Operation Veggie Smuggle

I am becoming the Queen Smuggler, of veggies that is. I am on a new mission, to keep away (and keep Angel Starr away) from as many processed foods as possible. The problem is that she hates vegetables and refuses to eat them. She's very strong willed and it turns into a huge, HUGE fight. It's terrible to sit down to every meal with a child whining about how she doesn't eat this and that and picking it all off her plate and heaving (yes, she actually gags just looking at the vegetables!). So I've decided that it's all completely psychological and I will pump her full of goodness, no matter what. The solution, to disguise everything. She eats soup happily (because I put croutons in - OK so a little bit of processed crap in order to get her to eat loads of goodness. I think it's worth it!) so I decided to puree sauces too. I've come up with a great tomato sauce that she just loves and she has no idea how healthy it is. I make it with onions, tomatoes, courgettes, red capsicum peppers and carrots. Then I take my hand blender and blast the hell out of it, so that she can't detect any of the veggies. It just looks like red, chunky, sauce. Which I refer to as.......bolognaise sauce. You see if I called it tomato sauce she'd freak out and boom, in one second her veggie walls would go up. She loves this sauce and I put it with meatballs (which I have made myself with mince meat, onion, carrot and apple - yay more veggies!) or just by itself on pasta or with chicken and couscous (which she just adores). So far so good. She's happy and I'm happy, feeling that I'm giving my child healthy, nutritious food.

Midweek Mommy Tip # 1

Freeze, freeze freeze!! I have recently discovered (yeah, I’m a slow learner) that making meals ahead of time and freezing them is the only way to stay on top of things AND give your family healthy, nutritious meals. There just isn’t enough time in the day to worry about cooking as well. Just freeze the basics for a week or so and you’ll see a huge difference, time management wise. By making your own meals and freezing them you are able to give your family healthy, nutritious meals and avoid those high salt, high fat, additive and trans fat ridden microwave TV dinners. I’m a big fan of Annabel Karmel and like her child and family friendly recipes. I agree with her that your child can eat what they like (OK, to a point!) as long as you make it. This helps cut out the high salt and additive content from your family’s diet. It’s also a lot of fun to get in the kitchen (while someone’s minding the kids for you) and cook up a storm. I’ll be the first to admit it, cleaning up is a bitch, but such is life!