National Vegetable Day is June 17th. Here are 7 great tips to help kids and you eat more veggies! Plus a challenge to get blackout on this fun" Eat Your Veggies "Bingo card.
NATIONAL EAT YOUR VEGETABLES DAY
National Eat Your Vegetables Day fall on June 17th each year. Whether you are a veggie lover or not, this is a great day to try and get in all your vegetables!
Celebrate by making a vegetarian meal, go to a vegetarian restaurant, or playing our fun Veggie Day Bingo to see if you can cross off all your vegetables in one day.
7 TIPS TO HELP KIDS & YOU EAT MORE VEGETABLES
1) Be a good example.
If we want our children to eat more veggies, we need to be a good example of eating veggies ourselves! I have seen this happen in my own family.
I regularly choose vegetables as snacks or serve a big helping for dinner. My children watch me eat them and now some of my children have started asking for what I'm eating. Sometimes they try a bite and spit it out. And sometimes they start liking it. I'm okay with either outcome.
2) Keep vegetables cut, washed, and accessible.
A key to eating more vegetables is to have them washed, cut and ready to eat at any time. You want to make eating vegetables as easy as possible. Because when hunger strikes, it's easier to grab a packaged snack instead of wanting to wash, and cut a veggie.
We like to keep carrots, cucumbers, sweet peppers washed, cut and in these air-tight containers so they are ready to eat quickly. This also makes them easy to grab when you're headed out on an adventure.
I have this awesome vegetable tray that we use to keep cut veggies in the fridge. We also use it for salad bars, potato bars, taco bars, and picnics and road trips. It's so versatile!
BUY IT HERE:
3) Experiment with different ways of serving vegetables.
Serve vegetables hot. Serve them cold. Or serve them in a soup or by themselves. My kids don't like cooked carrots, but they will gobble up raw ones. You can also use some dressing with salad to make it taste better or give them some tangy flavors that kids would love.
So get creative and see what happens!
4) Let your kids help prepare them.
Letting your kids help prepare vegetables will make them more excited to try them.
We got this crinkle vegetable cutter and it has been a game changer in letting my kids help prepare vegetables. Because the blade is ridged, it isn't as dangerous or sharp as a knife. I feel totally comfortable letting my kids chop cucumbers with it.
They think it's so fun and it takes one thing off my plate, making it a win-win.
BUY IT HERE:
5) Don't give up on the first try.
Science has shown that it can take children 10-15 times of trying something before they start liking it. So if you present your kids with veggies and they don't like it the first time or even the first 9 times, don't give up!
Keep presenting and offering vegetables to them and hopefully they will eventually come around.
Don't expect your children to be a better version of yourself. If you didn't like a lot of vegetables as a child, don't expect your children to like them all either.
Some tastes and textures are acquired as we get older.
6) Make eating vegetables a positive experience.
The last tip I have is to make eating vegetables a positive experience. If your children view eating vegetables as a punishment or a necessary step in order to get a reward (say dessert), they are going to view a vegetable as a negative thing.
Don't be afraid to have casual conversations with your children about how vegetables are full of good nutrients that help clean out the bad stuff in your body.
They may complain about the taste or texture of a certain vegetable and that's okay. Acknowledge their feelings. Just try to keep it positive!
7) Serve vegetables as an appetizer.
One of my favorite ways to get my kids to eat veggies is to prepare a veggie tray before I start dinner prep. I don't know about your kids, but mine always want to snack right before dinner time.
I finally decided to set out vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, and sweet peppers. When they are really hungry, they are free to snack on as many veggies as they want. My opinion is that if they get full on veggies before dinner, that isn't a bad thing.
I hope these tips help you help your kids eat more vegetables!
VEGETABLE RECIPES TO TRY
- Best Green Salad (With Craisins, Apples, & Poppyseed dressing )
- Spinach Tortellini Salad
- Vegetable Tortellini Soup
- Dinner in a Pumpkin
Don't forget to grab the Veggie Day Bingo Cards in our Fun Club kit here.
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