At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

$1,000 Visa Gift Card Giveaway from Kraft!

I’ll never forget the first time I tried to sneak extra vegetables into my son’s food.

We were at that stage where the only veggies he would willingly eat were carrots and tomatoes.
I was watching his skin closely to look for signs that he might be turning an orangey-red hue.
So in my desperate attempt to add a bit of variety to his meal-time experience (and let’s face it, to make myself feel better about my parenting), I decided to add pureed butternut squash to his Mac-n-Cheese.
I watched. I waited. I timed it just right.
He left the kitchen for a minute and into the pot went that glob of squash-y goodness.
It felt so wrong…and yet…so right!

But, do you know what happens when you add butternut squash to Mac-n-Cheese?

Let’s just say that your kid will notice the lack of neon orange coloring and will be immediately suspicious!
OK, so my first foray into the dark side of mommy-hood might not have gone so well, but that hasn’t kept me from continuing in my effort to have healthy kids with healthy eating habits!

It didn’t take long for me to realize that, for our family, a 2-pronged approach would be our best bet for having happy meal times, happy, healthy kids and a happy mommy who didn’t need to lie awake at night anymore worrying about the long-term affects of too many carrots!
The combination of sneaking in vegetables along with having them on their plate gave us the best option of knowing that somehow, someway those wonderful vitamins and nutrients were going to make it into their little bodies.
Do you want to know what I have found to be the easiest meals for sneaking in vegetables?
Spaghetti and pizza.
Why?
It’s all in the sauce my friend!

Take your favorite marinara sauce and add in some pureed spinach or squash or carrots and you have just upped the ante on healthy dinners.

Use it to smother noodles or spread it out on pizza dough and you can just pat yourself on the back and smugly sit at the dinner table while the sounds of, “Yum! This is so great Mom,” fill your ears!
The other part of my approach has been continuing to put vegetables on their actual plates and not just sneaking it into the main dish. And the fact that we have a garden every summer has helped tremendously in getting my children excited about their veggies. There is nothing quite like pulling up a carrot and then finding that same carrot, all nicely peeled, on your plate that night at dinner.

I even leave the stem on so that they can pretend they’re bunnies!
Now, while my 2 pronged approach to healthy eating has been a success at dinner time, it hasn’t translated so easily to lunch time.
You see, my kids LOVE breakfast and lunch!

And, I’m pretty sure the reason for that is because there are usually no vegetables involved (I reserved my veggie battles for only one meal a day) and sometimes they get a fun drink. Fun meaning something other than water or milk.
At our house, Capri Suns have always been the favorite. Especially in the summertime!

Maybe it’s the challenge of finding just the right angle to get the pointy straw into the hole on the first try.
Maybe it’s the silvery pouch which makes it so much easier to get every last drop.
Maybe it’s the fact that the same silvery pouch, once empty, can provide endless entertainment in the form of blowing back into it and finding some unsuspecting soul to go up to and say, “Hey, look at how full this is!” and then squeeze it so that poor unsuspecting soul thinks they are going to get sprayed with juice and then they can laugh hysterically!
Not that this has ever been done to me.

But, now that Kraft has come out with their Capri Sun Super V, those silvery pouches just became even more exciting. Especially for this mom! This has solved my “should I feel guilty because my children don’t eat vegetables at lunch?” dilemma. With one combined serving of fruits and vegetables, it is a wonderful source of antioxidant vitamins and fiber, not to mention that the flavoring is all-natural and there are no preservatives.
That is a win-win in my book!

Don’t believe me? Well, here are some testimonials from actual children actually drinking the Capri Sun Super V!
Somehow I managed to find a 9 year old boy and a 5 year old girl willing to try this out and let me interview them. Wink, wink.
“So, what do you guys think about this new Capri Sun?”
5 year old girl replied, “Yummy!”

9 year old boy replied, “I think the guy surfing on the front looks cool!”

Both children ask, “Mommy, why are you taking pictures of us and asking us so many questions?”
To which I reply, “Because you are both just so cute and I want to record every moment of your lives!”
To which 2 pairs of eyes rolled.
But it doesn’t matter! Because I know what they don’t.

While they were innocently enjoying a new yummy drink, I was feeling reassured that they were getting an extra serving of fruits and vegetables!
Now if we can just keep it a secret.
Thankfully they don’t read this blog…yet!!

