Family dinner with young kids can be tricky as much as you’d love them to eat every vegetable you eat sometimes it just seems impossible and not to mention stressful. I get it my kids have their moments too let me assure you.

Visually vegetables are an instant turn off for most kids, seeing the amount they have to eat each night already gets them in a bother. Sometimes we have to get creative and hide them in food they do like. Let’s be real as much as those cute food pictures that look like a butterflies or funny faces made out of veggies or cookie cutout salads look visually stimulating but who really has time to do that every night? Hiding them or mixing them in other foods just seems to be a much less time consuming and gimmicky way of getting their daily serve of veggies.

While I don’t eat meat anymore I haven’t taken it out of the children’s diet purely because they don’t eat the array of vegetables and plant proteins that I do and because they are young they still like eating it. I buy them organic grass fed chicken and meat at home from our local organic butcher and it’s limited. When they become teenagers and are grown ups I feel they can make up their own minds. Buying good quality is more important than quantity. Eat less, but better.

Meatloaf is one of those meals that has been served on Australian dinner tables for decades. Probably because it is easy, fairly cheap to make and feeds the whole family. Kid friendly and served with a good mash is a hardy, filling dinner. Hiding grated carrot and zucchini in meatloaf is the simplest way that fussy kids won’t be able to taste that they are eating them.

Another veggie secret the kids don’t know about is in the mash I serve. I have added mostly cauliflower with only a small amount of potatoes upping it’s nutritionally value. We had squeaky clean plates and the secret is still to be revealed. I might keep that under wraps for a while longer.