'Picky Eater Recipes'

Dips. Dips. Dips. Get a variety of dips, and a variety of fruits and veggies, and serve them together. For example:
~strawberries and chocolate pudding
~carrots and cream cheese
~broccoli/carrots/cauliflower/zucchini/peppers and ranch dressing (try several kinds)
~veggies and italian dressing (bernstein's restaurant recipe italian is the best)
~peach slices and whipped cream
~bananas and cinnamon/sugar mix
~bananas and honey
~apples and honey

If he starts to associate them as "yummy" then he'll slowly learn to make better choices.

Top organic vanilla yogurt with frozen organic berries and add a spoonful of honey over it.

We add grated carrots to our pasta sauce, salad, and anything else it sounds good in. And, since we don't eat red meat, we eat Garden Burgers and Morningstar's Veggie Patties. They are delicious on a hamburger bun, topped with lettuce and sprouts (and even red onions).

Good luck!

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I know it's way late but...For my 2 cents. My husband is a very picky eater and I also have a toddler so I've had to be very creative with adding things to my menus that are healthy and very tasty. One of our faves is pancakes. I usually buy the regular Krustez mix (the honey wheat is really good but the regular is also good if you are just starting)and in a batch (about 6 pancakes) I add about 2/3 cup of pumkin (not pie filling but just canned pumkin). It changes the color but not the flavor very much at all. still great with maple syrup or jam. Also, I put chopped frozen spinach in my spaghetti sauce. About 3/4 to 1 cup will do it in a big batch (1 lbs. meat and sauce). Put it in at the end and just let it thaw in the sauce and get warm. The only difference is the color. Also zucchini is really good in spaghetti.

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My kids love cucumbers. I slice up cucumbers and put Italian dressing over them and they love it. If you or your son don't like Italian dressing try Ranch or whatever kind of dressing you like. I also soak brocoli and carrots in a ziplock bag with Italian dressing on it. Try celery sticks with peanut butter and rasins. Kind of like when we were in preschool and our parents called it ants on a log. Also buy a bunch of fresh fruit and cut it up into a bowl and make a fresh fruit salad. My 10 year daughter always makes that for herself.

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I recommend Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook too! She has been very creative & it works! I also suggest introducing a new fruit & vegetable to your son every week. Have him help pick them out! It can take up to 7 exposures to a certain food before a child will eat it without complaining, because their taste buds are still developing. Dr. William Sears (pediatrician, author of 36 books, health editor of Parenting & Baby Talk magazines) has a lot of great advice on various "parenting" issues on his website: www.askdrsears.com. He also uses & recommends a "whole food" nutritional product called Juice Plus+. It is 17 vine-ripened, fruits, veggies & grains in gummy, chewable or capsule & has been published in 12 medical journals (example: The American Journal of Cardiology). It doesn't replace eating fresh, raw produce, but it does "bridge the gap" in what we can't, don't or won't eat every day & helps the immune system function properly. I have taken it for 7 yrs. & love it! If you would like more information on it, you can e-mail me back or check it out at: www.juiceplus.com/+sc57599. Good luck!

S.

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C., if you like pasta, this is quick easy and very
good. The dish is called pepperoni. Cook your spaghetti and
while it is cooking cook strips of chicken or steaks with
strips of green and red peppers and pimentos in olive oil.
Once everything is done. Pour your ingredients over the spaghetti and season with your desired seasonings and enjoy

4 moms found this helpful

Use the google engine for quick healthy meals and get a garbage bag and DUMP all the bad junk food. Eat what God made and NOT what Man made. Most of it is JUNK. Find a list of foods you both like and create a weekly menu with fruits and veggies for snacks. Good luck. We are a family of 5 and we do not eat much junk, a treat once in a while.
Example, breakfast, scrambled egg whites, toast with peanut butter and fruit, and orange juice, snack for school, grapes or tangerines,lunch at school, snack after school, 13 whole grain crackers, 1 low fat mozzarella cheese stick and fruit, dinner could be grilled chicken, rice and veggies. and lots of water. we eat 6 times a day, 3 meals and 3 snacks/day.Hope this helps.
Good luck. Make the time and commitment....you will save both of your lives and health.
A. R Mom of 3 and a nurse

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I just have to add a recipe. With summer coming, try frozen chocolate covered bananas on a stick. Place peeled bananas on popsicle sticks and freeze on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, dip the banana in melted chocolate (or magic shell) then immediately dip into chopped nuts or sprinkles or coconut. You can either refreeze them for later or serve immediately. Even better - spread peanut butter over the frozen banana and then dip in melted chocolate and nuts. Yummy, part treat and part healthy!

