Sneaking Carrots / Super Food / How to Puree / Shhh! Cookies

Sneaking Carrots and Other Veggies into Foods Your Kids Already Like

by Lois Breneman, © 2006, Heart to Heart 

 

As many of you already know, sometimes moms need to resort to sneaking vegetables into our children and grandchildren's diets!  Try adding pureed carrots to spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, soups, mashed potatoes, apple cider, pineapple juice and even oatmeal cookies.  Autumn is a good time of the year to start this "motherly sneakery," featuring the color, orange!  If your family asks why the food is a little yellow or orange, tell them that you are celebrating the season by trying a fall color with a few foods. 

 

Mashed potatoes with an addition of pureed carrots, yams or sweet potatoes, also a super food, look like they have cheese in them, so why not add a few sprinkles of cheese on top?  Hopefully the cheese will throw off your family.  A small amount of pureed beets can be added to spaghetti sauce without being detected.  Just start with a small amount and increase it. Pureed sweet potatoes make wonderful pancakes and my grandson loves those!  Try adding pumpkin to pancakes, quick bread and muffins.  Finely grated zucchini is delicious in quick bread and can be added to soups, as can all of the vegetables mentioned, though you may be able to disguise them more easily if pureed in a blender.  If your children are skeptical and ask what's in the food you prepared, just tell them it's your "secret recipe," and they may have the recipe when they leave home to start their own family!

 

CARROTS ARE A SUPER FOOD

This information is compliments of www.bolthouse.com.

 

The nutrients in carrots:

• Strengthen the immune system
• Help regulate metabolish
• Help maintain heathy skin
• Help maintain vision
• Help protect cells

Studies show that the nutrients in carrots may reduce risk of:

• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Heart disease
• Some types of cancer

Carrots are nature's best source of the powerful antioxidant Vitamin A!

• Antioxidants protect cells from free radicals which can damage the basic structure of health cells.
  
  

HOW TO PUREE CARROTS, YAMS AND SWEET POTATOES

Use cooked carrots, yams or sweet potatoes, pureed in a blender with a little liquid, in soups, cookies, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, mashed potatoes and cookies.  In other words, for extra nutrition, first make baby food to add to these grownup foods.

 

OATMEAL RAISIN WALNUT CARROT (Shhh!) COOKIES 

1 cup real butter, softened 

1 1/2 cup or less sucanat (evaporated cane sugar found in health food stores)

2 eggs

2/3 cup pureed carrots or juice

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup spelt or whole wheat flour         

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. sea salt

3 cups old fashioned oats (With the addition of carrots, add 2 extra handfuls of oats)

1 cup raisins

1 cup walnuts, chopped

 

Cream butter and sucanat.  Add eggs, carrots and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  Add flour, soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well.  Stir in oats, raisins and walnuts. Use a small ice cream scoop to place cookie dough on greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 - 12 minutes at 350º, making sure not to overbake.  You want them soft and chewy.   This recipe is great to freeze in snack bags (of 1 or 2 each) for school lunches and snacks!  Or double the recipe!  These keep best  in the refrigerator. 

If your children like this recipe, you may want to experiment with the addition of even more carrots and extra oats.  My grandson said, "I never tasted cookies this good!"  He even helped to pour in the carrot juice, as I told him it was some juice like Aunt Rachael loves.

Tips for Finicky Eaters

JUICES THAT PACK A POWERFUL PUNCH OF NUTRITION        

by Lois Breneman, © 2006, Heart to Heart

   

APPLE-BERRY BOOST PUNCH

Recipe created by our son, Jeff, and served at his wedding reception, on the day of his marriage to Rachael.

1 gallon apple cider

1 liter bottle of Bolthouse Berry Boost

Mix together and pour some into ice cube trays. 
Serve icy cold with frozen cubes to keep it chilled.

 

BOLTHOUSE SMOOTHIES

www.bolthouse.com

Bolthouse all natural smoothies with no sugar or preservatives are available in several varieties of flavors and colors - 100% carrot juice, Berry Boost, C-Boost, and Green Goodness (all delicious)!  They can be found in the health food department of many grocery stores.  Each 1 liter drink (about 4 cups) cost about $3.50 when not on sale.  Although that is quite high, if your children won't eat vegetables and you aren't sure they are getting enough good nutrition, this may be a solution. 

 

APPLE-CARROT JUICE

For delicious juice in an orange color for autumn or everyday, mix apple cider with freshly juiced carrot juice, Bolthouse carrot juice or pureed cooked carrots.  If you have children who refuse to eat vegetables, try mixing 3 parts of apple cider with 1 part of carrot juice or puree.  This worked for me with my grandson today!  He said, "This is good!"  Shake it up.  If your children like pineapple juice, add some of that, because pineapple juice helps to disguise the carrot flavor even more.  Later you may be able to add more carrot juice or puree. 

 

PINEAPPLE-CARROT JUICE

Mix 3 parts pineapple juice with 1 part carrot juice.  Or try the same thing with orange juice.  Another idea if your child tends to want too much juice, is to water it down slightly.

 

GREEN PINEAPPLE JUICE

Bolthouse has several delicious healthy smoothies, including a green drink called Green Goodness, which is absolutely delicious - a very sweet and fruity flavor.  It doesn't taste at all like vegetables, though some vegetables do pack a powerful punch of nutrition in this drink.  If kids like juice, they will love this, regardless of the green color.  You might play a guessing game with them, using a blindfold to see if they can guess what kind of juice they are drinking.  If they think they don't like vegetables, tell them the names of the fruits in their drink.  Maybe they will be more open to knowing the vegetables later, after they realize they love this green drink! 

