One of my New Year Resolutions is to incorporate more vegetables into our daily diet. Those of you who have toddlers, or have been through the toddler years, likely have experienced some angst that your child(ren) is/are not eating enough vegetables. Or perhaps you are the one who isn't eating enough vegetables and want to change that in 2015.
My little man loves fruit but refused to eat most vegetables. In order to get him to eat vegetables, I hid vegetables in meals (spaghetti sauce, bechamel sauce, or in stir-fries). I was pulling my hair out (literally) trying to think of other ways to get the little man to eat more vegetables.
Then I recalled hearing about Jessica Seinfield's (Jerry's wife) book, "Deceptively Delicious" years back. So I borrowed the book from the library.
In Deceptively Delicious, the key to getting kids to eat more vegetables was to feed them vegetables when they are at their hungriest (usually when you are making dinner). Jessica usually served her family a vegetable platter while she is making dinner. For dinner, she would then separate out the protein and carbs and feed the protein as a first course before serving the carbs. In addition, she adds in pureed vegetables to her meals to increase their vegetable intake. Two cheers for Jessica!
Since November, we have been following her suggestion with success. I plate vegetables for lunch and give it to my little man while I heat up our lunch (generally leftovers from the previous night). While he is eating his vegetable platter, my husband and I would eat ours at the same time. I have found that my little man likes to mimic us so seeing us eating and enjoying our vegetables helps him eat his. I am happy to report that my little man will eat grape tomatoes and mushrooms along with his cucumbers. I have a good feeling he will eventually warm up to snap peas and carrots this year!
The key I have found to eating more vegetables is to buy vegetables you (or your kids) love to eat. For me, this would include grape tomatoes, snap peas, mushrooms, cauliflower and cucumbers. Yes, our grocery bill has seen a slight increase but with our favorite vegetables on a plate, I think we all look forward to eating our vegetables more.
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| Daily vegetable platter (the dip is notably absent as we only have it as a rare treat) |
We had some friends over for lunch today and I served up a vegetable platter as a first course while I made lunch. I made this delicious onion dip to go with the vegetable platter which I know the adults certainly enjoyed.
For this recipe, I would recommend cutting the recipe into a third as making the full recipe yields in a lot of dip! I also omitted the salt called for in the original recipe and substituted in black pepper.
So if you have some wary vegetable eaters in your household, give this dip a try.
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| TIP: Buy vegetables you love to eat! |
Makes: 2 cups
Ingredients - I would recommend cutting this recipe in half or reduce by a third
2 tbsps olive oil
1-1/2 cups diced onions (I used 6 tbsp of dehydrated onions)
1-1/2 cups sour cream (you can also substitute in Greek yogurt)
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp freshly cracked pepper
Directions
1. In a small saute pan over medium heat, saute onions until it caramelizes. (If you use dehydrated onions, lightly toast it until the onions just turn light brown). Allow the onions to cool.
2. In a separate bowl, mix in the sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic powder and pepper. Fold in the onions.
3. Place the dip in the refrigerator and allow the flavors to meld together for 2 hours before serving.
Source: Food Network
