Food and Recipes

One of the most challenging aspects of parenting is finding clever ways to get my kids to eat veggies. So when I do find a recipe or a way of presenting vegetables in a way that gets my kids eating greens, I want to shout it from the chimney tops! I’ve met children who love vegetables. Mine aren’t one of them. My kids are some of the toughest litmus tests around when it comes to eating veggies, especially a tough one like kale.

Kale is a difficult vegetable for kids to eat because of its fibrous texture. But the secret is to blanch them, and when combined with two-types of cheese, they become a delicious treat my daughters can’t get enough of. Would you believe they ask for seconds?

Not only do my kids love eating this snack, but they love making it too. As much as I would love to take credit for a brilliant discovery on getting my kids to ingest kale, it was my 5-year-old daughter who made it first during her cooking class. It’s an easy-enough recipe that’s perfect fun for your kids to enjoy making with you. You can make your kale and eat it too!

Ingredients:

– 3 Cups of Kale
– 1 Cup of shaved or grated parmesan
– Cream cheese
– Wheat or white bread
– Christmas tree cookie cutters (feel free to use other shapes as well)

1. Wash the kale and remove the stem. Then roughly chop them up.

2. Blanch the kale. Add 1 cup of water into a pan and cook the kale while tossing until the water evaporates. Once kale turns to a soft texture, drain water and set aside to let cool.

3. Make cutouts using cookie cutters. Feel free to use other festive shapes. We decided to use a snowman cookie cutter as well. For a more crunchy texture, feel free to toast your bread. Just make sure to toast the bread after you’ve cut out your shapes.

4. Apply a thin coat of cream cheese on the cut-out bread.

5. Place a layer of blanched kale on top of the coat of cream cheese.

6. For the last step, place a layer of shaved parmesan cheese or to create the illusion of snow, sprinkle grated cheese on top of the kale. Voila! You have a frosted Christmas tree kale snack perfect for your little and big guests to enjoy over the holidays.