 

PINEAPPLE BARLEY JUICE

Green barley juice, a powerful super antioxidant, tastes like green vegetables, but you can disguise the taste for finicky eaters by adding the powder to pineapple juice.  If you are interested, you can ask me more about barley juice, which research has found juice from the green leaves of barley to be the winner in having the widest spectrum of nutrients when tested along side of four hundred green juices!  I've been using green barley juice since 1991 and rarely ever gotten a cold, sinus infection or the flu since that time.  It's even better than spinach, as far as nutrients, and adds greatly in reaching the healthy quota of 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables.

 

My grandson drank this pineapple barley juice with no problem when he was two years old, but when I gave him some last week at age three, he said he didn't like it and added emphatically, "This tastes like brussel sprouts!"  He's so silly!  Now he has never tasted a brussel sprout in his entire 3 1/2 years, but this is a child who won't normally eat vegetables.  I'm certain he would have loved the green pineapple juice with the Bolthouse Green Goodness or the Green Goodness alone with it's delicious fruit flavor!   But read on!  I did get my grandson to eat carrots and love them!  Just don't tell him!

JUICE YOUR OWN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Using a Champion Juicer (or other juicer) you can juice all kinds of fruits and vegetables yourself. 

Finicky Eaters and Preventing Food Waste

by Lois Breneman - Copyright 2011 - Heart to Heart

Sweet Potato Pie ~ Our grandson, Justin (7), loves pumpkin pie, but he says he doesn't like sweet potatoes.  So after we had made pumpkin pies together during his last two visits, for Thanksgiving Day I made two *sweet potato* pies just before his arrival (can't freeze custard pies). I realize pumpkin is a very healthy vegetable as well as sweet potatoes, but wanted to help our sweet finicky eater see (and taste) that sweet potatoes are delicious too!

To remove the fibrous threads of sweet potatoes which some people don't care for, I used the mixer first, removing the threads that automatically collect at the base of the beaters by rinsing under running water.  Next I put the potatoes in the blender to get them as smooth as silk.

I made sure I didn't lie about the pie and say it was "pumpkin pie," but called it "Thanksgiving pie!"   The Libby's recipe for pumpkin pie (found on the can or Online), was used with a little less sweetener (I used mostly sucanat, a natural sugar, and a little stevia).  Justin ate almost two pieces and really loved the pie!  He obviously tasted no difference, so it was a success in this grammie’s eyes!   He helped to serve the pie, calling it "Thanksgiving pie" as well.  He decided he did like sweet potatoes - at least in pie!  Why not enjoy sweet potato and pumpkin pies all year round?

Spaghetti Sauce ~ If your child likes spaghetti, but rarely ever eats vegetables, you can sneak pureed red beets and carrots into the sauce, without him knowing it.  Start out using just a bit, and adding more vegetables each time.  To save yourself time and energy, cook, puree, and freeze those "sneaky foods" in ice cube trays (when he's not looking).  Then add a few ice cubes at a time to spaghetti, chili, and other foods in which the red/orange color will not give away your secret.  You may find that your child will acquire a taste for those vegetables that he has convinced himself that he hates.  Just keep it to yourself as long as you need to though.

Pancakes ~ Switch to using more whole grain flour (freshly milled will provide even more nutrition) in pancakes and in all your baking.  You can make your own pancake mix by mixing all the dry ingredients and freezing in individual batches, then adding the wet ingredients when making pancakes. Even if you have no food mill, try using your blender to mill wheat berries to replace a portion of the flour you now use. 

You could also mix up and make a large amount of pancakes ahead, and freeze them.  Then simply pop them in the toaster for a tastier and more nutritious breakfast than pop tarts, yet just as easy in the morning!  Add pureed pumpkin, sweet potatoes, or carrots to the pancake batter for even more nutritional value.

What to do with Leftover Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches? ~ Throw them out?  No!  Here's a way to save them and serve up a tasty treat!  Wrap and refrigerate them for later.  Then spread a thin coat of butter on the outside of both sides, as you would when making grilled cheese sandwiches.  Grill in a pan, and I think you'll find your kids and grandkids will love them, as ours did!  They are really good!  Two of our grandchildren like honey in place of jelly, but our other grandchild likes jelly, so his mother wisely buys "All Fruit" jams, as I do.  They are made with only fruit - no sugar or additional sweetener.

Free Freezer Soup ~ Any time you have leftovers of meat, vegetables, pasta, broth, or cheese, add them to a "Soup Pot" in your freezer.  Almost any 1-3 quart container will work as long as it has a lid.  Then when it's full and you need a meal in a hurry, thaw the contents in the microwave, and add whatever else you think the soup needs - diced potatoes, fresh or frozen vegetables, salt, or herbs.  Considering you may have tossed out those leftovers, or left them in the fridge to grow pussy willows, you will be serving a very tasty "Free Soup."  That's better than "Stone Soup," as the story goes!

Hot Chocolate with (Shhh!) Sweet Potatoes

Thanks to Sharon Suhr in California for this recipe from the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook!  Most of the time I try to steer clear of recipes with sugar for Heart to Heart, but for moms who can't get their children to eat vegetables, this is a start!

1/2 cup of pureed sweet potato
1 1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. chocolate syrup  (I like the Trader Joe's kind with no HFCS) ... you may want to play with more/less of the milk and choc syrup to suit your taste.
Blend in a blender; then pour in a sauce pan and bring it to a light simmer (stirring constantly).  You can add a bit of cinnamon too, which is good.  I added some whipped cream and it was perfect!