Toddlers can be sometimes picky eaters and may be very tough to eat their greens and other vegetables. While mealtime battles are a common and natural part of the toddler stage, but it can be disturbing for parents that their little one might not be getting the nutrients they need. So, moms are always looking for ways to hide these into the kid's food some way or the other. Are you looking to keep your toddler healthy, but you struggle to get them to eat those important veggies (the solution is to hide them)! After all, if your toddler doesn’t know that vegetable is there in the first place, then it is hard to refuse them. Luckily, there are lots of ideas to hide legumes in your toddler’s diet without them knowing it.
Here are some easy expert ways to do so without letting your kids know
- Make their paranthas delicious: This is an excellent way to include veggies and even boiled dals into your little one's diet. Just make a puree to the vegetables with some basics such as salt. You may add cooked lentils in the puree too. Now, for the dough, use flour and the puree to make the dough. Avoid adding extra water. Use the water from the vegetable puree itself. The paranthas will come out unbelievingly soft and delicious, and your kid won't have a clue. Avoid cooking the veggies, use raw for the best health benefits.
- Frittata your vegetables: Make delicious frittatas by adding herbs such as broccoli, carrots, onions etc. All these add an excellent flavour to the whole dish. Just keep one thing in mind, before making the frittata batter, instead of chopping the veggies such as in a traditional frittata, puree them or blend them in a smooth paste and then make the frittatas. This makes the frittata soft, and the cheese makes it delicious for the toddlers.
- Make a smoothie: Add greens in a smoothie for your kids and at the same time to make it tasty, add some sweet fruits along as well. For example, when you make a delicious cucumber juice for yourself to have a detox diet, continue it for your child by adding some green grapes to the juice. They will drink it down in minutes because of the refreshing fruity taste.
- Cook veggies in dal: While boiling the dal, add some green vegetables in as well, such as chopped spinach, kale or broccoli, green beans etc. This will make the veggies really soft and will enable the child to consume the dal with rice or chapati thinking that he is consuming only dal and rice.
- Make vegetable khichdi: Instead of cooking your khichdi in the traditional only dal and rice way, add the vegetables as well. This makes the khichdi really delicious and makes the child unknowingly consume those veggies too.
Remember, the food needs to be delicious and well enjoyed by the kids to have them gain the benefits of such food as well.
(This article has been medically reviewed by Ms Preety Tyagi, Lead Health Coach, Celebrity Nutritionist and Founder of MY22BMI).
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