Getting kids to eat vegetables- the easy way!

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Last Updated on November 18, 2023 by theosteomum

Getting kids to eat vegetables .

The eternal struggle of parents worldwide.

Does the sight of anything green have them running for the hills?

Well have I got a pleasant surprise for you!

This recipe is a saviour in our house.

My kids LOVE these “green chippies”.

And when I say LOVE, I mean LOVE. They fight over who gets more, and literally lick the bowl clean.

Don’t believe me? Here’s proof!

A brilliant idea to get your kids to eat more vegetables!

The idea behind this recipe is not mine. I have to give full credit to whichever genius thought to serve up an otherwise unpalatable (in my kids’ mind, anyway) veggie in such a fun, crispy way. I’ve cooked these soooo many times, and finally come up with what I think is the best version of this recipe.

I have tried many different variations of this from recipes I’ve found online. Some took forever to cook, as the oven temperature was just too low, and others seemed to have the temperature too high, as we’d go from soggy leaves to bitter, burnt ones before you could say “green chippies”.

I’m always looking for new ways of getting my kids to eat vegetables.

Getting kids to eat vegetables- the struggle is real!

A study released in 2018 found that a whopping 99% of Australian children aged 2-18 years old do not eat enough vegetables. Whilst I’m not claiming that my children are actually part of the 1% who do, I sincerely try to make this happen when I can. I honestly believe it is our responsibility to both role model and provide healthy life choices for our children, and eating enough fruit and vegetables is just one part of this.

Are there days when their diet is wayyyy more “white” than green? Absolutely.

I run a bricks-and-mortar business as well as this blog, and it’s not unusual for me to get home well into the evenings. So it’s not always easy or even practical to make this happen, but I really do try where I can. It’s all about balance.

Some tricks I use to get my kids to eat vegetables:

Sometimes my kids are happy to eat their veggies raw and/or whole, such as chomping on a carrot or cucumber as a snack. We try to role model the things we’d like them to eat, and continue to have them available at meal or snack times, even if they’re not quite ready to eat them yet.

Other times, though, I still need to be a little clever if I want to get my kids to eat vegetables.

Sometimes I’ll finely dice vegetables and put them into recipes that wouldn’t traditionally include them, such as including diced carrots, celery, zucchini and mushrooms into my bolognese sauce (much to the disgust of my Italian-decended husband who thinks this a form of blasphemy!).

Sometimes I’ll take an otherwise “boring” vegetable and try to jazz it up some other way. This recipe is a classic example of this!

How this recipe will help with getting your kids to eat vegetables:

Labelling these “green chippies” seems to make them more fun for my kids, as they’re not used to having “chips” or “crisps” all that often, so for now at least they’ll take these!

These “chips” really do crisp up in a delicious, flaky way.

Seasoning them with sea salt and paprika gives them a delicious flavour, so much so that it’s just a bonus that they’re also healthy!

What’s so good about Kale anyway?

Kale is a nutritional powerhouse of vitamins and minerals.

It is packed with:

Vitamin A- essential for healthy vision, as well as the growth and development of organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys;
Vitamine K- essential for normal blood clotting and plays a role in healthy bone growth;
Vitamin B6- vital to many bodily functions, and especially important for proper cognitive development in growing children;
Vitamin C- an essential component of connective tissue, which plays a vital role in wound healing, and also proper immune system function;
Calcium- required for normal function of the blood vessels, muscle and nerve function, as well as healthy bones;
Potassium- required in almost every bodily function, such as heart and kidney function, muscle contraction and nerve transmission;
Copper- important in energy production, connective tissue and blood vessels;
Manganese- involved in energy production, protection against cellular damage and plays a role in the immune system.

So you can see what a true powerhouse kale is- look at what a punch each serve packs!!!

How I prepare these “green chippies”:

I make up a batch of these every few weeks or so when I feel like my kid’s diets need a bit of a boost. Every time I make them, they ask when we can make them again, so that makes them a winner in my book!

These “green chippies” are best eaten within a couple of hours of being cooked. I have stored them in an airtight container before, but they do tend to lose some of their crispness fairly quickly. This dramatically reduces their fun-factor- nobody likes a soggy chip.

We like to have them as a morning or afternoon snack on the days that we’re home. Wouldn’t recommend making them as a lunchbox snack, as they just don’t stay crispy long enough to go the distance. Unless you’re perhaps some sort of superhero who’d to make this in the morning before school! I most definitely am not.

We’ve only got a fairly small oven, which means I have to cook a typical bunch of kale in 2-3 batches. Even though each batch only needs to stay in the oven for around 11 minutes, they’ve usually demolished each batch before the next one is ready.

Give it a try:

Even if your kids usually resist eating their vegetables, I urge you to give these a try- they may surprise you! At this stage, there is NO WAY my kids would eat kale if I cooked it any other way, so for me it’s a real win that I’ve found another way to get a green leafy veggie into them.

I’d love to hear what your kids think!

Recipe: Kale Chips – a.k.a. “Green Chippies”

Ingredients:

1 bunch curly leaf kale leaves torn from hard stems, washed and spun dry (try this salad spinner). Olive oil spray

Pink sea Salt flakes (these salt flakes are gorgeous Australian ones from underground salt water)

Paprika

Method:

Preheat oven to 125 degrees Celsius (257 degrees Fahrenheit).
Line a baking tray with baking paper or a Silpat (like this one). I have found they cook better on the Silpat than baking paper, as it doesn’t hold up so well.
Tear kale leaves from hard stems and wash them. Spin dry thoroughly- leaving water on them will make it hard to get them crispy. Make sure you break the leaves up into fairly small, relatively even sized pieces. Leaves that are still curled over don’t cook properly. Discard stems.
Place kale leaves in a large bowl, spray lightly with olive oil spray, then sprinkle with salt and paprika. Toss thoroughly to combine.
Spread out kale leaves evenly on your prepared tray. Ensure you don’t have overlapping leaves, or that none of the leaves are folded over. The leaves can be quite close together though, as they shrink a lot during cooking.
Bake for 7 minutes, then turn over and cook for another 4 minutes.
Chips are cooked when crisp and dry. Try not to overcook them, as they burn easily and become bitter. In my oven, I have found that I often need to remove the leaves around the outside of the tray first. I then let the ones closer to the middle cook for a couple more minutes. You may need to experiment in your oven.
Repeat in 2-3 batches until the bunch is cooked.
Enjoy!

How did you go?

Have you given this recipe a try? How did it fare?

I love to hear your feedback in the comments below or on our Facebook page!