19 Foolproof Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Vegetables for Breakfast – Yahoo Lifestyle

Let’s face it: The majority of American adults aren’t eating enough fruits or vegetables. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that only about 9 percent of Americans are currently meeting the government’s standard for vegetable consumption. (Yikes.) For adults, this means eating only about two to three cups of veggies per day, depending on your weight and level of activity.

And don’t even get us started on kids. “Small kids should have close to two full cups of vegetables each day,” Dr. Lisa Young PhD, RDN tells us. And according to MyPlate, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, a serving of veggies can be anything from a cup of chopped broccoli or two cups of raw spinach, to a large, red bell pepper or two foot-long stalks of celery. But, um, what do you do if your kid will barely eat a bowl of sugary cereal for breakfast, let alone a piece of avocado toast? We’ve got a plan for that.

1. Don’t Be a Trickster

Our goal here is easier said than done: coming up with fun, creative and delicious ways to make eating veggies not feel like a chore for your kids. But “tricking” them into eating things they flat-out don’t like is probably not the best course of action to take.

“I don’t know that you want to be ‘sneaking’ vegetables into your kids’ meals,” Dr. Young said. “If they don’t like kale, maybe don’t cook with it and try another option, like spinach. I don’t see the point in lying to them. Kids like color, so to get them to try new veggies, trying new colors is a good option to test out what they might like.”

2. Work with What You’ve Got

Instead of tiptoeing around the issue, introduce new veggies to things your kids already enjoy, like scrambled eggs or a big omelet, suggests Dr. Young.

“If you have to sneak,” she said, “maybe while you’re making eggs you throw in some veggies like mushrooms or bell peppers and don’t say anything. Don’t be sneaky, just do it, and don’t draw attention to it. Do it as a matter of fact and eat that way yourself, too. Your kids want to be just like you. Leading by example is very important.”

3. Start Early

Part of taking the trickery out of adding vegetables to your kids’ meals is giving them the opportunity to like healthy foods on their own.

“Exposing them to vegetables right up front helps to develop better habits in kids and gets them to like vegetables early on,” according to Dr. Young. Making vegetables part of your all day, every meal—including at breakfast—routine from a young age will take the anxiety off everyone’s plate.

4. Prep in Advance

Our pro recommends gathering all of the vegetables you plan on tossing into your morning quiches, smoothies and hashes and chopping them up ahead of time to make it even easier on yourself. “Part of the trick is making sure that you have them on hand,” she says. “If what you want to eat more of is already cut up and ready to go, it turns a potentially frantic morning into a much more manageable meal. No one wants to start all that prep in the morning. Try using veggies that are already smaller and ready to go—things like cherry tomatoes are easy.”

5. What Vegetables?

If your household likes to draw attention to what you’re eating and mom’s little helpers enjoy getting involved, another way to incorporate veggies is to turn them into something new.

“Maybe the focus is the form of the food,” Dr. Young says. “Now we can spiralize veggies to get kids to eat zucchini, or you can do almost anything with cauliflower.” You could rice it, make cauliflower tots or use it as a breakfast pizza dough. (But more about that below.)

6. Be a Little Sweeter

If you’ve got a little sweet tooth in your home, Dr. Young suggests tossing fresh herbs into smoothies in the morning for a quick option or adding sweet potato and an apple to slow-cooked oatmeal.

“When I make a smoothie with blueberries, I throw in parsley and kale,” she says. “I add pumpkin and sweet potatoes to an apple- or blueberry-based oatmeal before I cook it to change the consistency. It comes out tasting more like pie than breakfast.” Yum, that’s a breakfast we can get on board with, too.

OK, let’s get to the good part—the food. Here, 19 veggie-packed breakfast ideas for kids below.

Instead of whipping up these pantry staple ingredients into yet another omelet, let the tomato sing as the vessel for this super-simple breakfast.