I just "Sneaky Chef"-ed butternut squash & carrots into my daughter's beans & rice at lunch, and celery, carrots, zucchini, & spinach into her meatballs at dinner.
Mom:1 vs. Toddler who thinks she doesn't like veggies: ZEE-RO!
My 'Sneaky Chef' inspired meatballs:
1 lb of lean ground beef (you could also use ground turkey)
1/2 onion finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
generous shaking of salt/ pepper/ garlic powder
1 carrot finely shredded
1 small zucchini finely shredded
1 generous handful fresh spinach (could have done 2, it cooked down a lot), chopped finely, then steamed until wilted, then I pressed moisture out in fine mesh sieve
1 egg
1 generous *dumping* oat flour (ground up oatmeal) -- to feel, so that everything sticks together, and is not soggy... (sorry, I didn't measure it)
Mix it all together with your hands until its good and distributed, make into small meatballs (I use a melon baller for scooping), put on rimmed pan lined with parchment paper, bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, or until they are cooked through, and browned on the outside (I had to break one open to make sure they were done).
I'm finding the key to mixing veggies into stuff is make sure everything is finely diced/ shredded, and all about the same size... if any one thing is bigger than the rest, she pulls it out. I served these with steamed broccoli, a sprouted rice/ quinoa blend, and beef gravy. She gobbled it all up!
