10 Picky Eater Hacks That ACTUALLY Work (Easy Toddler Food Tricks!)

If you can't get your kids to eat anything except boxed mac and cheese and beige food, this video is for you. I'm sharing my must know, easy peasy, you can't mess it up, food hacks to get your kids to eat more of the good stuff. Also, thank you to Quince for sponsoring today's video. More about them in a little bit. Next time you're cooking up rice for your kids, this is what you're gonna add instead of the water. I have some good quality chicken bone broth. You can also do beef, but I feel like chicken just blends in. It has so much protein. This 16 ounce container has 19 grams of protein and your kids won't even know they're having it, but you know they're getting that extra nutrition, especially if your kids don't like chicken, which I don't know if it's the texture or something, but my two-year-old only just started liking chicken and I'm gonna tell you later in the video how I got him to do that. You're gonna cook it the same way you always do, one part rice to two parts water, but instead of the water, we're just swapping out for the bone broth. You wanna make sure you're getting bone broth and not just stock, which isn't gonna have the same protein and collagen content. You obviously can do homemade, but when you're in a pinch, there are a ton of great options available at the grocery store. To the same rice, hack number two is adding frozen cauliflower rice, which honestly is a parent's best friend. I add this to smoothies and everything. It just blends right in because it looks like rice, so they can't even tell, and honestly, you cannot even taste it. I've tried it too, and it's my new favorite hack for myself as well. Adds more veg, my carbs, yes, please. How would they know? All right, there you have it. High protein, veggie-packed rice. If you don't want it to be a little bit of a darker color, you could just do half water and half bone broth and do a mix. I do that too. I just want to use up the whole container. I'm telling you, you cannot detect any cauliflower rice at all. Next time you're making box mac and cheese, I actually have two hacks for you. Number one, try to find some type of legume, chickpea lentil pasta blend. This one actually has chickpea pasta in it. It's higher in protein. Even when I'm making regular pasta or homemade mac and cheese, I will usually opt for chickpea pasta. I tried out a bunch of brands, and some of them honestly don't have the best texture, a little bit gritty, or they fall apart. This one here is my favorite. My kids can't tell the difference, and they never complain. This box mac and cheese has chickpea flour in it, so it has 14 grams of protein per serving, which is kind of crazy. Even regular pasta, honestly, does have protein in it, but if you're looking just to get more nutrition for your kids that aren't eating anything, because I get it, we've all been in those picky phases, these are little hacks you can try that might help. Kids are just getting in with dad from the park, but I'm going to quickly do this. Once you're doing your sauce, you're going to do normally, add in your butter, add in your milk, but what I did ahead of time, and we got to do it before Sage sees it, I blended up some cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is so high in protein, and it basically has no taste, and you can add it to anything. That's why people use it in desserts. Such a great addition to box mac and cheese, and adds in some extra protein and creaminess. It actually makes it taste more gourmet, in my opinion. Bring this back on the stove, add in my butter. You might think, why are you so obsessed with protein? It's because it helps balance and regulate your blood sugar, okay? Protein, fat, fiber, those are all the things we need. If everything is just refined carbohydrates, it's basically just sugar in the body, and your kids are going to be acting crazy, okay? We need stabilized blood sugar. I also just blended it up to make it extra creamy, because cottage cheese can have like little curds in it, and we want to disguise it, and blend it in as much as we can. You can pick. Can you tell me? Sure. It's very good? Told you. A mom hack I've recently discovered for myself is buying my high quality materials from Quinn's at a fraction of the cost. Believe it or not, it's actually been quite cool here in Florida the last few weeks, so I have been layering up, and I am loving guys. Like, when I tell you this is like all I'm wearing lately, it's, in my videos you'll see, it's what I've been wearing the last few weeks. This is their Mongolian Cashmere Fisherman Crew Neck Sweater in the color charcoal. It is so cozy. It keeps me warm, but not overheated. It feels so lux and cozy, like I just want to sleep in it at night. I've been focusing on buying high quality fabrics that are timeless, and don't fall apart after one wash, and also just look good no matter how I style them. I'm a busy mom of two, like sometimes I have five minutes to get ready in the morning, and I want stuff that is gonna make me look tailored, chic, and put together. They work directly with top tier manufacturers and skip the middle man, which means you're getting beautiful premium materials without the typical markup. And they work with responsible