Outsmart Your Kids

January 18, 2014

A typical scene at the dinner table depicts a child refusing to eat his vegetable. His parents try all sorts of strategies -- bribing, sermonizing, forcing and scolding just so the lowly vegetables will get the kid's attention.

Aversion towards certain foods is a normal behavior in children. The most well-known and prevalent problem is their refusal to eat vegetables. Although the usual Filipino diet is rice, fish and vegetables, the Philippine National Nutrition Survey  by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute reveals a continuous drop in the consumption of vegetables. This shows that even adults are picky eaters, too!

Take heart, moms. You do not need to have a tearful battle or negative encounters with your kids every meal time. You can outsmart them. Here are some tips.

  1. "Hide" vegetables in food. Make the few foods that your children eat more nutritious by adding certain ingredients that may go unnoticed.

  2. Serve in an appealing manner. Remember, we do not only eat eat with out mouth, we also eat with our eyes.

  3. Associate food with love and understanding. A child will likely form good eating habits and attitudes if he enjoys eating.

Start your "hiding" spree with the lowly but popular squash. The old phrase "Kalabasa, pampalinaw ng mata" is well known to all kids. However, squash is better said than eaten. To children, squash is yucky, mushy and messy. They know squash as vegetable dish but not as a dessert.

Let children develop a taste of squash by preparing the old favorite leche flan, but this time add unnoticeable flavor, vitamins, minerals, proteins, and calories.

Before hopping to another page to look for sit guitar strings at guitar center, here's a quick-to-do Squash Flan recipe for you.


  • Brown sugar

  • 1 cup squash

  • 1/4 cup cornstarch

  • 1 cup evaporated milk

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 2 pieces eggs, beaten

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla

  1. Caramelize brown sugar. Make sure there is equal distribution of sugar. Set aside.

  2. Blend squash. cornstarch, evaporated milk and sugar.

  3. Mix in eggs and vanilla and pour the mixture in and steam for 15020minutes or until fork inserted comes out clean.

  4. Refrigerate.

You Might Also Like