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I, like you, go for the chips and cookies first. Funny thing is that I don't let my kids have any of it. The only thing I can do to keep myself from eating the junk is to not have it in the house and walk right on past it at the grocery store. I think the real key is to make snacking on good stuff as easy as possible. I find that if I have to take the time to cut it up or whatever, I won't do it. So when I buy fruit and veg, I cut it up when I get home and have it ready to just reach in the frig and grab. I keep things on low shelves in the frig so my kids can reach it for themselves. They love to be able to get their own snacks so I put the good things that I want them to eat at their level. I keep bags of baby carrots, cut up broccoli, sugar snap peas, cut up celery, grape tomatoes, grapes, any kind of berry I can get my hands on, apple slices, etc. My kids are only 4 and 2 and they love to peel their own bananas or oranges so they are always available on the counter. In the pantry I have a shoe organizer on the door where I put snacks I want them to have- applesauce, whole grain gold fish, whole grain crackers with peanut butter, fruit bu (organic fruit rolls that give them a serving of fruit in each one with low sugar content and they are really good- I love them and they help satisfy the sweet craving), nutri grain bars (though I buy the organic, low sugar ones from target), dried fruit, and other things like that they can easily open and love to eat. Instead of cheetoes, I buy them Pirates Booty (there is a Veggie Booty too) and instead of regular chips I buy Flat Earth chips (the Cheddar are best). I also find that my kids will eat anything with a dip- ranch dressing, ketchup, some kind of cheese sauce- or grated/shredded parmesan. I try to put out some veggies and dip or some fruit while I'm making dinner for them to snack on so I know they are getting something. Also, whatever the vegetable is, we all have to eat some of it- our goal is three pieces. And even if they say they don't like it, I don't stop giving it to them because they just might come around to it. I also keep tons of pickles on hand- my kids will eat a whole jar of kosher dill pickles in one sitting.

I also use the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. It is some prep work ahead of time, but the recipes are pretty easy. I don't go for the low-fat stuff all the time that she mentions it (low-fat usually also means high in high fructose corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners, which I personally think are worse for you than the calories). She still recommends that you give kids actual vegetables to eat at the table with the meal.

Good luck- now if I could only take my own advice!

3 moms found this helpful

Have you seen the "Sneaky Chef" cookbook? It's actually pretty neat and my 6 year old likes to cook the recipes with me. It does require a bit of prep, but some fun and neat ideas in there. Check it out at www.thesneakychef.com.

One other trick -- have you tried the Boca Burgers, Chix Nuggets and other veggie/soy foods? My son loves them and doesn't know any different. This is when you need something quick, but healthier than the full fat version.

Lastly, I just do the "one of each color" for veggies on his plate. I do one small baby carrot, one small grape tomato and one green veg like a green bean or other simple item. My son knows he only needs to eat one small item of each color and then he is done. I know it's not a huge amount of veggies, but starting small is great and not overwhelming. Plus there is less waste of trying to get them to eat a full amount of veggies.

One last thing -- a multivitamin is always great to cover what he may be missing and YOU as the model of good eating.

Good luck!

C.

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Get "The Sneaky Chef" cookbook. The recipes are wonderful, easy, and healthy. My family loves the food out of it.

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From my own experience, I know that when I have the cookies, chips, etc around I am more likely to pick tham also. Not so much because I prefer them, but because they are more convienient. That is one reason I try not to buy them. But I also know if you can pre-prepare them in appropriate sized, ready to go portions, then the healthy stuff is just as easy as the junk.
For my daughter, (3) I mix in veggies to stuff she likes and "camoflauge" it. Like, I mix in finely chopped carrots with spaghetti sauce, or brocolli into a chicken casserole. I have found out though, that she will eat it on her own if she sees Mommy or Daddy eat it too. And if she helps make it, she'll eat almost anything.

Hope that helps. Kudos on your goal to eat better. We all really need to!

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I have lots of good recipes (because I am a WW member), so if you want me to email you some recipes, send me your email address. What kinds of things do you like or are you willing to try (other than junk food which would be okay in moderation)?

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Hi. If you are still reading this - - here's some of my kids' favorite healthy snacks when they were little. Even tho' 2 of my 4 kids are grown now and I have no control over what they eat, they still eat "healthy" compared to their peers.

1) "ants on a log" - spread organic peanut butter on a banana and sprinkle with raisins or currants

2) "oatmeal a la mode" - fix your favorite unsweetened, plain oatmeal and add a dollop of "natural" vanilla ice cream right in the middle. (Read labels on everything you buy - - even ice cream and peanut butter - - and don't buy anything with high fructose corn syrups or hydrogenated oils, like palm oil. You'd be surprised how many brands of peanut butter still have "Crisco" or hydrogenated veg. oils. We are learning that trans-fats are not good for us - - yet they still put them into kid's peanut butter to make the butter smooth.)

