by Sapphire Magpie Ravenclaw

Created on: November 21, 2008   Last Updated: December 02, 2008

The best way of ensuring family meals are nutritious is to encourage every family member to eat a sensible mixed diet. While this is the best way, it is certainly not the easiest but sneaking nutrition into meals is not as difficult as some might believe.

Some really simple ideas include mixing different vegetables into mashed potato. Some members of the family might notice if the potato is a different colour but some vegetables such as swede and cauliflower have very little colour but plenty of nutrients thus making perfect secret additions for fussy eaters.

This trick could work with other foods of a similar colour and/or texture including adding shredded carrots to spaghetti or very finely chopped tomatoes hidden in minced red meat.

Different fruits and vegetables can be sneakily added into various meals. Sometimes it is just a matter of how to prepare them in order to add them successfully.

Most soft foods can be mashed into almost any preparation and some foods can be cooked to make them soft enough to mix in to preparations. Other foods not so easily mixed can be minced and hidden into other minced preparations.

Some fussy eaters will not pay a lot of attention to the colour of food so it would be possible to mix, for example, potato and carrots. However, for the more finicky eater who might notice that something is awry, it is usually better to choose items of a similar colour.

Some simple dishes which can easily incorporate food of nutritional value include curries, bologneses and other "wet" dishes to which almost anything can be added including herbs which offer both extra nutritional benefits and an ideal way of disguising the taste from the added extras.

It is also important to try combining similar textures as well as colours. Some foods of a similar colour may have noticeably different textures. This is ok if they can be mixed together in a way which disguises the difference but otherwise, it would be better to try adding items which are already of a similar texture if that is possible.

For the most difficult fussy eaters, it is easy to add a few splashes of fruit juice to some meals either from a carton or, preferably, freshly squeezed because that would be healthier and have a less noticeable taste.

Apples, tomatoes andsoft pulses make a perfect addition to a lot of meals and can be added in a number of ways. They can be added cold or will become soft when cooked and therefore ideal for mixing in to meat dishes.

One more tip for added nutrition is to add or include herbs and spices instead of salt. A lot of prepacked food contains a lot of salt so preparing more at home is better as far as possible. This way, it is possible to know exactly what is going into the meals which can then include almost anything which can be prepared.

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