factories that use safe and ethical practices, and high quality finishes. Honestly, I get the hype and why they have such a loyal following. This is their Mongolian Cashmere Oversized Crew Neck Sweater in the color faded denim. And it is so cozy and soft, holds its shape. It's not too oversized, it's like the perfect fit. And the best part is they have a kid's line, okay? Are you kidding me? I bought these matching organic cotton sweaters for the kids in these beautiful colors. I'll list the colors on the screen. And they are just so soft and breathable. They're gonna look so cute. We're gonna have to use these for a family photo shoot. I cannot recommend them enough. Check out Quince for your high quality essentials. You can scan the QR code on the screen or click the link down below. They also have a 365 day free shipping and return policy so you can try on stuff in online shop without the stress. All right, let's get back to the next hack. I'm big on getting your kids to like smoothies because if you can get them to drink a smoothie, you can pack and blend up so much in there without them even noticing. So I'm gonna just do some banana in my blender. I also like to add things like Greek yogurt because it's high in protein. I get the unsweetened one. Peanut butter, a mix of frozen fruit. You can even do things like flaxseed and chia seeds. You don't wanna go crazy and make it sludge. But if you can't get your kid to drink a smoothie, try turning them into Popsicles because what kid doesn't want a Popsicle? They're full of fiber, protein, and get this, frozen zucchini. I know, crazy. You can actually buy it at the store already sliced and frozen. But I've been adding in vegetables into my smoothies for years, even before I became a mom. But frozen zucchini, butternut squash, and cauliflower are great things to blend in and they actually make it nice and creamy. The trick is to freeze them ahead of time. So whether you're gonna drink it as a smoothie or make it into a Popsicle, it's a great way to add in some sneaky veggies. I recently discovered the best hack for making a healthy version of chocolate pudding that I am forever gonna be using. It sounds really weird, but I promise it works. If you watched my recent video where I was trying viral TikTok healthy recipes, I'm gonna put, sounds so weird, hard-boiled eggs blended into chocolate pudding. I know it's so weird, but it's so good and you cannot tell, trust me. I got my kids to try it and they loved it. They loved it, so you gotta try it. And don't be intimidated because homemade chocolate pudding is so easy to make. We've got some unsweetened cocoa powder, vanilla extract. I like to use full fat coconut cream, just the one in the can, a little sea salt, and some hard-boiled eggs, which I'm gonna get into the boiling water. To my blender, I added in coconut milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, unsweetened cocoa powder, pinch of sea salt, and the star ingredient, hard-boiled eggs. I've done avocado, I've done chia seeds, I've seen tofu, never in my life did I ever think, huh, this is a hard-boiled egg. Tastes like a chocolate pudding. Genius, that's all I gotta say. Now we blend. That almost exploded. I didn't get any chocolate on it. Okay, now I'm not gonna lie, right when you open it, you're like, no, that smells like eggs. Give it a second, pop it in the fridge, and you're gonna have the thickest, luxurious, silky pudding. I used maple syrup this time, last time I did honey. It's thicker with the honey, so I would recommend that, but are you kidding me? Don't judge me for my messy fridge. I don't have time to clean it. All right, let's test out that chocolate pudding. You can't eat chocolate pudding warm, so you gotta refrigerate it. I just gotta, we gotta do a close-up of this. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me with that moussey, thick, like, that is insane. Stop buying your kids the chocolate pudding cups from the store that are loaded with sugar and not the greatest ingredients and make this. It was so quick. This is very nostalgic, and it really does taste like those pudding cups, but you obviously know with way better ingredients. That's insane. This is so good, wow. I'm gonna be making this all the time. If you want your kids to eat this magical vegetable, this is how you're gonna do it. I like to finely chop it. Honestly, I usually put it in a food processor, but I don't have mine with me. You can just use a knife and a cutting board, and that will do the trick as well, just a little bit more muscle work. But essentially, if I'm trying to get my kids to try something new or just sneak it into their food, I will look at what does this look most like and what will the flavor go well with? And what comes to mind for me is ground beef. You can either do a taco version or a bolognese and put it on pasta. But when you finely chop up mushrooms, they literally just disguise right into the ground beef. I've tried this with my two-year-old and my five-year-old. They never noticed. Another trick is just to get your kids into Super Mario because you know who likes mushrooms? Mario. Actually, he doesn't like mushrooms, but they do make him big and strong, so he then likes them after. And now, that is exactly why my two-year-old actually ate