As many moms know, getting your kids, or in my case husband, to eat veggies is next to impossible. So I have figured out several methods for sneaking in that vegetable in some pretty creative ways. And in this case the freezer is your best friend. I mentioned in my last post's recipe that I hide spinach or squash in the meal. Here is how I use them and how I figured out how to use them.
When my first child was born I went out and bought all of the name brand expensive baby food items. I didn't know what I was doing and figured that Gerber knew better than me, so I let them tell me how to feed my child. What I didn't realize at the time, was not only is their food expensive it is also a tad bland. So when I had my second child, I researched making my own baby food. And I did, I made every meal my son ever ate. It was so simple, steam/bake/boil whatever fruit or veggie, puree, and then freeze for later. It was so easy. Plus once you knew they had no allergies you could mix items and even add spices and meat to your food, making it a lot more enjoyable and flavorful for baby. My second born is a much better eater than my first, my first is very picky.
So that is how I discovered how to sneak in veggies and here is what I do with them. You can use any veggie or fruit that you like but I find squash, zucchini and spinach the easiest to hide.
SQUASH-
Because preparing squash can take a while I prefer to prepare mine and freeze it for when I need it.
Buy your squash fresh from the store, usually for under a dollar a pound. When you get home, cut it in half vertically. Then lay down in a shallow pan of water, just enough water so that the squash is surrounded on the bottom. Then put in oven at 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, depending on how big your squash is. Once done, carefully scoop out all of the insides and put in a blender. You can discard the hard peel, be careful with hot squash, it can burn you easily. Then blend until it's a nice thick applesauce type consistency. (if you are making it for baby food or like things a bit spicier, you can add spices at this point, my son loved it with a bit of thyme and rosemary, he also liked it when I blended it with cooked sausage)
At this point I take a clean ice tray and pour the squash into the individual ice cube squares. Cover it with foil, mark what it is and the date and put into the freezer for 24 hours. You can leave it in the ice tray and pull out as needed or you can pull all of them out the next day and put into a ziplock bag with the date and what it is written on the outside. I tend to do this because it saves space and you can then reuse the ice tray for other things. Food is usually good for about 3 months. You can then pull out an ice cube or two and heat up in whatever dish you are preparing as you need it. (if using as baby food, about 40 seconds in a microwave will warm it up enough to stir and serve immediately to baby.)
ZUCCHINI-
Follow the same freezing procedure as before, but instead of baking zucchini, steam it. Put zucchini in a colander over a pot of boiling water until soft. Then blend. Zucchini is a very thin watery mix when blended, so if you are making as baby food it works better if blended with other fruits, veggies or baby rice for a thicker consistency. However, make sure baby is not allergic first. Works well to hide it in food as well. It is a bit harder to freeze because it is so thin, so you might want to leave in for 48 hours before transferring to a bag.
SPINACH-
You can steam, blend and freeze spinach as well and mix it in, works really well for babies, but I'd hold off on that one until baby is a bit older because it can constipate a bit. However, with older children, I find it much simpler to just keep a bag of spinach in the freezer, pull out as needed and fry it up with whatever ground meat meal I am preparing. It mixes in well and takes on the flavor of surrounding food.
Have fun hiding those veggies, your kids will search and search and most likely never know that there is a a veggie on their dinner plate.
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