How do you get kids to eat veggies?

posted by Stacie on October 29, 2014 // 24 Comments »

Today, 9 out of 10 people in the United States do not get the proper amount of vegetables, according to The State Of The Plate report. That is not good!

We do not live in a democracy in our house. It is more of a dictatorship with my husband and I trying to overthrow each other (just kidding). But make no mistake my husband and I are in charge.

However like many parents do we have come to realize that there are some battles we don't to repeatedly fight. We handle our lives and we didn't want to battle over things that frankly we really much care about to begin with. I am talking about vegetables.

My children are pains when it comes to vegetables that we devised a system that really works for us and lets our kids pick which vegetables they are going to eat each night. Here is what we use:

We cut out these cards and laminated them. Every night the kids get to choose what vegetable(s) we are having the next night. The only catch is that they must use all of their cards before starting again. Click that picture above to get your Getting Kids to Eat Their Veggies Printable.

This system has worked so well for us that I have friends using it now. Kids get to make choices but they have to work together to make them. In fact, my kids love this system so much that they want to do it with entrees. THAT is not going to happen.

BIRDS EYE PARTNERS WITH MELISSA D'ARABIAN

This year, Birds Eye has partnered with Melissa d’Arabian, celebrity chef, mom of four, and host of FoodNetwork.com’s web series The Picky Eaters Project, to make a difference and help moms with the dinnertime dilemma. If you have picky eaters like I do then you know how important it is to make certain kids are getting the vegetables they need.

Everyone knows it can be tough to get a balanced meal on the table every day and we’re here to help. Birds Eye frozen vegetables helps mom by providing nutritious, tasty veggies that kids will love. Together, Birds Eye and Melissa are combining their expertise in getting children to eat more veggies, one bite at a time. Step Up To The Plate is Birds Eye's long-term commitment to reshaping kids’ veggie perceptions and getting children to like veggies for life.

Birds Eye continues to make eating more vegetables a reality by showing families how to fill half the plate with veggies in fun and simple ways moms and kids will both like. By providing moms with more than 40 unique vegetable blends year round at affordable prices, Birds Eye continues to be her ally in the dinnertime dilemma.

MELISSA D'ARABIAN TALKS ABOUT SLOW COOKING VEGETABLES

This is one of our other tricks for getting kids to eat vegetables. We slow cook them and make delicious soups or gumbos. Above is what we had last night for dinner and we used Birds Eye veggies. This recipe uses the French Cut Green Beans