Becoming Best Friends For Life – With Veggies
It is vital to ensure our kids grow up learning about vegetables, developing knowledge and interest in the variety of types and ultimately loving them. Many parents face a real problem getting their children to eat vegetables and this is a very common occurrence. However, I think this problem manifests in cases where the parent didn’t do a good job of engaging their children in the wonderful world of veggies from when they were babies. Kids who have grown up their entire lives with vegetables around them grow to love them as an essential.
Without the consumption of vegetables, fruit and water, we wouldn’t be able to have bowel movements, and without “pooping” we are goners. These three things provide essential fibre and nutrients for the body and should be encouraged throughout life.
Parents it is observed, tend to feed their babies the things that they themselves like and therefore limit themselves quickly getting bored. I often have mums asking me to give them ideas of exciting food for the babies. We need to think beyond the limits of our ‘likes’ and explore creative ideas for our children. I’d like to point out to parents at this point to remember that in the first 2 years babies have clean slates when it comes to flavour and that it is us parents who teach them to like the stuff that’s bad for them, like too much salt and sugar. We need to be conscious and cautious about this.
As we cultivate a love for vegetables within ourselves (yes we need to be good role models) and for our children here’s a delicious hot cheese and spinach dip to try out…….
- 250g soft cheese
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 1 bunch chopped spinach cooked and squeezed dry
- 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
Beat the soft cheese, mayo and cheddar until blended. Stir in spinach and mozzarella. Spoon into an ungreased microwave dish and cook uncovered at high power for 4 minutes or until bubbly, stirring twice.
Serve with crackers, baked crisps or diced vegetable sticks
Enjoy and please share your experiences with vegetables ……Let’s get talking.