If we let our children pick what we have for dinner every night, we might end up with the same dishes cropping up every night. Depending on your child’s tastes, you could easily live off a diet of pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets for the rest of your life. It can often be challenging to get children to try new meals. If you struggle to persuade your children to try something new on their plate, here are a few ideas to help teatime go more smoothly.
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When you get into a routine, it sometimes can be difficult to try and come up with new recipes for children. You have to come up with the recipe, but you must also find all those new ingredients on the supermarket’s shelves. Don’t let your busy work life be the thing that’s stopping your child from trying new food. Instead, enlist the help of a recipe box subscription service to deliver everything you need straight to your door.
Choose one with children in mind and recipe cards they can follow to help you cook the dish. For example, the ones provided by Compass Cooks get children to cook recipes from across the world. Every month you’ll receive three recipe cards for meals from a different country and all the ingredients you need to create them. They even come with activity cards so your child can learn about each country their food comes from. By allowing them to cook it themselves and teaching them about the origins of the recipes, they’ll be a lot more willing and even excited to try a new meal.
Turn it into a game
If your child constantly leaves his or her vegetables on the plate, it can be hard to get them to eat them. If they’ve already tried and decided they don’t like them, getting them to reconsider their views on the vegetable can be even more difficult. One way to get them to try the food again is to play an old-fashioned game of guessing the vegetable. Blindfold your child and prepare a few different ingredients. Then challenge them to guess what food you’re feeding them by only what they can taste in their mouth. It might sound easy, but removing the sight of the vegetable can make the vegetables taste completely different.
Make new food look like old food
If you’re struggling to get your little ones to try new food, try making it look like the food they love. There are so many recipes out there these days for classic meals with alternative, healthier ingredients. For example, you can make a burger from pretty much any vegetable. Pasta can be made healthier by trying Quinoa Pasta.
Your children might be a lot more inclined to try them if they’re in a patty shape. You can now even make spaghetti out of vegetables like courgette. If your child loves pizza, consider swapping out the normal dough for one made of cabbage.
