Page 42 - CFAN_Mar2014

Recipe Spotlight

Get Kids Eating with Florida-Inspired Cooking

by TRENT ROWE, Food Editor
A SLICE OF
RED, GREEN,

AND YELLOW
THE WAY KIDS FUSS OVER FOOD, it’s a wonder any of them grow up. We did. And so will our children.
PEPPER make a

But the stress is not on the youngsters, it’s the parents who suffer. He likes only chicken nuggets and bananas. She will eat stoplight you can
just mac and cheese from a box, and the only thing worth drinking is juice in a pouch. But we’re Florida. We have all kinds
fill with corn or
of foods to pique young interest. All it takes is one favorite to start to stretch the palate.
carrots or squash.

Start with color.

Tiny red tomatoes are finger foods that look like
candy. Try them very cold on a hot day or slightly warmed on a cold one. Broccoli flowerets look

like flowers. So do small pieces of cauliflower. Make a garden with the tomatoes and “flowers” on
bases of chicken nuggets. Tykes may eat the bases after the flowers are gone.

When you do add something new to the plate, do it with just one or two pieces and don’t make
a fuss if it doesn’t disappear. Do make a fuss about how good yours is, though.

Kids like rice in much of the world. If Though, obviously, I grew out of it
yours don’t, you can jazz it up with Florida later, I was a picky eater. No white milk.

orange juice instead of some of the water. Not much green stuff. One of Dad’s
Mix leftover orange rice with sugar, milk tricks was to make “igloos” out of mashed
easy rice pudding.
and eggs for potatoes. He would sink a pat of butter

Stud it with blueberries when they are in in the center and cover it. I had to eat
season. Add blueberries to oatmeal, too.
my way down to make the butter flow

out. Decorate and stuff your igloos with
carrots and broccoli. Corn works too.
Zucchini
makes great “boats” to hollow
Colored peppers are meals out and fill with meatloaf mixture and bake. So do

just waiting to be eaten. A slice of red, peppers and eggplant. Do some small ones that
green, and yellow make a stoplight you
won’t overwhelm the youngsters. Make the meat
can fill with corn or carrots or squash. Or mixture with a favorite spaghetti sauce and top the

chicken nuggets.
boat with more sauce.
Kids might be more inclined to eat You can sneak some grated zucchini into
FOR EASY RICE
their veggies if they have a choice. “Would Sloppy Joes and the kids won’t even know it’s PUDDING mix
you rather have carrots, green beans, or there. Florida strawberries are winners, even
leftover orange rice
asparagus for dinner?” The answer might when they come from the freezer. Try stud with sugar, milk
surprise you.
muffins (I never thought I could get that in a
and eggs.
food piece) with bits of berries. Do the same with
Florida head lettuce becomes
pancakes. Make thin pancakes or crepes and use
cups to fill with whatever you would like berries, cottage cheese, and yogurt as a filling,

the kids to try. Stir fry bean sprouts with with chocolate sauce on top.
just about anything you have—meat and You might even come up with a couple of ways

vegetables—add a dab of hoisin sauce to enjoy fruits and vegetables you didn’t like. ag
from the Oriental section of the market,

and roll the lettuce cups like a burrito.

42 | CFAN
FloridaAgNews.com