• Do you struggle day to day to try and find something your whole family will eat, all in the same meal?
• Don’t you wish that everyone you eat with liked the same foods?

Well, that may never happen…

However, there are secret ways to get your family to at least give these new healthy foods a try (sometimes without even knowing it!)

Try These 3 Easy Steps…
(Lisa’s Secret Methods)

You won’t want to miss these “tricks”…

My family is, well…picky. And they used to be even more so. Here’s how I got them to be more adventurous with their starches and grains, fruits, vegetables and protein foods.

• I started when the kids were young. They didn’t like broccoli and knowing how nutritious it was, I really wanted them to get it into their little bodies. One night I was making potatoes. Now, I knew they loved cheese (who doesn’t?), so I thought I’d make my version of a twice-baked potato. I pureed broccoli with a little milk and scooped out potato, mixed it with some seasoning and cheese and stuffed it back into the potato half. My kids loved it! They asked for “green potatoes” for years!

• When my kids were teenagers and were in that angry teen craze, we had a difficult time all sitting at the dinner table together. Half the time someone would end up in an emotional spiral and eventually not eating their dinner. It was tense and after a while it was apparent something had to change. Now, I know this isn’t the “recommended” way to eat together as a family, but I figured we would at least be eating together. So we decided we would sit in our living room around the coffee table. We would effortlessly chat together while everyone was getting their dinner onto their plate, getting set up on the tray tables and bustling around the kitchen. Then we’d sit and talk for a bit around the coffee table with the “carrot” being a movie after dinner. Well, that seemed to work much better! And, a benefit was, that by the time we got the “mood” lighting set, it was on the dark side. What does this matter you might ask? The meal was prepared with colorful accents to appease the eye. So, no one picked apart every ingredient during serve out. When everyone started eating, they couldn’t see exactly what they were eating, so they were bound by taste alone. And what this did my friends, was get them to enjoy the meal by what it actually tasted like and not by what they thought it was going to taste like. And since they didn’t know what “secret ingredients” were in their food, they didn’t have a preconceived idea of what it should taste like. At the end of the meal after everyone told me how good it was, I’d reveal what they’d eaten. Sometimes I’d give the ingredient more than one go -around in a meal before I’d reveal the secret, just to be sure they accepted it well.

• Often times I will put exotic ingredients on the shopping list. My husband, who does the shopping every week (I know, isn’t he a great guy?) will be curious and ask me what the ingredient is and what is will be used for. Later he will tell me his tales of grocery store antics where several of the staff are searching with him to find these ingredients. But what this does is create curiosity. When people are curious, they are more likely to try something. Another tactic I like to use is to have my children help prepare a meal with me. They get to explore the ingredients while they are working with them. This builds up curiosity and a sort of ownership to the meal. This in turn, creates the desire to try the end product…the meal itself with the new ingredients.

3 Methods…

• Cut the new ingredient up into small pieces or into shapes they will not recognize. For instance, puree them into a soup, mince them for a salad topping, julienne them for a stir fry.
• Set “mood” lighting. Turn down the lighting enough to eat but to create a nice atmosphere and allow your family to enjoy the meal without preconceived ideas of what they think the meal will taste like. They will be able to enjoy the meal for its true taste.
• Create curiosity. Use exotic ingredients that your family will ask about. Elicit the help of a family member when preparing the meal so it becomes something they are proud of and want to eat.

Use these 3 methods you can use to create healthy meals which include a variety of new nutrients your family will love (or at least they will try it).