How I sneak vegetables into my picky eater

It's funny... when baby girl first started eating pureed foods, she LOVED veggies and wanted nothing to do with fruit. Once she started getting those foods in solid form though, she did a total 180 and has focused her attentions on fruits ever since. She would love nothing more than to make her entire diet out of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears, watermelon, you name it. You give her broccoli, peas, green beans, or anything else of the vegetable persuasion though and it is more likely to land on the floor. For a while, I was able to get away sneaking veggies into her diet with the toddler fruit and veggie pouches, but I think she's been catching on.  I think she has figured out that if the color of the pouch is green, it is no bueno. Meats on the other hand... she's avoided like the plague from day one. Every now and then she'll take a corn-dog (not that those are really meat either, but still) or some chicken nuggets, but it's a rare occasion. So I've had to get creative.

I still buy the fruit and veggie pouches from the supermarket, because it's easy. The ones that she's willing to eat, I give her as is and she's happy. The ones she won't eat, I will sometimes mix in with tomato sauce and put on her pizza or pasta. The tomato sauce has a strong enough flavor that it will hide any other veggie flavors you add into it.

The latest trick I've been getting away with has been turning those same pouches into popsicles. Yes, you read that right: popsicles. I used Lickety Splits brand popsicle molds that I bought at Publix, but you can use whatever works for you. The measurements I used here work specifically for these molds though, so you may need to adjust the measurements if you use a different set of molds. Here's how I do it:

 For this batch, I used 2 pouches: one is chicken and hearty vegetables, the other one is carrots, broccoli, and pears. Usually I just use one pouch and the rest is applesauce though. You can do whatever works for your kid though.

Squeeze out the contents of the whole pouch...

Or in this case, both pouches. 

Using 2 pouches gave me about 3/4 cup of puree.  Then add 1/2 cup of applesauce. 

If you're only using one pouch (or if you aren't using any pouches and pureed fresh foods... go you! I used to but she knew what I was trying to pull), fill up the measuring cup with applesauce or some other pureed food until you have 1 and 1/4 cups of puree. Then add 1/4 cup of water (it thins it out a little, makes for a better consistency). You should have 1 and 1/2 cups in total.

I also added some cinnamon to it, because my daughter loves cinnamon. You can skip it if you want though.

Mix the whole thing up (fork works just fine).

 Then pour it out into your popsicle molds. The mold will show you the maximum fill line.

And that's it! Like I said, go with whatever you're trying to get your kids to eat, and mix it with something they like to mask the flavor, and you'll be good to go!

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Let me know if you have any recommendations for future tutorials. Until next time...