How do you get your toddler to eat more vegetables?
This was not a question I thought I’d be asking. Having followed Arthur’s lead on weaning, a year ago he would happily tuck into courgette, mushroom, sweet potato, broccoli – pretty much everything, in fact, that we put in front of him. In the back of my mind I knew it was too good to be true.
Nowadays cucumber is the only thing we can be sure of. And potatoes, but I don’t think they count. He normally likes peas and sweetcorn, and will go for a carrot stick on a good day. But that’s it!
So I am always on the lookout for new ideas to persuade him that actually vegetables are pretty delicious. Having had lots of fun with bluenana muffins last week something that would involve him in the whole culinary creative process was even more appealing. So when I came across the idea of omelette muffins I knew I had to give it a go.
Veg, cheese and eggs. All put together in a cupcake tin and forgotten about whilst it cooks. What’s not to love?
Arthur was intrigued by the smorgasbord of ingredients put in front of him, and was super keen to get involved with the liberal sprinkling into the (well-greased) tins.
Once we’d we’d exhausted our supply of fillings, it was time for eggs. That was even more exciting – Arthur loved having a go at cracking them against the jug, and then mixing them up ready to pour.
Once the pan was topped up with eggs, they went into the oven. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from these super-healthy, super-paleo muffins, but they looked amazing once they’d done their time.
And they tasted pretty awesome too! But before I get into that here’s the recipe in case you want to have a go…
Super healthy omelette muffins
One of the brilliant things about this recipe is that the flavour possibilities are almost endless. What follows is what worked for me, but feel free to mix it up with whatever you’ve got to hand!
You will need:
12 hole cupcake/muffin tin
Ingredients:
Finely chopped:
Half a red onion
Half a courgette
3 mushrooms
Half a red pepper
Small handful chives
Cheese to taste
9 eggs
Splash of water
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for greasing
Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 c
2) Grease the cupcake tin liberally with olive oil
3) Evenly distribute the vegetables and cheese amongst the tins
4) Whisk together the eggs with a splash of water
5) Pour egg mixture into tins
6) Place tins in hot oven for 20 mins, or until raised and lightly browned
7) Allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out to serve
This is is the perfect lunch for toddlers and adults alike, working just as well with carrot sticks on the side or on top of a dressed leafy salad.
They also provided the perfect snack for my husband to keep his brain going in the run up to his medical school finals, and worked just as well cold the next day.
All in all, for someone who loves eggs but finds conventional omelettes a bit of a chore, these were a revelation.
But…
Arthur wasn’t entirely convinced.
He observed and poked and prodded and nibbled, but not an awful lot was actually ingested.
So the quest for veg to please the toddler is still ongoing.
These have definitely made it onto my regular lunch list (sorry kiddo), but if you have any other suggestions for ways to get Arthur to eat more vegetables then please share them below!
Sophie is... 
I’m going to try this on my boys! They stay away from vegetables like it’s poisonous!
Very good way of sneaking in veg hon. My girls love helping in the kitchen too – I think teaching them about food and letting them help prepare it is a very good foundation for the future xx
Hi Sophie, they look gorgeous, but all toddlers seem to go through this stage. Suddenly they are compalining about ‘bits’ in their food. My six year old still picks out onion – it drives me insane! Try grating the courgette into your omelette and it disguises it. I have also made a vegetable soup and blended it, then added little pasta. You can either have it as pasta soup, or use it as a pasta sauce. Mine doesn’t have tomatoes, but it has butternut, so it’s nice and sweet. But carry on adding veg to the plate as well as disguising it, so he gets used to seeing it. Does he like houmous? My son would eat most things if he could dip it in some houmous!
Great recipe! Engaging children in cooking their meals definitely helps. I promote children growing the herbs too as this often encourages fussy eaters to eat dishes with them in. It would be great if you could upload this recipe to my site! Thanks for sharing # TheList
I make lots of ‘sauce’ which has about 12 veg in – they all love it with pasta etc. I like the look of these, I am going to try these #TheList
Hi,
My son has gone on a similar path – first eating a wide variety of veg, then just broccoli, and now hardly any. Here’s something he will eat though… grated carrot and courgette mixed with sausage meat and rolled into balls, served with a hidden veg pasta sauce et voila! Barely discernible vegetables being consumed left right and centre. The rest of the week we are back to fish fingers. Hope it works for you. Jet will eat something similar to your egg muffins above – we call them eggy bite-lets because we are odd like that. He likes making them, but actually eating them is a hit and miss affair.
#thelist
x Alice
These look great, I might try them with Baby and she is so fussy! Thanks so much for linking up to #TheList x