3) "strawberries with dip" - the dip is Yoplait Vanilla Yogurt with a few tablespoons of local raw honey added (the local, raw, unfiltered honey contains our local pollen in small amounts and helps prevent allergies)

4) "apple slices with dip" - core and slice apples, mix local raw honey with organic peanut butter 'til smooth and ready to dip. This was one of my favorites, too.

5) "frozen orange" - - peel an orange and pull apart the wedges and place in a bowl in the freezer just for a few minutes (maybe 10 minutes) until just starting to freeze

6) "frozen grapes" - wash organic grapes and pull off of the stem and let drain in colander until dry. Freeze in a gallon zip-loc. Pull out a handful whenever.

7) "blender smoothies" - - Let your son create!!! Just keep yogurt or kefir or juice in the fridge and bags of berries in the freezer.

8) "bug juice" - - orange juice mixed with any other 100% juice, like cranberry or grape

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Hi C.,

One thing I like to make is Chicken Wraps. You get whole wheat wraps and add inside grilled chicken (or the canned chicken works as well), brown rice, black beans, low fat shredded cheese, and low fat sour cream. You can also add shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, or whatever kind of veggies you like inside. Salsa also works well on top if you like.

I like to serve this with steamed broccoli or caulifour or carrots.

Makes a pretty easy healthy meal, and I generally have lots of left overs for a quick reheat.

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You and your child check out the Public Library or Half Price Books for Cookbooks for Children. Plan a menu for the week. Purchase the foods together. Choose meals that your child can help prepare. If there is a vegetable that you both like, maybe you can start a container garden. My son who is now 32, started helping prepare meals when he was 7, he now has 2 children who now are helping out and eating a very wide variety of foods, because they like being to help and choose. There is a children book called Eating the Rainbow.
.Planning and cooking together will bring so much learning opportunities and wonderful memories.

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One way to ensure you and your son receive the fiber and antioxidants from eating 5 servings of fruit a day is to add Mona Vie to your routine in the morning. You drink 2 ounces in the morning. It tastes delicious and gets you started on the right foot each and every day!

Contact me and I am happy to tell you more about this awesome product.
A.
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I hear Jessica Seinfeld has a new book of recipes that mask fruits & veggies in food. May not be quick recipes but...

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Hi C., if you guys like pizza try adding some fruit to it, it is really good, like pinapple or apples or oranges with peparonie.
Good luck!

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Hi,
I wanted to let you know that I am a Registered Dietitian with the Olive Branch Family YMCA, and I will be handing out nutrition information at our Healthy Kids Day event on Saturday, April 12th. Please visit our facility. I would love to share recipes and other nutrition info. The event lasts from 8am to 1pm. It's free and open to the public. So bring a friend too!

G.

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In the recipes that call for puree veggies, you can use different flavors of baby food. This is a good way to sneak those veggies in!

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I loke Deceptively Delicious, too. The avacado dip or spread is great with whole grain chips...my 2yr old loves it! I also keep a "snack box" at his level (obviously with an 8yr old, you just have to choose a spot) with things I'd prefer him to eat in there (smartfood bags, raisin boxes, pretzels, etc...). I stay away from "no fat" or artificially sweetened foods because they are full of yucky stuff to hide the missing taste and we aren't really sure yet what that stuff does to us.

A great new book I've been reading is Feeding the Kids: http://www.amazon.com/Feeding-Kids-Flexible-No-Battles-He...

Basically, I am a junk-food addict, but I eat really well now because I want my children to. I try not to go shopping hungry or while I'm PMSing b/c then I buy all the junk!

As others have mentioned, keeping "easy" healthy foods available is the best way to change your eating habits.

Good luck to you, me and everyone else in this battle!

1 mom found this helpful

Whenever I let my kids help with the meal, they eat so much more of it! I also sit at the table with them and go over the flyer from the store when I'm planning meals and get their input. I also talk really positively about fruits and veggies I love. When a fruit is in season, I really talk it up. Unhealthy food doesn't get the same enthusiam from me (although I crave as much as anyone). I have to be a good role model and eating poorly only hurts my kids and myself. We limit the amounts of unhealthy foods. Snacks HAVE to be fruit, cheese, yogurt or nuts. Desert is fine if we have actually eaten good foods during the day. My daughter is so picky it's ridiculous. But I will not give in as hard as it is. If she doesn't like our dinner, she can have fruit and most nights she does just that. Your son is old enough to help make meals. And when you work together, he also gets a sense of what it takes to make a meal. Try making a fruit smoothie...let him choose the ingredients and make adjustments according to his taste. I know how it is with a picky eater and it's been years with my daughter, but you have to be strong and know you know best.

