This week my nieces visited for a few days. I always try to give my sister a break plus I love being able to spend quality time with them. They are growing up so fast and I still want to get those 5 and 8 year old hugs before they disappear into teenage confusion. While the time we spend with them is fairly planned out with activities, I forget to put as much forethought into meals. I always try to involve them so that they will WANT to eat the plate full of green stuff! For some reason, they (mostly the oldest) do not like to eat vegetables.
So when I decided we would have a make your own pizza night, I considered it a success due to the ingredients I snuck into the crust and sauce. We also had a little competition for who could put the most veggies on their pizza.
After I baked the crusts and spread the sauce, I set out sliced mushrooms, bell peppers, squash, olives, canadian bacon, pepperoni, and shredded cheeses. I let them choose what they wanted and encouraged them to try new things. While they tasted the raw squash and bell peppers, they went with plain cheese and pepperoni despite my reminders about the most veggies contest! During dinner, we voted who had the most vegetables and (no surprise) I won; however, I told the girls everyone won because of the added vegetables in the sauce and that the crust was gluten free with green stuff. They devoured about half of their pizzas and saved the rest for lunch the next day. I think next time, I’ll try blending spinach and kale into the sauce for additional “veggie bonus”!
Basil Rosemary Pizza Crust
Carrot Squash Tomato Sauce
Eric Haltom says
August 22, 2012 at 12:49 pmI love this, as I am always trying to get my 4 year old to eat more veggies. I think I will try this out. I had him help me make dinner before mom got home one day and that definitely motivated him to be more open minded about the food on his plate. He absolutely loves pizza, so this is a definite shoe in. Thank you for the good post.