Learn more about the new Capri Sun Super V on Facebook and check out BlogHer.com to find more Capri Sun Super V reviews!

AND, do you want to know how you can enter to win the Sweepstakes for the

Grand Prize $1,000 Visa Gift Card
and
$500 (runner up) Gift Cards??
Here’s how:

Share a healthy snack tip as a comment below!

Rules:
No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
Entries from all participating blogs will be pooled for winner selection; only two entries per household. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 8/16/2012-9/16/2012.

UPDATE!!! 9 year old boy was asked at lunch if he would like a Capri Sun. A different flavor was pulled out of the fridge and he looked at it and said, “Oh, I wanted the other one with the cool guy on the front!“

No problem buddy!
Thanks so much for joining me today at the Fence,
1553F4F30A9801A6AFB3E9C624118E7B
I was compensated for my time in conducting this review, but the opinions are my own. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more information.

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Comments

  3. Brilliant, Vanessa 🙂 I will remember this for my next pot of spaghetti (or hot dog pot pie)! LOL 🙂

    Ok…..I don’t think hot dog pot pie is a healthy snack tip…..hmmmm……how about cutting up the celery into pieces and putting them into a tupperware container to grab and go!

    Thanks rock star!

    Have a blessed and wonderful day!
    karianne

    Reply

  4. Healthy snack tip: My kiddo enjoys his veggies much better if he can play with them! Arrange them to look like something different, or add a healthy dip (I like to mix PB2 with water to make real PB). Make it fun!!

    Reply

  5. My healthy snack tip is…never leave home without some type of snack so you aren’t tempted to go through the drive thru when you’re out doing errands. I usually bring a some almonds or pumpkin seeds and something to drink for everyone in the car.

    Reply

  6. Healthy snack tip: veggie kabobs with ranch or fruit kabobs with light cream cheese and 1 tbsp of cocoa mixed for dipping. Then if you have boys like I do, you race! And it all ends up with full tummies and lots of laughter and some mouths to wipe! 🙂

    Reply

  9. Hi, Vanessa

    You kiddos are sweet! Great pics! Are you not going to the Southerner Conference in Oct? I am hoping to go and if I do I hope to me you too. We do share something in common, we both have great first name. : )

    Have a great week.

    Vanessa

    Reply

  12. I think this is a great concept. Adults have been taking advantage of this for yours, why didn’t they do this sooner! And the packaging is targeted correctly. Congratulations! Our grandkids think the little tomatoes are candy. I keep them washhed in the refrigerator and they help themselves!

    Reply

  13. Even now that my kids are adults they still love for me to make celery stuffed with peanut butter for them & the grands when they visit. I always use the carrot peeler and run it against the very spine of the celery first to peel out the toughest strings. I think that’s why they never objected. Suzi pblapere@att.net

    Reply

  14. Can’t wait to try this new Capri Sun with my girls! They love to spread Laughing Cow Strawberry Creamcheese on toast with sliced strawberries on top. They also love almond milk smoothies with chocolate PB2 & bananas. kwillo@sbcglobal.net

    Reply

  15. grp18 my favorite healthy summer snack tip is frozen grapes. I love to grab a handful out of the freezer to take along during the day. Sometimes I will throw a handful in to my drinks also.

    Reply

  20. Great post! Something I do (I guess a tip?) is to offer a fruit and vegetable at lunch and dinner. And sometimes another fruit at breakfast. They’re pretty picky about veggies, so I’m trying to expand their repertoire. 😉 Great Giveaway!!!

    Reply

  24. Great post! I think you already know my trick of “octopus on the rocks surrounded by seaweed”- (a hot dog cut into a head with tentacles atop a mound of shell shaped mac and cheese surrounded by spinach or green beans or broccoli. The kids all love it -even the older ones- Have a wonderful night- xo Diana

    Reply

  25. I pack grapes as an after school snack. I eat these on the way home so that I’m not so hungry when I get home and am less likely to eat something unhealthy.

    Reply

  27. I sometimes put cauliflower in mashed potatoes (awesome trick since they don’t taste i!). The kids also love a fruity vege drink (I think it’s V8 Splash, sorry that it’s not the same sponsor, but the kids love the different flavors!). I also keep a drawer in the frig full of fresh fruits like grapes and cutey oranges and apples.

