Win a signed copy of "Giada at Home!"
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Monday, October 25, 2010
Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis was in Chicago last week and she hooked us up with a signed copy of Giada at Home, her latest cookbook. Its Italian-countryside-meets-California-coast recipes emphasize freshness, flavor and family - the book is full of photos of Giada, her husband, Todd, and their 2-year-old daughter, Jade.
Read our interview with Giada and learn her swear-by trick
for getting kids, including her own, to eat their vegetables.
To win, tell us how you get your kids to eat their veggies. The more creative, the better!
Congrats to our winner: Amanda W.
We're following up on our favorite tips for an upcoming story, so keep an eye out for an e-mail from us!
Our picks
VegetablesBy Rossana on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We mix them with pasta. Everything tastes good with pasta. |
sneaky veggiesBy tabitha eden on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Hiding purees have been the best way I have found so far... |
VeggiesBy John on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My wife bakes them in cookies and cakes. I couldn't believe they were dipping cookies made with chickpeas in milk! |
VegetablesBy Sterling on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We mix fresh fruits, such as strawberries and bananas and blueberries into our pancake batter, then top them off with more fresh fruit. |
VegetablesBy George on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We grow our own vegetables and we grow unique ones to make it interesting. We grew purple carrots and various pumpkins. It makes it fun for the kids. |
Let her have choicesBy Karen Porter on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My daughter certainly is not a fan of veggies but by giving her options and letting her ultimately choose the final one helps to make her a part of the decision making process and take away the “chore” feeling when she has to eat them. So for example Monday will be a choice of broccoli, corn or carrots. She will pick the one that she wants. A lot of times the same veggie is chosen by her BUT that is still ok if she has chosen her favorite at this early age. |
VeggiesBy Isabella on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I let her pick them out at the store, prepare them and then eat them. If she is involved, she tends to participate more in any activity, even eating veggies. |
VeggiesBy Georgene on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Keep repeating and trying them over and over. They will eventually acquire a taste for them. |
GiadaBy Marisa on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We eat our veggies with sauces and that helps alot. |
Getting kids to eat veggiesBy Mary Heffernan on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I try to get my son to eat veggies a few different ways - have him help me pick them out at the store, ask him to just try a little bit vs. a huge amount, and just keep serving them over and over so they become familiar. |
veggiesBy Jenny K on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We have always made veggies a regular part of our meals. She eats them because they are fresh and tasty and just a regular part of meals. In fact, brussell sprouts are her fave! |
Dressings seem to workBy Tammy on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My daughters love to dip and if I give them the great tasting dressing thew will dip and eat. They love to eat salads with my homemade italian dressing, I think they love the vinegar taste. |
we love our veggiesBy nikki on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I have my children who help me with dinner. We sit down and look at the list of items. Sometimes we decide to make a soup of our own creation. The soup has to have three to four veggies which works out for a wonderful tasty favorful soup. The soup often only lasts for that one night. |
veggiesBy danielle on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My husband says, " Oh, I can't have those? Mon only made them for you?!! Oh, geez you're lucky." This motivates my son to gobble whatever it is up! |
Giada at Home!By LUCIA on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My son loooves dinosaur trees (broccoli), boxes and balls (carrots and peas) in his chicken noodle soup and we're working on other veggies too. Green beans are just green beans! ;) |
My little helperBy Jasmine S on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I let my daughter help me prepare dinner. I then rave about what a great job she is doing and how good the food will taste when it's done. I never have a problem with her eating because she takes pride in the meal she helped prepare! |
