Can’t Beet This
Okay having way too much fun with the beet puns over here. Literally making myself laugh while I am writing this post because of this! Alright let’s get right into it. You are probably thinking there is no way my kids will eat beets. You may not even eat beets. But give these tricks a try and you will be surprised. You know eating a variety of vegetables is good for you, but why beets specifically should we eat more of them?
I will tell you why!
Nutrition Facts
Beets are a root vegetable with tons of powerful health benefits. These benefits are critical in todays world because our society is not in good health. There is too much junk food, too much food, and not enough REAL good for you food in our diet. This is causing serious damage to the health our society, but what is more sad is our children.
What you probably don’t know is that I teach children (elementary and teen) cooking and nutrition classes. This is to instill the foundation for a life of wellbeing and health. The younger we get kids excited about, good food, and preparing foods the more likely they are to live a healthier life. This is why just having them participate and try something will lead them in the right direction of possibly liking a food they may not have otherwise.
Here are the 3 ways to get your kids to eat beets
1. Hide the vegetable. Beets are not like carrots, yams, or peas. They are a bit more difficult to get your kids to eat them. Heck maybe even yourself. So if we hide them in a recipe like the recipe below of White Bean Beet Hummus they won’t know. Plus they will probably think the color is super cool and bright. The creamy texture with serving of delicious Ancient Grain chips they won’t know they are eating beets.
2. Make them crispy and turn them into chips. Everyone loves something crunchy and a beet chip is so delicious! They are crispy with they natural sugars at the forefront and a pinch of salt on top what is not to love about that. If your kids aren’t into the idea straight off the bat give them half regular chips and half beet chips. Mix them together, compromise, and meet the kids half way. Dip the beet chips into a homemade ranch sauce and it makes for a great healthy snack.
3. Fruit is natures candy and the beautiful sweetness that is fruit can really trick kids into liking certain foods. In this case beets. Blend red fruits like cherries, strawberries, and raspberries with milk, non-dairy milk, or yogurt and add in a half a beet to increase the color and boost up the fiber and nutrients. Toss in a frozen banana to make a nice cream and your kids won’t know at all!
Beet Hummus
Ingredients
- 1 can No Sodium Cannelini Beans rinsed and drained
- 1 TBLS Tahini
- 3 TBLS Olive Oil More if you are looking for a creamy texture
- 4 Roasted Beets I recommend purchasing the already roasted packaged ones to save time
- 1/3 cup Sun dried tomatoes chopped
- 1 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1/2 Garlic clove optional
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds for garnish
Instructions
- 1. Place all the ingredients except the sesame seeds into a food processor. Turn the food processor on and blend until creamy and smooth. 2. Garnish the white bean beet hummus with sesame seeds and serve.
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