Hidden nutrition

One of my favorite kitchen appliances is this little, KitchenAid dicer. 

I LOVE it!

I have kids who often whine about vegetables in meals ("Mom, why did you put salad on my taco?") and while I don't give in and let them not eat said vegetable, I sometimes try to remove the inevitable headache by hiding my vegetables in foods. 

I know there may be people out there saying, "This is ridiculous.  Put the veggies out where everyone can see and then let the kids slowly learn that they like them after all.  Why indulge their ridiculous behavior?"  I am not saying you are wrong.  What I AM saying is that I have kids who are afraid of food and often decide that they don't like something before tasting it and no amount of "yummy" can convince them otherwise.  This is the solution that works for me and my family, if something else works better for you, more power to you.  Hopefully in time our veggies will be able to come out of hiding and come face to face with our dinner plate, but that's not the case right now.

So, I use this little number to chop things to tiny bits and then I mix them into foods.  On this particular night I chopped up the "salad" and mix it into my hamburger meat for tacos.  It doesn't disappear but no one wants tacos without meat so we get through with much less whining.

I have also been known to stir chopped spinach into spaghetti sauce, diced peppers into barbecue chicken, cubed cauliflower into casseroles, sliced asparagus into fried rice...you name it.  I try to maneuver vegetables into the main course of every meal if I can find a way -- even if I have to disguise them.

Aren't my kids surprised when I tell them my secret ingredient of a dish they relish is something that started in a garden.  I just love that.