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I was watching the Rachael Ray show the other day and they were talking about picky eaters. Alot of what they were saying was that kds need to be exposed to different foods. If you are eating it, they will most likely try it to. I was eating salmon the other day and gave some to my 2 yo daughter. She loved it and kept on asking for more.
With new foods I tell my daughter she has to at least try it. If she doesn't like it I don't push, but most of the time she likes it. (Not the sour kraut though :) )
As for the junk food, just don't keep it in the house. After New Years I went in and threw away all of the candy and cookies. Cause lord knows we have all eaten enough. Now I have pretzels, raisins, apples, bannans. Keeping lots of fresh fruit in the house helps. Kids are going to snack so just have good choices.
I think we are all in the same boat, trying to eat better.
Good Luck!
Steph

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Hi C.. Eating healthy is more then just about fruits/veggies snacks. I'm not sure if you heard of Homemade Gourmet seasonings, but there are tons of healthy recipes you can make for dinner/lunch.

Htt://www.homemadegourmet.com/marylou

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fruits are very good if dip in a sauce, for example:
chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, or blueberry sauce.

veggies are good with noodles, rice, corn,

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I got the Deceptively Delicious cookbook for Christmas and love it! Made the brownies and yogurt pops tonight and both were great. Her french toast is wondeful too. It takes some time to make the purees, but it seems worth it. One caution: I froze all my purees in Ziplock bags and they froze together. I will use small tupperware or gladware from now on so I don't have to fight them apart and can reuse. My 2yo son has tried all the recipes I have so far and I can get a few bites in. More than nothing. Out of the 6 or 7 I have tried so far, I couldn't stand her Mac and Cheese 1 recipe. Horrible with the cream cheese taste. My son was gagging on this (and so was I). Tonight I borrowed her idea to make Kraft mac and cheese (his favorite). I boiled and drained the noodles, then melted the butter in the pan and mixed about 1/4 cup of carrot puree with it. Then added the noodles and cheese powder, no milk. It was awesome, a little sweeter than usual, and no complaints from my son! I am going to try it with cauliflower and squash too. I already feel like we are healthier!

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To make the transistion easier, do not buy snacks with your groceries, instead only eat chips and cookies when you go out, also bake your own cookies and make home made french fries also make smoothies with fresh fruit.

Hi,

Hope I'm not too late to help. When I was a kid, like many kids, I hated eating many of the vegetables, especially green peas and green beans, in school lunches because the vegetables were CANNED. Fortunately, my family grew a wide variety of vegetables (in upstate New York), so I got used to eating fresh vegetables, even fairly "exotic" vegetables like kohlrabi. I think that my exposure to FRESH vegetables was, at least in part, the reason I like vegetables now.

My children are still babies, but when they get older, I plan to let them choose ONE small "sinful" item from the grocery store each week. I don't plan to let them keep more than one "sinful" item in our home at a time. Except for Thai iced tea on occasion, we don't drink drinks that contain sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or artificial or natural sweetener.

Good luck,
L. E

If you leave fruit in a bowl on the counter or buy healthier snacks. My daughter won't eat veggies so i bought her these flatearth chips where they have servings of vegetables and fruit. then i have her drink v-8 fusion( which she loves can't keep it in stock)

I'm a little late, but I thought I'd add a few things I didn't see. I don't know about an eight year old, because my kids are still pretty little, but a few things that work for us... We buy tons of produce, and we try to try something new each time we go to the grocery store. She's more willing to try it if she helps pick it out. In the winter we do a lot of frozen fruit. My kids like veggies but a select few (red peppers, tomatos, broccoli and just a few others), so we try new ones but always have the ones they like available and a variety of fruit. I make everything with whole wheat flour, I've experimented with my recipes to see how much I can use, I have a great whole grain chocolate chip cookie recipe, and now I'm experimenting with apple sauce replacing butter in recipes(works better with some than with others). Also, I've picked things to check on labels, first I wouldn't buy anything with hydrogenated oil, then I added High fructose corn syrup, and little by little I'm learning about reading labels and getting used to reading labels before just throwing something in the cart. It's always surprising what "healthyfoods" aren't really so healthy. (my daughter at 3 even knows that we read the labels and don't get things with certain ingredients ... "corn starch" ... but we're working on that!)