    Reply

  28. My heathy snack tip – if I save the pulp from my homemade juice and I add it to my recipie for whole wheat blueberry muffins – it makes them super moist, and my daughter is eating an additional serving of pulped carrots or zucchini and she doesn’t know it!

    Reply

  30. My healthy snack tip is to keep a plastic bin in the fridge stocked with cheese sticks, drinkable yogurt, grapes, carrots, etc. so that something health is ready when the kids are hungry.

    Reply

  34. I just have what they like….Grapes,Strawberries, Blueberries, Watermelon, Cantelope, Cucumbers, Salad, Cheese, Brocolli. They eat all of these without a fuss. As they have gotten older they then tried green pepper, squash, beans,

    Reply

  35. I buy Capri Sun for my 11 yr old son and he loves it. I didn’t know that they started making one with vegetable juice added to it. It reminds me of V8 Fusion drinks. I’m going to definitely buy these new drinks! My son is the pickiest eater of anyone I know. My healthy snack tip is to substitute Carnation instant breakfast in his milk instead of Hershey’s syrup for chocolate milk. He loves it and it is full of nutrition.

    Reply

  39. I love bananas and peanut butter. I don’t know what it is called but you freeze bananas and add other fruit and put in this machine and it tastes like ice cream… The machine can be found at Bed Bath and Beyond.

    Reply

  43. Our daughters cut fruit and veggies in different shapes and the children think they are more fun to eat. They love to come up with different ideas for shapes to use…

    Reply

  44. Great tips! Thank you for sharing. My hubby and daughter were not fans of zucchini, that is, until I disguised it as a “pasta” roll up. First, you slice the zucchini into thin sheets and quickly boil them in salted water. Make the filling (a mixture of ricotta, parmesan, spices, etc.) Similar to lasagna filling. You can also add additional veggies here, like chopped red peppers. Spread the mixture on the zucchini sheets and roll them. Line them up in a baking dish, cover in marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese and bake. Yummy!

    Reply

  45. My favorite way to get veggies into a meal is in a 1-dish meal, like a stirfry. I’m not very fond of the more bitter taste of vegetables like broccoli, so adding a little spice along with items I *do* like makes me more likely to eat more veggies than usual. For kids, I think adding visual appeal can help. Use different colored vegetables to make a rainbow, or cut them into fun shapes.

    Reply

  46. My healthy tip is to let my children use toothpicks for spearing their soft cooked veggies and
    Fruit! They love popping them in their mouths and it makes it healthy fun!

    Reply

  47. My healthy tip is shredding zucchini and adding it to my spaghetti sauce. Also I now make smoothies with spinach in them, no one even knows and this is for my husband who hates veggies. Hee Hee. Thanks for the chance to win.

    Reply

  48. My kiddos and now grandkids love to help “cook” and are enthusiastic to eat what they’ve made, whether it be a cucumber they helped peel, some celery they filled with peanut butter, or the green salad they helped tear the lettuce up for.

    Reply

  49. Extremely in receiving children keyed up about their veggies. There is not anything quite like pulling up a carrot and then finding that same carrot, all nicely peeled, on your cover that night at dinner.

    Reply

  50. My healthy tip is to keep fruits available for the kids. They like the “self-serve” option of grapes, bananas, strawberries. Really they’re up for any kind of fruit except peaches…haven’t figured that one out yet. We’re working on veggies, a bit at a time.

    Reply

  53. My two girls eat absolutely everything! My son on the other hand is VERY picky!! So what I do for him every night right before dinner is cut up carrots, celery, cucumbers and red peppers served with some ranch dressing and he eats it right up! That makes for one happy mom 🙂

    Reply

  54. My kids don’t eat sauce, so the spagetti and pizza trick doesn’t work for me!

    I offer them a dipping sauce or something fun to dip in. This only works for one of them. the other one gets “sprinkle cheese” which is just some fancy parmesan that I grate with a micro-plane. Boom, broccoli is now fun:) Or almost!

    Jessica

    Reply

  58. My snack tip is to keep junk food out of the house. If it’s here, that’s all she wants. If it’s not, suddenly fruits (and sometimes CERTAIN veggies–and ONLY with ranch dressing) look good when she’s hungry. It’s magic! Can’t wait to try the Capri Sun V!

