up a free consultation. I am passionate about supporting families and would love to help you and your kids thrive!
Eat to live, eat with love,
D