Green Pancakes

                                                     (Pancakes with kale)

My 3 year old daughter does not crave vegetables like I had hoped. I fed her so well from the very start: introducing her to every vegetable I could get my hands on and severely limiting her sugar intake. I read that you set their taste buds between the age of 1 and 2, so one would think with this kind of discipline (and effort), she would be the perfect little eater - begging for more greens at every meal and requesting sweet peppers for dessert. This is not even close to the reality that I live. Most meals I have to threaten, bribe, or withhold the "good food" to get a small portion of vegetables into her.

I have, however, found a few ways to get veggies in without a fight. Green smoothies are a key way for everyone to get more greens in their diet, especially kids. Another way I have found is to make one of her favorite foods "more fun" by using veggies to turn it a different color.  Pancakes are an easy food to do this with. If she wants them green I use spinach or kale, if she wants orange I use carrots, and if she wants pink I use beets.

I have a high speed blender so I can throw the veggies in raw and they blend into the mix pretty easily. If you don't have a blender that can do this, you can steam them and then use a regular blender, a mixer or a food processor. 


I usually use the Trader Joe's Multi-Grain Pancake mix. It has relatively few ingredients and I can identify and pronounce each one, which is always a plus. It calls for eggs, milk (I use almond milk) and oil. I put all of these ingredients into the blender along with the vegetable of choice, blend them and then cook as directed on the stove top.

I have also found that she is more likely to eat a food if she has helped prepare it.

In addition to pancakes, I have used this method with eggs, pasta and pizza sauce, muffins, and even brownies.  Get creative and see what you can pull off. The kids (or husbands) don't have to know......