Tips to Introducing New Vege to Little One

Does your little one eats leafy veges? Not mine, they have difficulty chewing the fibers, while my 4 years old eats more variety of veges, my younger is very much confined to root veges or beans, like carrots, broccoli, cauliflowes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potatoes, sweet peas, French beans, corns, asparagus. All the leaf-less veges!

However, I'm determined to introduce more greens into their daily diet at young age. So here's my first attempt with Kai Lan.

Kai Lan (芥兰), also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, has high vitamin C, K and also a good source of acid folic. It is also one of my favorite vegetables. To make my duo accept this leafy vege, I stir fry the baby Kai Lan with mushroom, carrots and chicken cutlets, then cut the Kai Lan into small circular shapes before serving to my duo.

See the Froggiee face in the rice? My boy said it's an alien. Whatever, they ate it without any complain. *wink* My little girl just popped every pieces into her mouth and emptied the plate. Well, except the mushrooms. They still don't like mushrooms. *sigh*

Food art is one good way of introducing new food to the little ones by blending it into the art. They will not even noticed there is something alien on the plate!

This is the portion for big guy and me. Quite a lot, I know. I mentioned I like Kai Lan, didn't I? :)

Next, I will use the same method to introduce other leafy vege to my duo, like Pak Choy, Choy Sum, which are currently growing in my garden (finger crossed they can survive the rainy weather.). Besides, you can also add the vegetables cutlets into fried rice, extra nutrition and nice color blend.

Here's the Kai Lan fried rice served with honey glazed chicken drumstick, they chomped down the fried rice without realizing I've added vege in there. 

Recipe for the chicken drumstick is available here http://food4littleones.blogspot.com/2012/06/honey-roast-whole-chicken-thigh.html

No recipe sharing for the Kai Lan as this is just a simple stir fry dish. However if you would like to know the method, do drop me a comment and I'm happy to share (when my duo would leave me alone..)

Lastly, when doing grocery shoppig with your little ones, do take the chance to introduce the vege to them; read the name aloud and let them touch, carry or weigh the vege, it helps them to understand what they eat and have a sense of involvement. This is all part of the learning experience in their growing years.

That's all peeps. Have a great Monday!