    Reply

  60. I cut up different melons into bite sized pieces and put it in the refrigerator. The kids love to be able to get a bowl of fresh fruit that is easy to hold and eat.

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  63. hmmm… i’ve tried several things.

    My preschooler has always liked peas BUT only if they’re still frozen. (they’re sweeter that way)

    She sometimes eats “green leaves” (spinach) like her older cousin who likes to pretend he’s a dinosaur.

    Lately I’ve blended spinach in milk for dunking cookies. Too bad my kiddo won’t touch anything that comes from a blender. It’s how I sneak more green into my diet though 🙂

    oh! and we love cauliflower so i’ve been wanting to make “cauliflower poppers” (break into small peices, toss with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake)

    Reply

  65. Since we were a huge Capri Sun family too, I’m really jazzed about this new addition to their line. Any extra veggies added to the fruit is a plus in my book.

    Veggies at dinner weren’t a huge problem here because my girls liked the ones I served. I’m pretty sure that’s because we always used fresh veggies and steamed or grilled them rather than cook them to death. It’s all in the color, IMO. Fresh, steamed veggies have bolder colors and more crunch, even after steaming. Additionally, the girls learned to love salads very early because we had one at nearly every meal. I regularly let them concoct the toppings du jour and be creative about what we were going to try. Letting them name the concocted salad is fun too. They are huge salad fans to this day.

    I’m trying to think of a SNACK tip that hasn’t already been said. Like others, I always kept fruit and veggies handy for them. I always kept pretzels in little baggies so they could grab and go with that too. I made my own trail mix for them using the dried fruits, cereals, etc. that they wanted, and we kept that in little baggies as well.

    Maybe it’s because I had girls, but for us presentation was always “everything”. We had certain little dishes and bowls that we used for certain snacks. I think they loved the bowls as much as the snacks. Apples and cheese off a Disney princess plate was an snack adventure.

    Reply

  67. Sometimes it’s the presentation that makes the difference. Grilled chicken with a side of rice? Boring and colorless … but grilled chicken cut up into bit size pieces and service in a bowl with rice, all mixed in together? They can’t get enough of it! Go figure. Also, I find variety. When I get in a rut with dinner they get bored …

    🙂

    Linda

    Reply

  69. My healthy snack tip is to provide a little travel container of peanut butter with their favorite crunchy snack- apples, pretzels or whole wheat crackers for dipping.
    KellywcuATyahooDOTcom

    Reply

  73. My son’t favorite healthy snack is baby carrots dipped in peanut butter! He loves this and I know he is getting vegetables! I also send baggies of chilled cherry tomatoes in his lunch box for a healthy “side” in his lunch box.

    Reply

  76. I let my daughter help my wife and I prepare the snacks. This is our favorite snack.

    Plain yogurt
    Your favorite fruit: ours is mango (diced)
    2 tablespoons of maple syrup or agave (or any other you prefer to use)
    granola

    Mix everything in a bowl or cup and you got yourself a great tasting snack!

    Reply

  83. Making muffin tin meals works well. Cutting food into little bits and putting it in little containers (with toothpicks, if possible!) makes it seem so much more fun.

    mail {at} HoboMama.com

    Reply

  85. My nieces taught me this one:

    Ritz cracker
    Philadelphia Cream Cheese
    Slice of fresh cucumber (no peel for them)

    They could eat these all afternoon, and I’ve actually enjoyed them!

    Reply

  88. Cut veggies and fruits in fun shapes with peanut butter and other simple dips. Fancy cocktail toothpicks with colorful crinkly tops make it even more fun to dip and munch!

    Reply

  91. My healthy tip is dressing up my childrens plates. They love how it feels like they are in a restaurant which makes them more willing to eat their fruits and veggies. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway 🙂

    Renee
    fattybumpkins at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  94. My kids healthy snack is “ants on a log” AKA: celery, with peanut butter down the middle and raisins perched in the peanut butter.

    Thanks for the chance!
    Sherry

    Reply

  102. I put some fruit on the table as the kids are coming down for breakfast. If they can just reach out and plop it in their mouths they will eat it. I core and slice an apple. Slice oranges. Wash strawberries, blueberries, even cherry tomatoes.

    Reply

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    Reply

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