Kids and Veggies!

posted by: 

Lucy Costa, Retail Store Specialist 
 

 

“Yuck! I hate vegetables!” 

Sound familiar? As a parent, it can be stressful when your kids refuse to eat their veggies. But hang in there; this is all a normal part of them growing up, and it can take up to 10 to 15 tries for kids to learn to like a new food. So keep offering your children healthy foods like fruits and vegetables – summer is a great time to introduce new varieties when produce is fresh and easy to find

Try some of these creative ways of incorporating fruits and vegetables into your children’s diet:
·       Add chopped vegetables to omelets
·       Make vegetable or fruit kabobs
·       For a snack, cut up raw veggies to dunk in salad dressing, low-fat yogurt or hummus
·       Whip up a fruit smoothie using whole fruit, ice and low-fat yogurt

WIC now makes it even easier for you and your family to enjoy a wide variety of fruits and vegetables by allowing you to purchase them fresh, organic, canned, or frozen with your WIC checks.  And you can now pay the difference if you go over the full dollar amount of your fruit and vegetable check!

So hang in there and pretty soon that “yuck!” will turn to “yum!” as your kids learn to love the taste of fruits and veggies.

If you have any great ideas for introducing fruits and vegetables to your children, click on the comment link below. We would love to hear from you!

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Victoria]

Frozen Veggies do not really take long to cook.Mixed fzroen , like a California mix or a different type mix can be put into a non stick fry pan with very little oil or water and watched for 4 minutes to see if the texture is thawed and getting warm.If you do watch for the next four minutes and turn them gently they will steam cook, then cover with a lid and leave them for another few minutes.They taste very good, almost like fresh from the gardn vegetables.I like to season with powder chicken soup base depending how much you are heating up.about 1 level teaspoon base to 2 cups of vegetables. I sometimes start with onions sliced, and add shredded cabbage to the vegetables also.I precook the cabbage in the microwave for 7 minutes sprinkling a little lemon juice for flavour.Then I add the cabbage last to the veggies after they are steamed.

[Asad]

oh yes most defiintely, it is safe to eat! I do this all the time, I go to BJ's and buy a big bag, but lol i'm the only one eaintg them. They are fine, don't worry, lol I have done this a million times, and just cook them right and they will taste exquisit. Good Luck! <3

MassWIC Response: Agreed! Using frozen vegetables can be a money saver and a tasty solution to quick meal preparation!

[Elvin]

Depends on how cold your freezer is. The general rule of thumb for most home freezers is to keep food in the freezer no longer than 3 months. For a deep freezer, frozen food can last a year to several years.Most freezers attached to home refrigerators maintain a temp of 0 F to 20 F. A deep freezer can get down to -20 F or lower.Just so you know, frozen vegetables are not a hazardous food product like meat. Meat can spoil in the freeze; this is known as freezer burn. The 3 month rule just means that the vegetables MAY not taste as good as they did when you first bought them. They'll be fine and they will be perfectly safe to eat many months from now.

Mass WIC Response: Thank you for your comment! According to the US Department of Agriculture, food stored constantly at 0° F (whether in a home freezer or a deep freezer) will always be safe to eat. This is true for ALL foods, including meats. Freezer burn and keeping foods frozen for long periods of time will affect a food's quality, but not its safety. For more information, check out the USDA's tips on Freezing and Food Safety at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Focus_On_Freezing/index.asp.