Veggie SneaksBy Amanda W. on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My daughter flat out refuses to eat veggies. So every chance I get I sneak some into whatever we're eating. Such as when we've ordered pizza- I've slipped broccoli, corn, carrots, peas, cauliflower, and cabbage under the cheese and no one is the wiser. Sometimes I'll make cheeseburgers and do the same thing. I chop veggies into small pieces and put them in meatballs for spaghetti, into taco meat, in meatloaf, mixed in with rice and other sides- anything I can hide veggies in I do it. I mix some carrot juice with different fruit juices as well. As long as she doesn't see it, she'll eat it. |
CreativityBy Amy C. on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I like to use creativity to get the kids to eat their veggies. For example, I always say that broccoli is little trees. I also like to use ideas from Parents magazine where you can make faces on the plate, boats, cute scenes, etc., using fresh veggies and ranch dip or hummus. I'm lucky that my kids are good eaters and aren't scared of the veggies. |
Giada's bookBy Suzy on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My kids like all kinds of veggies, but they always like them with salt so after I steam them, I serve them plain and they get the salt shaker (with adult supervision) |
veggiesBy Brenda on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 no tricks. I put them on a plate or dish and they eat them all up. Sometimes they like a little sesame oil and oyster sauce if steamed or with ranch dressing if raw. |
Fun VeggiesBy Matthew on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 During dinner, we make shapes out of celery and carrots. It makes eating them fun!! |
VeggiesBy Alex on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We all love veggies with cheddar cheese melted on top! |
VeggiesBy Nick on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 The veggies lose their taste when we cook them, so I add a little teriyaki sauce. The kids like them with Chinese noodles! |
How to eat VeggiesBy PamK on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My son hates carrots. So we dip them in ranch dressing and he likes them better! |
VeggiesBy Wendy on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We have family fondue night and the kids love when we sit around the pot and dunk bit sized pieces of bread, veggies and meat into the cheese. Anything is better when it is dunked in cheese!! |
"Giada at Home!"By Dina on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Now that fall is here we've been making a lot of squash, but my 3 yo decided she doesn't like squash anymore. She loves pumpkin pie, so I put a little extra brown sugar on her acorn squash and told her it was the inside of pumpkin pie. She loved it! I didnt even need to put extra brown sugar on her second helping! |
VeggiesBy DJ on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Lately, I have been adding baby food to things like pancake mix. My daughter just loves sweet potato pancakes. |
BlenderBy Jill on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My child usually loves to eat veggies. But when we are fussy about it, I blend them into a shake with some juice and fruit. Works everytime, exspecially when you add a twisty straw. |
veggiesBy Angie on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I like to chop them up small or puree them and then sneak them into any meal or snack I can. |
We Love Salads!By LINA ANTAR on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 We have a salad bowl in the middle of the table everyday with our dinner. My kids eat salads and are learning to eat new vegetables that I add to make the salad different. |
VegetablesBy Phil on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Soups. Lots of soups. |
VeggiesBy Cheryl on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 Lots of sneaky chef-ing. Grind up and mix on with their regular goods and drinks. |
Well....By Renee Gawlak-Ghenciu on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 My son has always loved veggies. This post would be much more difficult if you asked me how I get him to eat meat. However, if we are having a somewhat picky eater day or week, I start to hide his veggies in foods he loves. I make sauces with all different kinds of veggies pureed in. My favorite trick is to mix them into desserts. I like to use fruit juices instead of oil in most of my dessert recipes, so sometimes I juice my veggies in our juicer and use carrots and sweet potatoes and bell peppers, etc. in my dessert recipes instead. Also I candy veggies and use them as little nuggets of veggies in my breads and cakes. Zucchini bread is also a fave at our house. |
Eat your VeggiesBy Krista on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I hide veggies in the meal. I put puree carrots and put them is sauces and I let them dip the veggies in salad dressing. We also grow a garden and they eat them right from there. |
Giada at HomeBy angie on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 I simply let them pick what vegetable they have to eat. |
Veggies
By Aracely Carrillo on Monday, November 15, 2010
I pureed all vegetables and then hide them in all the food I make. Kids love it! You have to make food fun, So one approach I use is I make monster vegetables and serve them w/different cheeses or dressing.