Healthy Ways To Sneak Fruits And Vegetables Into Kids' Diets

Getting your kids to eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables daily can be a struggle. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that children aged 2 to 3 years get a cup of fruit and a cup of vegetables daily. Kids 4 to 8 should get about 1 to 1-1/2 cups of each daily, while 9- to 13-year-olds need between 1-1/2 and 2-1/2 cups of each. Fighting with your kids to get them to eat vegetables and fruit does not put a positive spin on healthy eating. Making fruits and vegetables a fun and tasty ingredient in meals helps get nutrients into your children while avoiding daily struggles.

Mix-Ins

Put fruits and vegetables into foods your kids know and love. Add bananas or apples to peanut butter sandwiches. Toss peas into macaroni and cheese. Add grated carrot and red pepper to pizza sauce. Puree roasted butternut squash and mix with a familiar marinara sauce to serve over pasta or put in lasagna. Add tomatoes, onions and grated zucchini to ground beef to make a taco filling.

Kabobs

Kids love foods on a stick. Make mini grape, blueberry and banana kabobs with toothpicks. Thread grilled chicken and slices of pineapple on wooden skewers. Put cherry tomatoes and chunks of cheese on pretzel sticks.

Shapes

Cut fruit into fun shapes and “frost” them with yogurt. Use a cookie cutter to make kiwi stars and watermelon hearts. Make sweet potato hearts and roast them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Use mini biscuit cutters to make "stacks" of apples and peanut butter.

Dips

Kids love to dip their food. Have them dip graham crackers into a mix of pureed banana, plain yogurt and peanut butter. Blend mild salsa into sour cream and have kids dip in baked tortilla chips. Use a hand blender to mix cottage cheese, applesauce and cinnamon into a dip for banana bread that you cut into sticks.

Smoothies

Smoothies are a natural way to sneak more fruits and vegetables into your kids' diet. Use non-fat frozen yogurt and milk with bananas and frozen peaches for a mild-tasting smoothie. If your kids eat blueberries, make a smoothie with frozen blueberries, milk, plain yogurt and honey and throw in half a cup of baby spinach. The color of the berries and the sweetness of the honey will mask the spinach flavor.