Dinner Magician – Tricks to Hide Vegetables in your Recipes

Feeding your kids healthy foods can be one of the toughest jobs you have as a parent. Do you have to negotiate, beg or even bribe your children to eat vegetables? No More!   You can, literally, change your whole food dynamic by learning how to hide vegetables in your recipes like a real Dinner Magician.  These tricks to hide veggies in your family favorite recipes will help you feel confident about what you are feeding your kids, without all the complaining about the vegetables they (think) they don’t like.

Tricks To Hide Vegetables In Your Recipes

Hide Veggies by Pureeing into sauces.  Things like marinara sauce, pizza sauce and even gravies of various kinds can all include pureed vegetables.  Carrots, tomatoes, spinach and kale are all very easy to puree and include in your sauces.  Tomatoes are already the base for many of your kids favorite meals.  Simple add some cooked spinach or kale to the sauce and whir in a blender to create a smooth and tasty sauce they will never know is full of nutrient dense vegetables.  Carrots are a great base for many sweet sauces, juices and even soups.  They pack a powerful punch of vitamins with a much loved sweeter flavor.

Hide Veggies in Plain sight with dips.  Sometimes you don’t even have to hide vegetables.  You can create tasty dips like Greek yogurt ranch dip, Greek yogurt dill dip or even Tzatziki dip for them to dip and enjoy things like celery, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, broccoli and pea pods in.  It’s simple to add a ranch seasoning packet to a container of plain Greek yogurt to give them a healthy version of the classic ranch dressing.  A sprinkle of dill, garlic and onion powder along with some lemon juice make a great dill dip they will love.  Tzatzikis yogurt, shredded cucumber, dill and lemon that is often served with Mediterranean dishes.  You can even make or pick up some hummus that they will love.

Hide Veggies in bread, muffins and even cakes by shredding them.  Shredded carrots and zucchini are easy to hide in things like sweet breads, cakes and even muffins.  Zucchini bread and carrot cake are always popular, but an even finer grate on these items makes the perfect to go into banana bread or chocolate cake as well. If you have very inquisitive kids be sure to remove the colorful peels from the veggies before grating as not to arouse suspicion.

It’s easy to become your family’s dinner magician and learn how to hide vegetables in your recipes.  You simply have to think outside the box and use vegetables in non traditional ways.  Encourage your kids to always try new and different things.  Sometimes it’s not the vegetable they don’t like, but the way it is prepared.  Mix things up a bit and give them a new way to look at previously disliked vegetables.