Family Cooking Project: Vegetable Kabobs

Getting your kids in the kitchen to help make your snacks or meals is a great way to spend family time together! And when kids help make the food, they are more likely to eat it! One way to encourage eating veggies is to make vegetable kabobs! We got this idea from my daughter's preschool and had to share! They are doing the I am Moving, I am Learning program to promote health and well being in our children! This recipe is from their Health Services Team:

You will need 1 cucumber, 1 Green Pepper and a package of sliced mushrooms.  Also some ranch dressing for dipping!  Other things you will need include Popsicle sticks or skewers, a cutting board or plate, and a butter knife.

Wash all the vegetables, and then slice the cucumber and green pepper. With kids around ages 4 or 5, you can let them cut with close supervision. Be sure to explain that they can only use a knife when you are helping them!! After everything is cut up and ready to go, let your child put the veggie slices on the stick or skewer. Help them if they need, and show them they can make a pattern with the different veggies by alternating which ones they put on.  Serve with the ranch dressing and enjoy!

Get your kids to eat their veggies-and LIKE them!

Most kids turn their nose at veggies. "I don't like it" is the common excuse.  I have often felt like my kids aren't getting the proper nutrients they need.  So I started "sneaking" veggies into their diet.  Here are a few of my favorite tips to get the kids to love to eat veggies!!

1. Offer veggies with ranch.  Tried and true.  Offer a variety and see what they like! Keep offering it, as it can take 10 times to like a new food!

2. Offer drinks like V8 Splash, that have a serving of veggies in every serving.

3. Look for canned pasta (such as ravioli, spaghetti rings, etc.) that say "one serving of vegetables inside", these are usually the kinds of things kids will eat.  It is important to find the one that says there are veggies inside, because the others are not as healthy.

4. Make burgers with ground up veggies. We made some with green and red bell peppers, onions and garlic. We just cut them up, put them into a mini hand food processor until it was really chopped, then mixed by hand into the meat.  After making patties we cooked them and they were a HUGE hit!!  There was easily 1 if not 2 servings of veggies in those burgers!

5.The same can be done with treats!  Check out The Sneaky Chef for fabulously yummy treats with lots of veggies!!

Post any other veggie tricks you might have up your sleeves down below!!