Ah the joys of being a parent. You can spend an afternoon slaving over a roast dinner, only for it to be turned away before it even gets to the table. Yet, pull out a cheap kids meal from a take-away and it’s all smiles!

Which is why you’re not alone if you’re looking for kids food ideas or ways to sneak vegetables into their meals.

There is, of course, an art to sneaking in veg and getting away with it, so we’ve produced some tips for getting the good stuff in to your fussy eater.

1. Get Blending

Handy, especially in the weaning days – it’s probably the easiest and best way to get children to eat vegetables. There’s a host of easy kid friendly dinner recipes you can rustle up with the help of a blender and some stock to give it a nice consistency. Better still, make some extra and freeze it into cubes. Everyone’s a (dinner) winner!

2. Mash it up

It can come as no surprise as mashing veg into food is another sneaky trick. Cauliflower is easy to grate into burgers, broccoli and sweetcorn work well in fritters, and potato can easily find its way into most meals. It’s time to get creative with vegetarian meals for picky eaters

3. Fun food art

You don’t have to be an artist or even vaguely talented to get involved in a touch of food art! One of the best way to bring kids to the table and keep them there is to make it enjoyable. So, making fun food shapes or pictures, as well as using fun kids plates like Munchy Play  (see below) is a great way to get to achieve this. Best of all, food art allows you to put veggies in places you wouldn’t usually be allowed to!

4. Spiralised

In years we will look back at the spiralizer and wonder possibly why. That is except for parents of picky eaters. We all know that making food fun is the best way to bring kids to the table. This is just another way of doing it!

5. Soup-er

When in doubt, it’s back to the blender! Proving that cheap kids meals don’t have to be bad for you, roast a few veggies, add some stock, blend it up and hey presto!

6. Veg sticks and dips

Crudités are a great way to introduce new flavours and foods to kids. Why not cut up carrot batons, pepper slices and cucumber strips and get them to make something fun out of it. Add a couple of different dups on the side and encourage them to get messy. IT doubles up as a fun starter dinner idea for kids and adults alike.

7. Get them involved

Invite your picky eater to help prepare their meal. It could be as simple as washing a cucumber, to cutting it up – always with adult supervision. This way they are being introduced to new foods and may be less adverse to veg appearing on their kids plate.

If you enjoyed this read, check out our latest post on the best family-friendly festivals in the UK 2022 here >>>.