Anyway, I hope your campaign goes well. It's great to be aware of what you're putting in your body and a great thing to teach your son.

K.

Be careful of ONLY 'sneaking' in veggies and fruits to your child's diet now though, because he will not agree to eat them when he's old enough to decide what he wants to eat. He still needs to see the cauliflour on the plate and be willing to pick it up and eat it. I think the 'sneaky foods' are great for adding to a nutritous meal, but should only be used in addition to seeing and eating 'the real thing' on the plate.
We have to think about the long term - we are all trying to raise children who choose what they eat wisely on their own, once they are adults. If they never grew up knowing they were eating carrots and broccoli, how and why will they incorporate them into an adult diet and be healthy and free of weight/food issues?
Also, a little note of encouragement I heard from Dr. Oz (you may know him from Oprah), is that a child (and an adult) can take up to thirty times(!) trying a new food before he likes it! Yes, thirty! So don't despair if your child says he doesn't like it 3 or 4 or 10 times, keep trying every several days or so with it, just a teensy bit, even just a taste then spits it out at first. He recommends having a child try just a little bit of something new (one slice of zuchini for instance) VERY frequently. So the tiny bits that some of you have your children do every night is probably the easiest way to make this happen, and get your kids liking new foods eventually. I am doing this myself with my 4 year old daughter who is ridiculously picky, and we are making progress, very slowly, but at least it's progress. She actually ate a bite of butternut squash last night. I couldn't believe it! Didn't like it, but swallowed it.

I haven't been here long so I really appreciate when other Mom's post how things turned out with their questions. Then I can see what I've missed on past posts and get great ideas.

So, Thank You for posting your response!!!

I was able to get some good ideas. K has Geographic Tongue. This basically means that she has spots on her tongue that have a different texture, when she eats ice cream you can especially see the spots. (It looks kind of like she has had burns and they healed up slick). Anyway, she is the most picky eater I have ever come across. I don't know if food tastes different to her but she eats very little variety.

One time I was hosting a Pampered Chef party and the sales person had made the Crab/Veggie Pizza thing. K put her first bite to just her lips and started gagging and puked. Right there in the midst of the party. Let me say, embarressed was just one of the things I was feeling, poor kid.

I feel like I have learned much from the question you asked and the posts.

My best friend give me the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Senifeld for Christmas and I plan to try at least one recipe a week to help introduce my children to healthy eating.

The wonderfully thing about this cookbook is that the veggies are pureed and add to the dish. The kids never know they are eating veggies.

Hope this helps!

My nine year old daughter and I are both picky eaters, too. Instead of going all at once to healthier eating we are building it in together by trying to add one fruit or veggie at every meal. Apple slices, pineapple, blueberries, and steamed carrots have become early favorites. I worry about trying to "sneak" it in, because then she won't eat them when she sees them as she grows up or at other people's homes. Good luck!

i don't really have any recipes for you, but a bit of advise that usually works for me...I started this when my now-17-year-old was 2 and have continued with my other 3... I tell them "you have to eat 2 bites before you decide if you like it or not". Kids have to learn to eat foods that are good for them at some point, without hiding it. Most of the time this has worked and my children decided that it was actually pretty good. If they decide they don't like it, try again maybe in a few weeks, tell them how good it is, do the "2 bites" speech if needed. Taste buds do change over time so something he doesn't like now he may like in 6 months.

Hi C.,

You've received lots of good advice on how to get your son to eat better. I've got a way to help you stop stressing about it. I used to feel the same way you do. I would serve healthy food but couldn't figure out how to get my kids to eat it. Then I found a company that puts fruits and vegetables into capsules, chewable tablets and gummie treats!

It solved this dilemma in our household. We strive to eat very healthy and yet some days we're more successful than others.It's been three years now and I have so much peace of mind knowing that all of our nutritional needs are met every day, regardless of how our diet might shake out.

I loved the product so much I decided to go into business so I could make it available to other moms like me. If you would like to know more about it, you can email me or check out my coupon here on Mamasource.

Take care,

M.
"My son eats all his veggies now. Even the green ones."
www.GoodHealthMadeSimple.com/M.

My husband is a really picky eater too, so we don't typically eat a lot of veggies. I'm going to buy the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious" and try out some of the recipies on him. You puree different veggies and hide them in food so that you're eating healthy stuff but not tasting it. For example, there is a recipe for chocolate brownies with carrots in them.

i feel your pain. babysteps is the key. just change one thing. and keep offering new things, setting a good example yourself. try deceptively delicious..the new cookbook by jerry seinfeld's wife. good luck!

C. bourdon