Sneaky Treats...What do you do?

HOLsale · 28 February 2006 at 11:33AM

last night i was so pleased with myself as dd (4.5 years old) asked for yet ANOTHER homemade ice lolly... you see, she hates yogurt and has given up fromage frais too but i cleverly made ice lollies with some yogurt and she ate them up very quickly!

i got to thinking of some of the sneaky treats i make for her

Yogurt/Frommage Frais Ice Lollies- as mentioned above. simply mix some yogurt with a bit of mashed banana or a bit of milk/juice and freeze. if the yogurts a bit tangy the mashed banana adds a lovely creamy sweetness to it without adding refined sugar

sweet potatoes- mash these up with some butter and either brown sugar or maple syrup and even some crushed walnuts (can omit) very sweet tasty treat that she loves!

Veggie Crisps- not only am i sneaky by presenting them as if they were normal crisps but i also sprinkle them with flavouring powder i make myself by grinding up a variety of fruit and veg i dry in the dehydrator (i make my veggie crisps in the dehydrator but you can use a very low oven) so double sneaky treat!

Cornbread- dd loves cake, she often announces it to the world :rotfl: last time i made cornbread she loudly announced it was cake and has viewed it as a treat ever since (imagine the look on her face as dh and i dipped it in our chilli :rotfl: ) in fact, the last time i made it we had sponge cake for dessert so she thought she'd died and gone to heaven! i make amish style cornbread which has sugar in it and is a bit sweet... with butter and warmed through it is very nice indeed

Nature's Sweeties- whenever i want dd to try a veg that is sweet i say it's natures sweeties! she now happily trys them if i say that. and she's now a beetroot fanatic. i buy the jars of beetroot from lidl as they are lightly sweetened (the way i grew up with in the states) she'll chomp away on those and even asks for them. i add my own beetroot to the juice that is left and even though it's not quite as sweet she still munches away!
this works well for glazed carrots, sweet potatoes (even without sugar added), roast parnsips etc

Flapjacks/Granola- dd doesn't much care for my homemade museli but i wanted to get the goodness of the oats and seeds in her so i'll make flapjacks and granola that she'll happily eat. yes, they have butter and sugar in them BUT they are a far better alternative than chocolate bars!

Chips- ok, this one is a little different but i thought the tip might help other parents... basically dd got to the point where she would ONLY eat the chips in a meal sooooo i decided to get sneaky and act like the chips were a treat. so she gets 3 chips to start with and her main meal. she'll eat the chips first but then she wants more so she has to eat several bites of her main meal then she gets a few more and so on and so forth... sneaky yes but hey, it works!

i sometimes do this with fizzy drinks when we're out at the rare restaurant meal (luncheon vouchers

) i don't want her drinking much of that kind of thing so she gets it as a treat for eating a lot of her meal. i also have water on the table (I ALWAYS carry water with me) so that is what she drinks most of and it helps wash away the sugary stuff... i realise this won't work for all kids but it might work for some

so, what are your sneaky treats then? i'm looking to add a few more to my arsenal

mummysaver · 28 February 2006 at 12:19PM

My children think breadsticks are a real treat - does that make me a very mean mum!

I give the children lots of raw veg: carrots, cauliflower, celery, pepper, mushrooms, cucumber, etc and perhaps some toasted sliced pitta, and some dips (garlic and mayo, hm salsa, hm guacamole, hummous. I put all the bits on a large serving platter around the dips, and plonk it on the floor in front of the telly on a Friday night - they nibble away happily thinking that they've got a real treat eating in front of the telly, dh and I can catch up and have a glass of wine, and then we can all eat a meal together.

I guess that this isn't that sneaky, but I've found that if the children eat in front of the telly occasionally they mindlessly shove whatever comes to hand in their mouths! So it may be helpful for children who don't each many veggies.

Luckily mine have always eaten really well, and if they start a phase of moaning about different foods, and getting fussy, then I just stop buying any treats whatsoever, until they're back to eating properly! See I am a mean mum!

HOLsale - I love the sound of your cornbread, can I have the recipe please.

