It’s also insane that parents expect to their children to eat vegetables when they themselves are not demonstrating that behavior. The strongest teaching is going to happen by example, not by a suggestion that seems to contradict reality!

We honestly learned how to roast Kale from a Martha Stewart magazine. I simply LOVE roasted vegetables, and kale is by far my favorite. No one I’ve fed roasted kale to has ever complained. Yes I know steamed kale would be healthier, but roasted kale is a big hit with people of any palette. My father was hesitant at first probably due to the dark green color, and almost refused to eat it. As soon as he finished his first bite, he was ready to clean off the whole pan.

Our kids are 3 and 5 and they eat a heck of a lot more than 2 oz. of vegetables a day. They don’t eat a lot of food, given their age, but they get veggies in every meal, as a major part of the meal. It’s not always easy, of course. Sometimes it seems like they don’t want to eat anything but brown rice. But we just keep providing other foods, gently encouraging them, experimenting a lot, and in the end, they get quite a few vegetables every day.

Experimentation is really key. Leafy greens can be quite a challenge for kids because they may taste bitter, which is unfortunate since they’re one of our most important foods. We discovered that roasting kale for 10 minutes after tossing it with olive oil and nutritional yeast makes an amazing snack that’s hard to stop eating for all of us. My kids like raw carrots much better than cooked, chopped romaine and cabbage much better than baby greens or arugula, and they’ll eat just about any vegetable fermented. We know this about them because we just keep trying. If we just gave up whenever they refused a new food, or came at it with the attitude of, “I hated this when I was your age, and you probably won’t like it either,” then we’re really setting them up for problems, and we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Many people assume that if my kids eat vegetables, it’s just because they’re not picky eaters. Actually, my daughter is a very picky eater. She would definitely be one of those kids who only eat white food (milk, rice, flour, sugar, potatoes, etc.), if she had the chance. But it’s up to us to provide her with better options and steer her away from those addictions. It might be easier to feed a child nothing but white food supplemented with the occasional Goldfish binge, but it’s definitely not better.