7 Sneaky Ingredient Ideas To Make Your Child’s Food and Drinks More Nutritious

7 Sneaky Ingredient Ideas
To Make Your Child’s Food and Drinks More Nutritious

When you have a picky eater, getting them to eat nutritiously can be a challenge. One of the best ways to make sure your picky eater stays healthy is by using sneaky ingredient ideas for hiding healthy items into your child’s food and drinks.

Need some sneaky ideas to make your child’s meals and drinks more nutritious? Here are 7 sneaky ingredient ideas to sneak in your child’s food and drinks, without them knowing!

7 Sneaky Ingredient Ideas
To Make Your Child’s Food and Drinks More Nutritious

Chia Seeds:

Chia seeds are a great source of Omega-3 fatty oils, fiber, and antioxidants. They are tasteless, and if added to a wet substance, they become like gelatin.

A great way to sneak chia seeds in your child’s breakfast is in smoothies, oatmeal, or toast with jelly. In fact, there are jelly products in most grocery stores that already contain chia seeds. If your child see’s it come from the can, they’ll think it’s just a new flavor.

Spirulina:

Spirulina is a superfood and a source of complete protein, this supplement is perfect to add to your child’s smoothies or to make into a breakfast yogurt bowl.

Children Love To Imagine:

Create a theme for breakfast, have them dress in green clothing, read a book where green is prominent, and tell them that the color of the day is green, and that breakfast is going to reflect that. Your child will think, “cool, mom added green dye to my yogurt today”. Sneaky, sneaky mom! Be sure to add extra flavors to balance out the spirulina taste. Such as bananas, granola, or your child’s favorite add-ins.

Spinach:

Most adults love spinach for its versatility, you can eat is raw, cooked, or add it to smoothies.

I believe we can all agree, it’s hard to mask the deep green color of spinach. But when you put a small amount of spinach or spinach powder in a berry-rich smoothie, the reds of the berries do a great job at masking the green!

Whole Grains:

We all love white bread and pasta, but research has shown that it’s not the best for us. Whole grains are healthier for your child.

Some ways to add whole grains is through your child’s favorite meals. Change your pasta to wheat and your flour to wheat for pancakes and muffins. Make a batch of oatmeal cookies, which is a great way to add in additional ingredients, such as wheat germ or flax seed. Use brown rice instead of white too.

Thankfully, there are many options today to substitute our favorite breads for a healthier choice. Even bagels and English muffins have healthier options now.

Pureed Vegetables:

Whether you puree vegetables yourself or buy canned baby food, one of the easiest ways to sneak in vegetables to your child’s meal is by adding pureed ingredients.

Adding pureed carrots to your brownies, macaroni and cheese, or meatloaf is a brilliant idea to add in vitamin A and antioxidants. Pureed cauliflower will blend in well with mashed potatoes or your alfredo sauce. You may want to check out my recipe for Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies.

Bone Broth Powders:

If your child seems to suffer from digestive issues, adding bone broth powders will help tremendously.

Bone broth powders come in different flavors, even chocolate! Make it warm and present it like hot chocolate. I dare say a few marshmallows is a well-deserved treat for this delicious protein-packed drink.

Sneaking in healthy ingredients to your child’s food is a great way to keep them healthy and active. Do you have any more sneaky ingredient ideas to sneak in healthy ingredients to a picky child’s food? If so, we’d love to hear more about it in the comments section below.

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