Curry_Queen · 28 February 2006 at 1:24PM

The only veggie I really have to hide in meals these days is courgette, as DS still maintains he doesn't like them, although he eats plenty of them :whistle:

If he can see them, as in when I made the veggie lasagne the other day, he'll push them to the side of his plate, but if I grate them he doesn't know they're there

Other than that he loves his veggies and is always raiding the fridge for them, his favourites being carrots and cucumber, so I always buy double quantities of those. Told him he'll turn orange one day the amount of carrots he eats :rotfl:

HOLsale · 28 February 2006 at 1:37PM

mummysaver wrote:

HOLsale - I love the sound of your cornbread, can I have the recipe please.

i find my dd will eat darn near anything when she's on a growth spurt so i often try out new things then. by the time her growth spurt is over she's taking a liking to the item so it's not so hard to get her to eat it again!

overall dd is a very adventerous eater and has very mature tastes, but she goes through fussy stages, we found the threat of no dessert removed most barriers :rotfl:

Amish Cornbread

1 c. self rising flour (make sure it's self rising, you get the best CB this way)
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. yellow cornmeal (i use polenta)
1 egg, well beaten
1 c. milk
butter or fat drippings

blend first 4 ingredients. Mix in polenta. Blend egg, milk until mixed. Add to dry ingredients and beat until smooth. grease a cast iron skillet (or heavy deep glass casserole dish) with the butter or drippings. Bake 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6 degrees for 20-25 minutes till just starting to brown around the edges and a knife comes out clean from center.

a great trick is to put another skillet or casserole dish with about an inch of water in it on the bottom shelf below the cornbread. this makes the cornbread really nice as it can tend to become a bit dry if you overcook it

i always do mine in a large cast iron skillet and i double that recipe so we can eat off it for days. it's best when you cut a slice immediately after you take it out of the oven. i cut pie slices then slice the pie slice horizontally (ie one pie slice on top of another after you've split it) then generously butter and let it melt into the bread mmmmmmm heaven!

you can get big bags of polenta from ethnic grocers for a few pounds, otherwise this recipe would be a bit pricey.

HOLsale · 28 February 2006 at 1:40PM

hey, we had a small breakthrough last night

dd caught me making up the yogurt ice lollies

as soon as she saw the yogurt she started going on about how horrible it was etc. i explained that that was what i'd put in the ice lolly she loves

she turned her nose up but today she happily ate one of the ice lollies and called it a yogurt lolly!

i'm so chuffed and well done to dd for being brave enough to try it :T

bizzy_lizzie · 28 February 2006 at 2:05PM

mummysaver wrote:

My children think breadsticks are a real treat - does that make me a very mean mum!

I give the children lots of raw veg: carrots, cauliflower, celery, pepper, mushrooms, cucumber, etc and perhaps some toasted sliced pitta, and some dips (garlic and mayo, hm salsa, hm guacamole, hummous. I put all the bits on a large serving platter around the dips, and plonk it on the floor in front of the telly on a Friday night -

I am going to try this. Sounds a really nice treat for a sunday night after homework is finished. My boys will eat pretty much anything (except cooked cheese for one & tinned peas for the other) but i like the idea of them eating so well & considering it a treat.
For some reason though my boys seem to think they have to say they dont like vegetables when in reality they'll eat whatever you put in front of them & ask for more. Probably peer pressure but odd all the same.

Bizzy Lizzie

Aril · 28 February 2006 at 3:30PM

When my son first started school he was one of the younger children in his year and he really was whacked. I used to make a milkshake with a banana in and a raw egg whizzed in to make it frothy. Probably not to be used with littlies with the raw egg.
Curry Queen- I've seen courgettes cooked in cakes before now. Along similar lines to carrot cake. Shhh....I won't tell them if you don't!! :rotfl:
Aril

mummysaver · 28 February 2006 at 3:54PM

On the courgette front I find that if you grate courgettes, carrots, etc into tomato sauce, most children don't know it's there, for the really fussy ones who don't like bit just whizz it in the blender/use a stick blender. The sauce can be tipped over pasta, or used in bolognese, etc.

Jay-Jay_4 · 28 February 2006 at 4:00PM

My youngest thinks that sultanas (tinies) are sweeties.... I'm not going to tell her otherwise :shhh: :silenced:

moggins · 28 February 2006 at 4:09PM

Anyone know what you can do for a child who won't eat tomato sauce so you can't bury anything. I must have one of the fussiest eaters on the planet and it's really starting to get me down

She has 5 meals that she will eat, ham omlette, scrambled egg on toast, cold ham, boiled egg with julienned carrots and cucumber or boiled chicken with rice and broccoli and boiled chicken with pasta.

That's it! Nothing in a sauce or with any flavour to it at all and she won't touch potato in any shape or form.

Curry_Queen · 28 February 2006 at 4:15PM

Aril wrote:

Curry Queen- I've seen courgettes cooked in cakes before now. Along similar lines to carrot cake. Shhh....I won't tell them if you don't!! :rotfl:
Aril

Yes, I've done that too

... as well as the chocolate and beetroot cakes/muffins :dance:

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Sneaky Treats...What do you do?

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