Sneaking Healthy Foods to Picky Eaters

There are those moms who are blessed with perfect children who never argue and always eat their fruits and vegetables. I am unfortunately NOT one of those moms and if you are reading this, you probably have picky eaters too. My daughter can be the pickiest eater and getting her to eat healthy food can be a challenge at times to say the least. One day broccoli is delicious and the next day it is the worst thing she has ever encountered in her short little life!

So what is a mom to do? I can’t just let her eat cereal all day every day for every meal. After many arguments over food and trying to convince her to eat her dinner, I devised a way to get those healthy foods into her little belly without the argument! I can sneak them into unassuming foods! It was a brilliant plan, I thought! I was a tinge doubtful that it would work, because little children are like bloodhounds who can smell the slightest hint of greens anywhere near their dinner plates, but our first try was a success! I continued trying different sneaky recipes and strategies and I have been pleasantly pleased with the outcome, so I decided to share with my fellow coffee moms the secret to my success with my top sneaky foods for picky eaters!

Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Every kid I know loves chocolate, but I don’t know too many who are willing to chow down on an avocado. I found this recipe from  fellow blogger, Short Sweet Mom, and I just had to try it! It’s an Avocado Chocolate Pudding! I know, it sounds like it would be terrible, but really it tastes JUST like a regular chocolate pudding! My daughter and husband both loved it and had no idea that it was actually good for them.

Kale Banana Muffins

Another awesome recipe I found from a fellow blogger,Vegging at the Shore, was Kale Banana Muffins. Again, they sound terrible and they do turn out a little green, but they taste amazing! With my daughter, if it looks like a muffin she will happily eat it. She thinks it is a treat. Lite does she know she is getting a sneaky bit of healthy greens with her sweet treat!

Carrot Mac and Cheese

Mac and Cheese is one of my daughter’s favorite foods. It seems that most picky eaters will devour a box of mac and cheese, no problem. The problem is that it isn’t the healthiest option for out picky eaters. Something that I have started doing is taking cooked carrots and puréeing them down. When the Mac and Cheese is ready I add my purée in with the cheese, milk, and butter. It makes it a little thicker, but my daughter eats it up. You can also do with with squash if you prefer, a recommendation from lovely fellow blogger, Lady Law Student.

Spinach Pasta Sauce

Similar to the Mac and Cheese concept, I will purée some cooked spinach and add it into spaghetti sauce. It does not noticeably change the taste but it makes it a lot more healthy. I always enjoy sneaking some greens to the picky eaters in my life. Recently, I made a Spinach Chicken Parmesan that was a hit with my daughter.

Popsicles

I had gotten a popsicle tray from one of my FabFitFun boxes. (sign up with my link and get $10 off of your first box). I love this thing. I use it all of the time to make healthy treats for my daughter! Recently she has decided that she hates yogurt. So I made popsicles out of yogurt and fruit and she thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  The possibilities are endless really. You can use fresh fruit, yogurt, or juice and make endless varieties of healthy popsicles! I know there are tons of ideas on Pinterest.

Smoothies

I love to make myself a green smoothie in the morning for breakfast. I have tried to get my picky eater to try it but she refuses to drink “the green stuff”. Luckily a sweet fellow blogger sent me her recipe for a Not Green Green Smoothie. We tried it and it was a hit! It  has all of the good healthy veggies and fruit in it, but it does not look green. Even the pickiest of eaters will love this one.

More Mac and Cheese

When I was looking for some recipes for my picky eater, I came across another mac and cheese idea that I just had to try! Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bites ended up being a big hit in my house. Willow helped me make them and that alone makes her more likely to eat.  I ended up dicing up the broccoli pretty small so it wouldn’t be as noticeable. Willow ate it up! This is for sure a good one for all the picky eaters out there!

Chia Seeds

My daughter loves peanut butter and jelly. She would eat a PBJ for every meal if I let her. One way that I found to sneak some goodness into her diet is to add chia seeds to her PBJ. They really have no taste to them, and when added to the sandwich they look like a part of the jelly.  These little seeds are packed with Omega-3, Fiber, and Protein. I typically just put the seeds right onto her sandwich, but you can also soak the seeds to use in recipes or grind them up to make them into a less noticeable powder.

Pancakes

I do not know a kid who doesn’t like pancakes. Pancakes are great for picky eaters because it is easy to disguise healthy ingredients in them. You can make then with greek yogurt, protein powder, or mashed bananas. I typically make a super large batch of pancakes and freeze them. That way all I have to do is pop one in the toaster on busy mornings. One of my favorite healthy pancake recipes is made with bananas and can be found here.

Cauliflower Substitutions

Did you know that you can use cauliflower to make alfredo sauce and as a potato substitute? I had no clue about this until recently! There are so many recipes on Pinterest for cauliflower substitutions that it is unreal! The alfredo sauce is amazing and you can’t even tell the difference! My little picky eater loves it! The mashed cauliflower is delicious too instead of mashed potatoes. Trust me, just search pinterest for cauliflower substitute recipes and you will be shocked!

There are so many ideas out there to get healthy foods to picky eaters that it is unreal! Pinterest is a wealth of information and one of my favorite places to find recipes. If you want to find all of the recipes I mentioned and more, then check out my Picky Eaters Pinterest Board.  I would love to hear what your tips and tricks are for getting your picky eaters to ingest good for them foods!