Disguising Vegetables In Your Kid's Lunches

I was making lunches last week when I took a break to go talk to my husband for some of his no-nonsense advice.

In a sweet, thoughtful voice I said, "I'm stumped. I always pack vegetables for Teaghan and they hardly get eaten. I don't know what to pack."

He looked at me like "DUH" and said, "Because she's five."

Touche, dear husband. Touche.

See, my darling child loves vegetables, which is why I pack them.  Imagine having a giant bowl of ice cream sitting on your counter with every topping a kid could dream of. Imagine the squeal of delight they would deafen you with when said ice cream was discovered.

Take that squeal and make it my child, discovering a bowl of vegatables sitting on my counter top, screaming, "VEGETABLES!!!!!" I'm not making this up. That actually happened.


So, when she comes home with a few bites taken and garbage shoved ontop of it, naturally, I'm irritated at the waste. And, since my five year old is completely random, I can never predict what she'll actually eat. She'll devour something one day and the next hate it. She'll never touch meatloaf and then suddenly request it for dinner and eat three servings. I can't be the only one with a kid like this, right?

Also, I have to take into account that she has 25 minutes to eat. Plus, she eats with her best friend everyday and they are busy gabbing and giggling. Who has time to chew carrots? This week my mission is to disguise the veggies, make them fast to eat, and completely appealing. This can't be some simple ants on a log. No. No. I know her better than that. She'll lick the peanut butter off and ignore the celery. She doesn't know it yet, but this kindergartner is going to eat some serious vegetables.

Monday: 

Spinach tortilla with provolone and turkey. The tortilla had spinach powder in it. Okay, not my best example of disguising a vegetable. I needed to go to the store. Peanut butter crackers, kiwi, and some of the most amazing brownies I've ever made.

Tuesday:

Do you see the veggies? No? Neither did she. In that purple water bottle is a smoothie full of spinach, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. It's packed full of vitamins. Also, cheese cubes, peanut butter crackers and sliced nectarine. I'll show you more of the smoothie in a minute. The new containers? Dollar Store! You don't need to spend a lot to have reusable items, people. Heart them. 

Wednesday:

Okay, here you see spinach, pumpkin, carrots and zucchini...What you don't see it? HA. That's the point. (I'm obnoxious...) A smoothie, two Sneaky Pumpkin Muffins, half a banana and two peanut butter crackers. This lunch won me some kind of award, I'm sure. She LOVED it.

Thursday:

More spinach tortillas with cucumbers, cream cheese and turkey. Frozen mixed vegetables, a Sneaky Pumpkin Muffin, and an apple sauce. This lunch is so chock full of veggie goodness, it's ridiculous. She ate every bite of it. Honestly, sending frozen vegetables like that is hit or miss. This day was a hit.

Friday:

Tortilla with avocado, turkey and cheese. Animal crackers, chopped-up pear and sliced olives. I took a gamble with the avocado, and I'll be honest, I lost. She didn't touch it. Some days she likes it. Some days she doesn't. She didn't even eat the olives (her favorite thing ever) so I know she was way too busy playing and not eating. If your kid likes avocado and you have it on hand, this is a great way to serve it. I like it, at least. 

Prepping a Smoothie for Lunches:

I packed a smoothie almost every day this week, but no way did I sit there every morning and make them! I did it once at the beginning of the week. Here's what I did.

Take whatever frozen berries you want. I have a mix that had strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, and blackberries. I added an equal amount of fresh spinach. There's some frozen banana in there, too.

Add a heaping scoop of yogurt, any flavor, and enough milk to cover. This will make it a good consistency. You can also add a squeeze of honey and a splash of vanilla.

Blend. Blend. Blend. You can't even see the spinach and you really can't taste it. I had to take a few test spoonfuls. It was good.

Fill up an ice tray with all this smoothie goodness, pop it in the freezer and you're done. In the morning, pop out some smoothie cubes and put them in whatever drink container you use. Do not over-do the ice packs when you do this. The smoothie cubes won't melt in time for lunch.

You could also purchase these:




I've been drooling over them just a bit. It'll save you steps and precious time. I will have them one day soon. I just haven't gotten around to ordering them, yet. I hear fabulous things about them! I'm more of a "spending a dollar to find a solution" kind of girl. ;-)

Make sure you check out my recipe for my Sneaky Pumpkin Muffins. They're freaking delicious and I figure they deserve a post of their own!

Sneakiness and Hugs,
    Cindy


Do you have any tricks to hide vegetables so your kids will eat them? What did you pack this week?