I thought I'd give a few suggestions on veggies and other healthy foods. My 4 teens are good eaters, but don't think it just happenened! There are plenty of "tricks" I've learned along the way.

How to get them to eat fruits and veggies
1) Have them pick out the fruit trees, bring it home in the car, contribute to digging the holes, fertilizing, watering, spraying (as needed), winterizing, and pruning.
2) With veggies, have them pick out the veggies (pick some fun veggies -like pumpkin/popcorn), weed and till the garden, help with fertilizing, help with planting, weeding, and watering.
3) Ask them to check how things are going and pick anything ready.
4) Teach them how to make recipes with fruit/veggies - jam, cobbler, pizza or spaghetti sauce, broccolli salad, etc.

They will eat almost anything they have worked to grow. It's like magic...really!


If you can't garden for whatever reason (I DO understand this), this also works...it's the magic shortcut.
* Kids decide whether or not they like something the first couple of times they eat it, so...
1) Add butter, salt, cheese, or even a sauce over the veggies, even if there is more butter/cheese than veggies at first.
2) Slowly, lessen the amount of cheese and dressing each time it is served.
3) If asked where the cheese or sauce is, tell them you ran out, but thought they could just eat it with a little salt this time.
4) Serve trays of veggies after school with salad dressing on a hot day
5) Be a good example and carry veggies/fruit with you and offer them some (Grapes and bananas, apple slices, carrots, etc) always works when they are hungry and away from home. Eventually, bring them their own bag of fruits/veggies and comment on how you noticed how much they like Jonathan apples, etc.


Never allowed to eat items:
1) French fries and chips
2) Soda, Kool-Aid, Sunny D, Caprisun, etc.
3) Juice is for special breaksfasts and served in a juice cup
4) Candy is eaten sparingly (But I bake for them several times a week)
5) Fast food - We limit this to Costco and Subway. But very rarely do we eat out.
6) Sparingly on the sausage and bacon.
7) No on donuts, churros, other fried food.

Now that they are teens, I don't need to monitor them as much. Fast food makes two of them gag, with one throwing it up.

If you can introduce it while they are young, and not fuss over it, and not make them something just for their liking....they'll follow your lead, along with a little trick or two.