I once read that restaurants sell more vegetarian entrees if they don’t call them “vegetarian.” Apparently, most non-vegetarians assume that anything in the vegetarian section of the menu is for “other people,” not omnivores like them, so they don’t even bother to look.
My husband definitely falls into that category. If I tried to start a Meatless Monday tradition, he would mentally relabel it Miserable Monday, and count the hours until Tuesday. If I ever do cook a vegetarian meal, I sure as heck don’t call it that. I call it what it is: a frittata, or manicotti, or yellow split pea soup with dumplings (my kids are suckers for anything with dumplings). Sometimes he enjoys the dish so much that he doesn’t notice there’s no meat in it.
Stealthy Grains
One mom I know calls this “health by stealth”–cooking healthier food in ways your family doesn’t notice. The simplest way to do this is to make a change that is virtually invisible. My kids don’t like whole wheat pasta, but they willingly eat “white fiber” pasta (made with oat flour so it is higher in fiber than regular pasta but still has a mild flavor). I haven’t found white fiber orzo yet, so when I cook orzo dishes I fill a third of my measuring cup with whole wheat orzo. As long as most of the orzo is regular pasta, nobody notices the healthier orzo adding some extra nutrients to our dinner.
White whole wheat flour (which you can find at Trader Joe’s and most grocery stores) is another way to subtly add more nutrients to familiar foods. It’s made from a lighter-colored strain of wheat than regular whole wheat flour, and it has both a milder flavor and lighter texture. When I bake bread I use roughly half all-purpose flour and half white whole wheat flour. I also replace 1/4 to 1/3 of all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour flour when I make cookies, muffins, and even some cakes. I’m not kidding myself that a frosted cake is suddenly healthy because it has a little extra fiber, but every little bit helps. 🙂
Quinoa, the Invisible Superfood
Quinoa is another great ingredient for improving healthy by stealth. It’s a mild grain that’s kind of a cross between rice and couscous, and it is incredibly high in protein, fiber, iron, and lots of other nutrients. When I make soup, I usually toss in a quarter cup of quinoa because soup has so many other sizes and textures going on that nobody is going to notice a few dozen granules of supergrain goodness in their bowl.
Since quinoa cooks in the same amount of time as white rice (which really doesn’t have much to offer your body other than calories) I always replace a third of my uncooked rice with uncooked quinoa when I cook it on the stovetop. The first time I did it, one of my kids asked why the rice looked different. I explained that I added quinoa, which is better for you but tastes the same as rice. Sure enough, the flavor was the same, and the regular rice still provided a texture they were familiar with, so everyone ate their quinoa-rice and no one ever commented about it again.
Stealthy Veggies
As far as vegetables go, health by stealth can mean chopping them up small so they are less noticeable, or so they get stuck in the nooks and crannies of rotini pasta. When a recipe contains a vegetable some of my kids might not be thrilled about, I often chop part of that veggie up very small so they’re likely to try some without even realizing it. It’s a sneaky way to up their vitamin intake, but it also gets them more accustomed to the vegetable’s flavor so they’ll be more likely to try it and like it in the future.
If you stealthily add something healthy to a recipe and get no complaints, you might want to gradually increase the amount to see how much more nourishing you can make it before anyone notices. I know of a dad who wanted to make his spaghetti recipe healthier by adding some beans. The first time he added one bean to the spaghetti sauce for each person in his family. Nobody noticed, so the next time he added two beans per person. He kept going until one night his son suddenly glanced down at his plate and asked, “Are we the only family who puts beans in their spaghetti sauce?” Then his dad knew he’d gone over the limit.
Want more ideas to get kids eating healthier? Check out the rest of the posts in this Adventurous Eater series:
7 Ways to Get Kids Eating Healthier (the intro to this series)
