“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” Jim Davis

I know a big concern for me as a mom is making sure that my son gets the right nutrition he needs. I have been lucky so far, Eli loves vegetables more than any other food! Seriously! He will eat veggies over fruit any day. I know that is rare and I am so thankful that getting him to eat his veggies is not a difficult task in our house. But, for those who have veggie hating kiddos, don’t give up! I have a lot of friends whose children have learned to love their veggies the more times they get them to try it. There was also a little secret that I learned from a few friends and that is masking the veggies. If they can’t see them then they wont know they are there, right? It’s true! That is one reason why I loved the quote from above, it made me laugh because it is true. Even though Eli loves his veggies we have still made some meals with a certain veggie in it and he ate it as if it wasn’t any different. The same is also true for my husband. He was never really a big vegetable eater growing up, he liked corn and green beans. After becoming vegetarians he didn’t have a choice, he couldn’t just live off of those two vegetables for the rest of his life. He has actually learned to love all kinds of vegetables that he never thought he would have. Most the time now when I make a meal he doesn’t ask what it is until after he has eaten it and decides if he likes it, then he asks what it was. So far, it has worked great!

Two meals I can think of in particular are homemade “meatloaf” and sweet potato pancakes. The meatloaf was a bean,rice and carrot meal that was shaped and tasted like a real meatloaf. Sweet potato pancakes are just that, sweet! Just add one mashed sweet potato and a teaspoon of nutmeg to your pancake batter, it’s as easy as that! Eli loved both meals and so did my husband! When we ate these two different meals they had seconds both times. I know that I don’t have experience yet with an older child refusing to eat something, but it never hurts to share ideas. When I hear of a good idea I love just passing it along to more moms, after all we are supposed to be supporting each other! One day I might have to be asking for more tips for picky eaters but either way, my friends will be there to give me tips that have worked for them!