a mushroom looking like a mushroom. He's like, Mario eats mushrooms, Oakley eats mushrooms. And I'm like, yes! See, there is some good that comes from watching movies. I'm gonna finely chop this up, get my skillet heated with some olive oil, cook up my ground beef, and then I'm gonna mix it all together, add my seasoning. I also like to add in black beans for extra fiber. That is how I level up my taco meat, okay? Because pretty much every single week, we are doing taco meat. And that's how you make one of our weekly staples, taco meat. It's so versatile. You can have it in tacos, you can make nachos with it, taco bowls, and you can't even tell there's mushrooms in there, so that's a win. This next hack is more of a concept that I use in so many different meals that my kids enjoy from breakfast to dinner, and it's essentially a DIY buffet table. And this is where your kids can actually choose what they're putting on their plate. So I'll do this with a yogurt bar where they'll make their own yogurt parfait. They'll add their yogurt, their fruit. Oakley's up from his nap. Granola, fruit, honey. You could do chia seeds. Whatever you want, you lay it out, and you let them build their bowl. I did the same concept with nachos the other night, and you might think, like, yeah, duh, nachos, my kids are gonna eat them. But this is the perfect opportunity to sneak in a new food that maybe they would never try. And for my kids, or my little one, it was bell peppers. My daughter likes bell peppers now, so it was great because she could encourage him to sprinkle them on, and we called them sprinkles, and Oakley was totally into them. And because he put the pepper sprinkles on his nachos, once they went in the oven to bake, he actually ate them, and now he doesn't mind. Before, he would, like, pick them out and not eat them. I did the same thing with my daughter in the past when we were making guacamole. I had her add in the lime juice, the cilantro, and she, like, ate it without any issues. So get your kids involved in the kitchen, or set up a buffet table either at the counter or actually in the middle of the table. Great for taco night, you can add in extra things. If they don't want the black beans in their taco meat, put the black beans on the side, put a spoon, let them scoop it on. I'm telling you, if you try this, they're probably gonna add something to their plate that you would never think they would eat. I mentioned earlier in the video that my two-year-old refused to eat chicken up until recently. I think it's just the texture. I don't know, when I was pregnant with both my kids, I also didn't care for chicken. I think it is a texture thing. But putting it on a stick, which these are just some chicken kebabs we're just gonna heat up on the barbecue for lunch, but something about putting meat on a stick, game changer, okay? I'm gonna have to try this with other things, but I'm telling you something about they can hold it. I think that's also why kids like chicken wings. It's like they got the bone, they can eat off the bone. The stick is essentially a fake bone. And yeah, we're gonna just grill these up. You do a little peanut sauce on the side for dipping or ketchup. But this is such a great way to get your kids to get in some meat that maybe they haven't liked before in the past. Up until recently, he would only really eat ground beef and salmon and sometimes tofu or shrimp. And now he likes chicken on the stick. I'm here to tell you that bento boxes aren't just for school lunches. You can use them at home too, and obviously on the go. But I'm telling you, when I put my kids' meals in here, whether it's lunch, dinner, breakfast, whatever, they are so excited to eat from it. It's like I can put something new in the bento and they will be like, mm, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try this. Lately, we've been doing our lunches outside. I know it's cold, mostly everywhere else in the world, but when spring and summer comes, which is hopefully soon, you can do it too. I essentially just add in their lunch into the bento box, they bring it outside, and it's like magical. I don't know, my little guy, I know it's weird, he didn't really like grilled cheese up until recently because I put it in the bento, and his big sister was eating one too. And I love these ones because they actually fit a lot of stuff, and I take them on the go too. For going out somewhere, I will prepack it so that way we're not just like buying kind of junk food. I love these so much that I bought myself one, and they're great just for on the go. But honestly, I feel like most people forget to use them at home, because you think of it as like an out of the house thing. If you don't have a bento box, you can also use a cutting board. I've done that a lot too, where I'll just kind of create a snack plate and use that as a meal, especially for lunches where you're like, I'm tired, I don't feel like reheating anything, making something new. Just throw together some like cheese and crackers and fruit and meats or something, like it does not have to be complicated. They might even try something new, like add in some hummus with a new vegetable and see if they'll dip it, get creative, and like it doesn't have to be complicated to get your kids to try new stuff.