Five portions a day?

clarabella23

If people on her get their 5 a day fruit and veg most/ all days? I have a 6 year old, who takes fruit as part of her pack up, and I encourage her to snack on it, but I work full time and find it hard to dish up portions of veg every night with a meal, especially as I know she will eat other things better!

I don't like fruit either, and find it hard to include veg as much as I like. I have tried to get packs of the steam veg to take as part of pack up, but they are ridiculously expensive, too big for just one meal, and don't save well at all for the next day. I try to include them in my evening meal but get so fed up of carrots/ brocolli/cauliflower!

Also, when DD is school dinners, they don't have to have veg with their meal, so quite obviosly choose not to most of the time!

Does anyone have any advice please on including more? We have tried smoothies but DD has only really liked banana ones, and they don't seem to keep well at all.

Thanks, Claire

Pink.

Hi clarabella,

I'm lucky that mine will eat most fruit and veg. One good way of using fruit is to make smoothies. Making soups or adding finely chopped veg to bolognese sauce, casseroles, cottage pies etc is a good way of increasing veg intake.

These earlier threads may help:

Five portions a day?

Cheapest Way to Five a Day.

Any devious ideas for hiding veggies?

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

whitty999

My children have never been fussy eaters and have always eaten most things we use fresh veg nearly everyday and when i go shopping the fruit bowl is filled but only lasts a few days until it has gone.
Maybe add fruit in a bowl then let your child pick a piece when she feels like it.
An idea which i do is add carrots to mash boil together then mash together or add suede.
I give my children peas & sweetcorn with nearly every meal but at least that is a few portions.
I also make lots of casseroles where I add lots of different veg you could make extra to freeze.
Maybe carrots sliced with a dip for her to eat in the evening.

rach

how about doing some carrot/celery/cucumber sticks or sugar snap peas for the lunchboxes? If you chope these up they'll keep in the fridge in an airtight container or in water for a few days. This is how I boost my F&V intake - I have them for a snack at work, cherry tomatoes work well too.

I try and have 2/3 veg with most evening meals, frozen peas, sweetcorn or green beans are quick and easy. I use a microwave steamer sometimes and it really only takes a matter of minutes.

Will your dd not eat any fruit? how about grapes or raisins in her lunchbox?

I think it's just about getting into a routine with it to be honest.

mummysaver

You probably have more fruit and veg than you think, don't forget that things in meals also count, so peas, carrots etc in a cottage pie add up too. Another great thing for hiding veg is tomato sauce, make up a big batch with lots of other veg in it, onions, mushrooms, carrots, courgettes, peppers and blitz it, then freeze in marg tubs, great for pouring over pasta as a quick meal and very healthy, and ideal for adding to mince to make a quick bolognese full of extra veg.

As Rach says, it's prob just about getting into a routine, so try a piece of fruit at breakfast, or banana added to cereal, tinned fruit added to jelly for puds, veg in soups/meals as well as on the side, carrots/celery/peppers to munch as snacks.

Raisins are a good snack to keep to hand, my lot all eat them, they just chuck a handful in a little pot. In fact any dried fruit is great for snacks, especially in the car or walking along, just watch the sugar/calorie content!

Fruit juice also counts as part of your five a day too, so that can be a quick way to boost your intake.

So, perhaps a piece of fruit at breakfast time, a midmorning snack of dried/fresh fruit, salad/toms with your sarnie, extra veg already in a meal as well as on the side or a nice veg soup, a glass of juice and a pud that contains fruit (I do jelly as dd3 loves it for school, but she also eats vast amounts of yoghurt with fruit added too). All of these will up the amount you eat without making it too hard.

clarabella23

Sorry, she will eat fruit, it's me who doesn't like it! She won't eat much, but will have apples, bananas, pears and occasionally raisins, won't touch, strawberries, melon, etc. I try not to let her see that I'm not a fan of fruit, don't want to put her off it!

She won't eat peas, sweetcorn, tends to just like root veg. really. I am trying to give her things like carrot and swede mash, she tends to tell me it's delicious with the first bite then go off it with the next one!

She says she doesn't like 'crunchy' veg, such as carrot sticks, won't really entertain salad... I do put veg inside sauces but there only so many things you can hide in there!

Doe things like sweet potato and butternut squash count as a veg portion or are they a carb like normal potatoes?

mummysaver

I think butternut squash counts, but not sure about sweet potato?

You might just have to get sneaky! My eldest dd was funny about other veg added to mash, so I just used to add some red leicester as well - and blamed the colour on that!

Crunchy veg can be a fiddle to munch when kids want to do other stuff, I tend to do a big plate of carrot sticks, celery, peppers, mange tout, mini corn or whatever is in season, even cauli florets, and serve with some dips on a Friday evening in front of the telly - perhaps she'd eat them like that?

Also there's nothing wrong with melting a couple of squares of choc and offering that as a dip with pieces of fruit occasionally. And it's much better for your pocket that she prefers apples and bananas to melons and strawberries!

Don't underestimate the amount of veg you can hide in meals either, I have a friend who's boys believed they never ate veg for years! Obviously tom sauce full of veg that'd been pureed and soup snuck under their radar lol!

What sort of evening meals do you eat? Obviously it's easier to hide extra veg in sauces, lasagnes, bolognese etc.

If she eats a couple of pieces of fruit, has a glass of juice and a couple of veg then she'll be eating the minimum amount anyway, don't worry too much!

Magpye

I don't have kids, so not really qualified to advise, but I do wonder if you can use the advice given on Ellyn Satter's website (under How to Feed, or if you have problems yourself, How to Eat. Don't worry, she really is qualified, unlike a certain TV 'nutritionist'! )

ubamother

butternut squash is definitely one of your five a day. tinned tomatoes in sauces and pasta dishes count as well. If time is of the essence, pre-making casseroles, meat and veg sauces can be helpful. Also, my children would knowingly eat cardboard if it came in a cheese sauce!

I've never tried it, but I did hear that if you make yourself eat something you don't like every day for two weeks you'll lose your aversion to it - can't advise, but may be worth it if you really want to be sending good fruit vibes.

My son and I used to have a game where every week at the greengrocers he'd choose a fruit he'd never tried before - custard apples, star fruit etc. etc. Because he'd chosen the fruit, he wanted to try it. We also did that with veg, and even cheeses. He took it very seriously, like a science project, and loved it. Now he's nine he's only just realised I had ulterior motives and he thinks it's very funny that mum 'conned' him. But it worked and had a long term effect on his willingness to try new foods.

MrsE_2

We buy a pineapple, a mango, a melon, a few kiwis & green grapes and make a huge tropical fruit salad, which we bring to work in tupperware pots each day.
I usually do a pasta with some meat/cheese/egg & lots of chopped salad too.

Then we have our veg or salad in the evening with dinner too.

I usually bring a large orange or a couple of satsumas to work too & DH brings a couple of bananas.

We get our 10 a day:rotfl::rotfl: