Eat your cheese & carrots!

I have a hard time getting my kids to eat carrots. It baffles me, because out of all the veggies, carrots are so yummy & naturally sweet. 

Today I came up with a really simple, fast way to sneak some carrots into one of the kid's favorite foods:

Shredded Carrot & Turkey Quesadillas

All you need are two flour tortillas (wheat would make an even heartier version!), your favorite reduced fat shredded cheese with a shredded carrot mixed in, and thinly sliced turkey.
Slap it all together & cook on your griddle until cheese has melted (no oil necessary beyond a light spray of Pam or something similar).
Two of my kids didn't even notice there was anything different about their lunch, and the one who did notice said it was "the best quesadilla ever, Mommy!".

I know that hiding veggies isn't the optimum in getting kids to learn to try new things, but they do say that it takes several times for a child to like a new food. So why not hide it if you have a particularly picky eater?
Then after they've eaten the new food a few times you can start offering it alone, reminding them how much they liked it in other dishes. It could work! Try it!

These are my favorite kinds of tricks-
ones that require almost no extra effort,
add essential vitamins, and
<-----see that little smile?
Everybody's happy :)

Sneaky Pizza

What kid doesn't like pizza? I can't think of any.  Why not try making your own pizza from scratch instead of having those cardboard frozen kind that are filled with preservatives?
It's really easy to whip up a pizza dough.
There are only 5 ingredients*:
2 1/2 C Flour
1 C water
Packet of yeast
1/2 t salt
2 T olive oil

-Mix 1/2 the flour with the rest of your ingredients for 3 mins on medium speed
-Knead in the rest of the flour for about 5 minutes, then separate the dough into 2 halves, cover in your bowl & let rise for 10 minutes.
-After that, you just role it out to desired thickness, roll up the edges of your crust & poke the dough with a fork for ventilation.
-Bake in a 425 degree oven (top rack) for 8mins minutes then add whatever toppings you'd like & bake for another 8-10 mins.

For the sauce, try mixing some cooked spinach into your tomato base- it's LOADED with vitamins and is a powerhouse for calcium. The kids will not even notice, I swear!
I find that the kids are more likely to eat it without a second glance if they can't really SEE the veggies.
Since it takes kids about 10 tries of any new food before they will voluntarily eat it, I generally reserve telling them what's in the sauce until after they've raved about how good it is.
If you are lucky & have kids that love to eat veggies, throw some diced zucchini & carrots in the sauce.
I add a bit of garlic salt, onion powder, oregano & cumin to my sauce and voila! Better than store-bought.
Top with anything you like, but please for the love of Maude, forego the greasy meats.

I was able to whip up 2 pizzas using the recipe above in about 30mins from start to table.
My 2 yr old ate 4 mini pieces of pizza, so I'd say that's not too shabby!

Let me know if you make homemade pizza, I'd love to see how creative you get & what your personal touches are.

*this is the most very basic pizza recipe that anybody could make regardless of skill or experience