Cheesy Carrot Potato Fingers for the Fussy Tot

Lil V used to be such a dream child to feed, who ate nearly everything that’s offered to her.

Since turning two, she’s been picking out certain foods, especially green veggies (what’s up with green and kids??) and sometimes others such as carrots or pumpkins. Certain meats don’t get pass her too, because they tend to get stuck in between her teeth (LOL!), and she avoids them periodically.

To arrest this concern, mama had to come up with ways of hiding the goodies.

Telling her that eating vegetables make her strong gets greeted with rejection. Hiding the food under other ingredients gets picked out too, and more often than not, it happens because she noticed the green stuff. If she’s not actually looking, those green goodness actually get in her belly, anyway! Tsk.

So, I decided to go with non-green vegetables and disguise them so she was none the wiser. Let’s see if this would work!

Cheesy Carrot Potato Fingers Recipe (Makes 8 pieces)

Ingredients:

2 small potatoes

Carrot, about the length of an index finger

Cheese (Mozzarella would be perfect for that melted chewy cheese! But you can use any type as preferred.)

Method:

1. Boil potatoes and carrots over stove to desired doneness. Once soften, set aside and allow to cool. