If you are a mom like me, I don’t have to tell you how hard it can be to get your kids to eat some green vegetables. At the same time, they are important for your child’s development. Green veggies contain lots of vitamins as well as various phytonutrients we just can’t get from a daily multi vitamin. Green vegetables also contain losts of fiber which helps with weight management and is important for good digestion. In other words, it is kinda important to get our kids to like these veggies.

Broccoli is a great vegetable to fix for your children since most of them like it quite well. From there you can start to expand their produce horizon with other things like cauliflower, carrots and even spinach and the likes. Broccoli has a nice mild flavor no matter how you fix it (steamed, baked, boiled or even raw) which I am sure is part of the reason why kids like it so much. 

Try This – Instead of just adding mashed potatoes to one side of the plate and broccoli to the other, spread out the mashed potatoes next time and stick the broccoli crowns in it like trees. Your child will love it and gooble up their special magical side dish. 

Start by cooking brocooli in salt water or chicken broth until it is very tender. Steamed broccoli like this is often popular with kids because of the mild flavor. For added fun, top the cooked and drained broccoli with a little marinara sauce. You can also try raw or lightly steamed and cooled broccoli with ranch dip.

Here’s a great recipe for you to try if your kids love cheese as much as mine do. It’s a  Velveeta broccoli casserole that’s quick and easy to put together using either fresh or frozen broccoli. If that sounds a little too involved for you, try just sprinkling some shredded cheese over your child’s broccoli for extra cheese flavor. 

If you have a little bit of time, try this broccoli in cheese sauce. The sauce is very simple to make and won’t take you any longer to put together than it takes the broccoli to cook. It’s simple, but oh so good.

In the summer time broccoli is also great eaten cold. I already mentioned serving raw broccoli with ranch dip or dressing. Another alternative is to use hummus as a dip. It’s made from ground chickpeas and much healthier than other dips. My 7-year old loves to dip raw carrots and broccoli in hummus and I serve it quite often as a snack or appetizer.

This versatile vegetable is also perfect for various salads. My personal favorite is this cold broccoli salad that has cheese, bacon and mayo in it. It’s not the healthiest dish, but a great way to make sure you and your family get some extra vegetables in your diet.

Last but not least, remember that it often takes children several tries before they actually like a new dish. Even if any of the ideas and recipes above aren’t a big hit the first time around, keep making them and be sure to have your child try at least a bit or a small portion each time you fix it. Sooner or later they will be fine with it as a side dish and it may even turn out to become a new favorite. 

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