Getting Your Toddler to Eat Vegetables

Toddlers and Vegetables. Ah, these two things go together like...um...beetroot and peanut butter. Not well at all, is what I'm saying.

Getting some (most?) toddlers to eat vegetables is as challenging as keeping me away from carbohydrates for a week. It's not rare for me to put a plate of lovingly prepared meat, vegetables and pasta down in front of my toddler, only to return ten minutes later and find the meal completely in tact, sans pasta. Sigh.

So, I've ticked number 45 off of "List Of Things I Said I Wouldn't Do As A Parent" and started hiding vegetables. That's right, cocooning them in beds of pastry, disguising them among meatballs and even adding them to sweet treats. Who knows where you might find a sneaky vegetable if you should pop over for a visit!

Hiding vegetables has been marginally more successful than serving them straight up. Toddlers are smart and mine is particularly savvy/out to get me, so I feel like she really examines all her food before deciding if it's worth conceding valuable power points to eat it. Especially at dinner time, the meal of the day that is fraught with the most anxiety for me, a fact which my toddler knows and exploits at every opportunity.

Aaaaanyway my latest "invention" if you will was kind of a mashed vegetable pastie. I'd seen a recipe I wanted to try over at Phoodie, and didn't have all the ingredients on hand, so decided to freestyle - something that has a relatively low success rate in my kitchen but I continue to do anyway.

So, I chucked what was in my fridge - 1.5 large potatoes, half a kent pumpkin and a carrot, later followed by a few stalks of broccoli - into a pot of boiling water until tender and then mashed it all together.

From this...

To this...

I then got some puff pastry out of the freezer and cut it up as per Phoodie's instructions (into fours). I scooped about 3 TBSP of mash onto two squares and covered with the other two squares, repeating again to make four pies/pasties. I had lots of leftover mash, which I put into zip lock bags and froze for next time.

Assembling...

The leftovers

I brushed the tops with some beaten egg and cooked for about 20 minutes.

Amazing photography I know

These were devoured by both me and Miss H for dinner that night - meaning she ate approximately 3 tablespoons of mashed vegetables, double her weekly average. Next, I'm going to try making fried vegetable balls. Stay tuned for the riveting tale of my journey!

OH and P.S. - like any healthy food, these will need to be smothered in tomato sauce for optimum eating results. 

Any tips on fail-safe methods to get toddlers to eat their veggies? Or are we all in the same boat?

Z x