Make your friends green with envy this St. Patrick's Day when your little ones start eating peas and green beans. Sure, the day can be filled with tasty sweet treats — nevermind a Shamrock Shake or two — but it's also a great day to convince tots to eat their greens — green vegetables, that is. We've rounded up our favorite kid-friendly green veggie recipes (including a spinach-packed ice cream) to help get you started. Hey, you never know, this could be the start of a mealtime makeover!
Never thought you'd see your lil one pick up a green bean and eat it? Maybe it was never properly prepared! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we're lining up a menu of green vegetable dishes that tots will actually want to eat! We asked award-winning chef, Top Chef Masters champion, and father of one Rick Bayless to share a tot-friendly green vegetable dish with us for the holiday. He's created a balsamic green beans recipe meant to entice kids with its sweet and sour taste.
I know this recipe looks uninspiringly simple — but it's exceptionally good. It offers everything green beans need: enough cooking to mellow their flavor, garlic to give them a tantalizing aroma, and balsamic vinegar's dark, syrupy, sweet-sour glaze to draw you back bite after bite.
Keep reading to get Rick's delicious balsamic green beans recipe.
When thinking of healthy veggie-packed meals for their kids, moms don't usually put mint chocolate chip ice cream on their list. That's because they haven't tried Jessica Seinfeld's version, which just happens to be made with spinach puree. The children's cookbook author and mother of three created a revolution in the kiddie food world with her vegetable purees that work their way into a variety of recipes and ultimately into unsuspecting lil mouths. With St. Patrick's Day just a day away, we asked Jessica to share two of her favorite green-hued recipes for our holiday-themed eat your greens series.
Keep reading to see her recipes for the the ice cream and a pasta with pea pesto.
Greening up your St. Patrick's Day meal doesn't have to involve green food coloring. As we continue filling lil ones' plates with green vegetables for this week's holiday, we checked in with kiddie chef extraordinaire Catherine McCord, founder of Weelicious and mother of two, for some tot-friendly recipes. From veggie pops to some crispy, Italian-style asparagus, check out Catherine's green picks for kids.
Going green this St. Patrick's Day has more to do with your lil one's taste buds than their environmental awareness. Knowing that kids will do virtually anything to avoid putting a green vegetable in their mouths, we've asked some well-known chefs for green veggie recipes that won't have kids turning up their noses. Annabel Karmel is cooking recipes for all of the tots in the family, including a first puree for infants and yummy lasagna for older ones. Check them out!
Go green! St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching, so get lucky in the kitchen with your kids! The Irish holiday may conjure up memories of soda bread or corned beef, but hold the Guinness because we're using the green theme to get our lads and lasses to eat their veggies. Here are a few recipes that will kick off the celebration!
Sometimes an accident can lead to an invention! I was baking some green beans yesterday, got occupied with my baby, and left the veggies in the oven too long. But the result was absolutely delicious so I made another tray to nosh on. This crispy snack requires just two ingredients and a few minutes to make. Kiddos will love the french fry texture of the veggies that mom can be served alongside burgers for a more healthful dish.
Take trimmed green and/or yellow beans, spread them across a cookie sheet and then drizzle with a bit of olive oil and salt to taste. Pop the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. If the vegetables have reached desired crispiness, take the tray out and allow it to cool. To spice the dish up for mom and dad, add some crushed chili flakes before baking or some diced olives or tapenade after and serve.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! The Irish holiday may conjure up memories of soda bread and corned beef, but hold the Guinness because we're using the green theme to get our wee lads and lasses to gobble up their veggies.
Set your child's taste buds out to the Celtic Sea with an easy vegetable recipe that only requires two ingredients! The steps are so simple a tot can put their chef's hat on and get cooking with minimal assistance from mama. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, then slice a zucchini down the center and place it in a glass baking dish. Sprinkle the top with your child's favorite shredded, crumbled, or sliced cheese (in the festive spirit we used a shredded Irish cheddar). Pop the veggies in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and golden. Let your kiddo entertain himself by fashioning a sail out of a toothpick and a piece of trimmed construction paper which he can design. Once the zucchini has been taken out of the oven and cooled for a couple of minutes, attach the sail and plate.
This post was submitted by lauren in The Children's Table group.
Inspired by babysugar's series Eat your Greens, I decided to try to make Kale chips for my little niece. She is only a year and half, but I definitely want to try to expose her to a lot of different types of food. The chips themselves are really easy to make and only require a bit of olive oil, kale and a touch of salt.
I used FitSugar's recipe but basically lightly tossed the kale in olive oil and baked. I happened to buy dinosaur kale and next time I will buy a kale with a slightly softer stalk or remove more of it before I bake them. But all in all the chips were tasty, crunchy, and definitely healthier than any chip out of the bag. My niece even enjoyed a few to my amazement.
St. Patrick's Day may conjure up memories of Irish soda bread, corned beef, and pints of Guinness, but we're approaching the holiday from a different direction this year – an opportunity to get our kids to eat more green. We're taking five green vegetables and trying out different methods to get our tots to gobble them up.
Brussels sprouts get a bad rap because they are often overcooked, which makes them sulfurous and hard to stomach. Children can also be intimidated by their cabbage like appearance. The round lil goodies are packed full of vitamins A and C, as well as folic acid and fiber, making them great for the digestive system. To get my tot to give them a chance, I deconstructed the bulbous greens by shredding them prior to placing them in the roasting pan. The result: a side dish that even a picky eater is willing to try!
Check out the recipe, and step-by-step instructions, when you read more
