Hocus Pocus: Make Healthy Food Disappear

By Tiffany McAvoy

A couple of years ago, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with low iron, a condition marked by extreme fatigue.

The cure? A steady diet of green veggies, which was tricky because she doesn’t like leafy greens.

I researched ways to incorporate these foods into our meals. Almost every article I read focused on sneaking the greens into familiar foods.

This defeated my goal of helping my kids develop a healthy relationship with food.

I decided we would become magicians. She  would help me make the foods she didn’t like disappear.

She wore a cape and we used a magic wand when we made spinach disappear under cheese on pizza.

She was so excited to eat her “magic food” that she didn’t complain about the healthy foods at all.

Eventually, she got so used to knowing she was eating them, we could slowly incorporate them as sides. Now broccoli and spinach are two of her favorite foods.

Instead of “sneaking” healthy foods into your child’s meal, have them help you make them disappear. It will help them to be more open to trying new healthy food.

Here are some additional ways to make healthy food disappear:

• spinach layered in lasagna

• cauliflower for mashed “potatoes”

• zucchini bread

• chopped broccoli in paninis

Tiffany McAvoy is the mother to Tristan, 20, Abby, 13, and Tori, 9. She is an elementary school teacher in Madison County and writes about her family’s adventures with food on her blog wackyfoodwednesdays.com.