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Veggie Tales
One Food Group Worth Fighting For
By Donna Smith
Vegetables. How can something so colorful, good for us and tasty cause so much havoc in so many homes? We know our children need to eat their veggies, but how do you get them off the plate and into their mouths?
"What an emotion-laden food!" says vegan chef Melanie Wilson, the editor and publisher of Vegetarian Baby and Toddler magazine. "We love to push them, and our kids love to push them away. But because vegetables are so important to a well-rounded diet and research shows that the earlier a food is introduced and the more often it's served the more likely a child is to prefer it later in life, it's important to keep offering vegetables."
Wilson offers these ideas for making vegetables more attractive to little ones:
- Kids love dips. Offer freshly-cut, raw veggies before dinner when kids are hungriest with a bowl of ranch dressing.
- Make a sauce. Cooked veggies taste infinitely better to kids when smothered in a creamy cheese sauce or garlic butter.