Wednesday, November 11, 2009

varied veggies

Parents everywhere struggle with getting kids to eat vegetables. Or so it would seem. I even know parents who won't eat a vegetable that isn't a potato or corn. If that's the case, its no wonder the kids aren't eager to eat vegetables.


Fortunately vegetables have never been a battle ground in our home. As babies the girls' favorite baby food veggies were spinach, squash and sweet potatoes. Not what I would consider standard fare. Standard would be more along the lines of green beans, peas and corn. I should count myself as one of the lucky ones since eating vegetables has never really been an issue. The biggest frustration, as far as vegetables are concerned, was the period of time that our oldest would not eat salad. Now she eats it but must have Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing to go with it.


Not sure why but for some reason this morning my mind wandered to the variety of vegetables that our family eats during a weeks time. Both girls have mentioned before that it is their opinion that our family eats far more vegetables than that of their friends. I also read this over the past week which caused me to pay mind to how many servings of fruits and vegetables our family eats.


So, as my mind wandered this morning, I made a mental list of the vegetables that have graced our dinner plates thus far this week.

  • Sweet Potatoes

  • Green Beans

  • Cabbage, mushrooms, onions, garlic, green peppers (in a Chop Suey recipe)

  • Hominy

  • and Butternut Squash to be served in the next day or two

Are you eating your vegetables? Do your kids?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes, well I better. I wrote that for crying out loud. I actually just had an egg and spinach burrito. and now I am eating grapes : )

CALAMITY JANE said...

one of my boys loooves veggies, and the other one can't stand them!
i don't know why my oldest is so turned off by veggies - he loved them as a baby and his first food was actually baba ganoush (eggplant)!
i think it's a texture thing or something...we just have them with almost every meal and hope one day he'll actually eat one :)

Anonymous said...

my theory is that if vegetables are introduced as a part of the diet from the very beginning, it's not as much an issue. my girls have grown up and still do eat a variety of vegetables.

though they each have their veggie they won't touch, for boo that is lima beans (which ems and i love) and for ems it's salad (which boo devours).

i think it's a testament to your cooking and mothering that your girls have grown up to eat well.

Michelle @ Give a Girl a Fig said...

We are pretty good about eating our veggies...we're on a salad kick right now. Seth has taken to eating a salad as an after school snack! And like your daughter...it MUST have ranch! I try to include a vegetable with every meal...but every now and then it's a fish stick and mac and cheese kind of night! When Ian was little he'd eat thirds and fourths of broccoli!

Wren said...

I'll eat just about anything, but squash and baked green peppers push me over the edge. I used to see those darned stuffed peppers in the oven as a kid and think - I'm dead. Never gonna be able to choke it down. Squash too. Funny, I still don't like the darn things. Wish I did though.. they look so good...

Anonymous said...

Both of my boys were breastfeed and feed homemade baby food packed with organic vegies. My oldest soon eats every vegetable known to man, and my youngest has not eaten a vegie for 3, yes 3, whole painful years!! He even won't eat fries from Maccas or a packet of crisps!! I've got Jessica Seinfield's book 'Deceptively Delicious" which hides spinach in brownies, cauliflower in french toast, etc, etc and he will not touch it!

So I'm obviously open to any advise from anybody on the planet on how I can get him to eat a vegie.

O.M.G. said...

i saw a PBS special...Science Frontier or something like that...with Allan Alda. it was about how genetically we are coded for bitter tasters or non-bitter tasters. our taste buds are in our DNA! it went on to explain that even bitter tasters can learn to enjoy certain flavors just because they enjoy variety and that some bitter sensors actually turn-off (they are not sure how that happens genetically) and that is why some things taste better to you as an adult that you would gag at as a kid (for me it is coffee & zucchini) even before seeing that, i've always thought it was ridiculous to say that just because a kid eats veggies = s/he has a "good mom". if that's true, then the opposite must be true...kids that don't eat veggies have a "bad mom". not true and not fair to say.