Grow Them. Plant a vegetable garden. Even a small plot or a few containers will work. If you haven’t gardened before, choose plants that are easy to grow and provide a big yield, like green beans, zucchini, lettuce, kale or tomatoes. Let your child pick out the seeds and help with the planting, watering and harvesting.
Mince Them. A food processor is a great investment. It can puree baby food, mix up cookie dough, and mince heaps of vegetables in seconds. Minced vegetables can be added to soups, rice, mashed potatoes, spaghetti sauce, pesto, pizza, pasta dishes, tuna or eggs—just about anything.
Puree Them into Soups. If your children won’t eat chunks of vegetables in their soup, puree it in your blender or food processor. Try blending your favorite vegetable, bean or chicken soups.
Bake Them. Bake zucchini muffins, squash bread, carrot cake, or pumpkin or sweet potato pie using whole-grain flour and a small amount of honey, maple syrup or sugar to sweeten. Try savory goodies like broccoli-cheese muffins or zucchini cornbread. Add minced veggies to bread, pizza crusts, rolls and muffins.
Add Them to Burgers. Another great way to use minced veggies is to mix them into hamburgers or meatloaf. Even better, make veggie burgers from whole grains and vegetables. Eat them like regular burgers with all your favorite trimmings.
Drink Them .Vegetables in smoothies? You won’t even taste them. Try this combination—I call it the Everything Smoothie: Puree 1 1/2 cups apple juice, 1/2 apple (cored and sliced), 1/2 orange (peeled), 1/2 sweet potato or 1 carrot (sliced), 1/4 cup chopped kale or cabbage, 1 banana (makes 2 to 3 servings).