I teach our kids to tell the truth always. But I also don’t go out of my way to tell them it’s ok to sometimes withhold the truth. This is the skill I use when it comes to getting servings of vegetables and fruits into their systems. It seems to me like every one I know has kids that eat whatever they put on their plate. As if their kids never have a complaint to what’s being served to them.
“Lima beans, brussel sprouts, and kale again?! Ok mommy and daddy, thank you for providing us with a bountiful spread of organic vegetables for me to consume.”
If that truly is your kid then I applaud you. For me and my kids, it’s not as easy. All three of them have their favorite vegetables and fruits but none of them seem to overlap. So to avoid cooking 3 separate dishes every meal AND potentially burning them out on the ones they do like, we try to get them to try new things daily. That’s the truth.
But we also find ways to jam pack hidden vegetables into other things they eat. That’s the withholding of the truth.
We’ve tried those recipes from Seinfeld’s wife before and they are pretty good. But it’s also sort of a pain to prep those bags of vegetable puree. We also drink some of that V8 Fusion juice which sneaks in some additional vegetables from time to time. Fruits are easier because you can stuff those in smoothies very easily.
Which brings me to this Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta. Slightly more expensive than other boxes of pasta (maybe $0.20 more), this pasta has “Enriched carrot, tomato & spinach blend” and a “full serving of vegetables per 4 oz. portion”. A perfect way to hide some extra veggies in their food. I saw them at the store and said “sure, why not.” I honestly don’t know if there claims are true. Or if they are true but it doesn’t have the same benefits you think it would.
What I do know is it looked like someone took pasta and soaked them in blood. Ok you could say tomato juice maybe but the brownish red color made it look like it could have been dried blood. So I wasn’t thinking I could get away with it. I decided to make a simple pasta dish. There’s no real name to this dish but I make it often. It has a pound of ground chicken, a bag of frozen peas, and a box of pasta. Stir fry it up with a little sesame oil and soy sauce and you have a yummy noodle dish.
Once I added some soy sauce to the mix, the pasta looked like whole wheat pasta. But the key to me was the taste. Not bad! Not obvious that it has other stuff inside it. Prepare these suckers in some tomato sauce it would be a slam dunk for sure. The only thing that weirded me out with this box of Ronzoni Garden Delight is the Nutrition Facts list 6 servings on the box but the cooking directions list 3 servings as a full box.
The consistency of the pasta was just like any other pasta. And it cooked al dente in 8 minutes. But the proof is in the consumption. The best part is each kid gobble it up and even had seconds. I just sat back with satisfaction in what I didn’t tell them. I will definitely buy this again. Have you tried this before? Did you like it? Do you hide things in your kids food?
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Gregory Ng
GOAL: Visit 100 National Parks as a family by 2020. Favorite Parks: Zion National Park, Mt Rainier National Park, Valley Forge National Historical Park
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