veggie tales

Do you have a kid who likes to eat vegetables? If so, I'm jealous. I used to have a kid who liked to eat her vegetables. Now, I have a kid who would be quite happy having avocado, toast, mandarin oranges, and Cheerio's for every single meal, thankyouverymuch.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Natalie eats well, and is open to a pretty varied diet when it comes to fruit, dairy, protein, and carbs. But veggies? Uh-uh. No way. Not interested. They end up on the floor or in her hair before there's any chance of them making it to her mouth. Shy about her preferences, she is not.

I've been trying to get creative with how we get vegetables into her, thanks to suggestions from some other mommies. I've gone back to the marathon baby-food-puree-making days, doing fruit and veggie combinations so I can trick Natalie into eating them when I mix them with her yogurt or cottage cheese. Carrot-apple, green bean-pear, and squash-peach have been pretty successful combinations that have pretty consistently made their way from spoon to mouth to belly (as opposed to: spoon to wall; spoon to hair; spoon to Mama's face; spoon to mouth to hand; spoon to mouth to.... you get the idea).

I also made squash muffins a couple of weeks ago that were a big hit--Natalie devoured them. I have to try my hand at some other sneaky baked goods this weekend!

Mama Ty suggested quiche or veggie-egg scrambles, which struck me as BRILLIANT, yet simple enough that I felt like an idiot for not thinking of it myself. I've also been able to sneak some organic tomato sauce and spinach into the baby diet along with the whole wheat pasta that Natalie likes to shovel into her mouth by the fistful. She seems distracted enough by the starchy goodness of the elbow noodles that she doesn't notice the green bits hanging from her mouth and fingers.

Other than that, I'm a bit stumped. I guess this may just be part of toddlerhood, but I'm sad to see my once completely unabashedly adventurous eater become even just a little bit picky. I'm looking for other vegetable solutions--what veggies do your kids love? Any interesting ways of whipping of meals that have some green stuff hidden inside? Share, please!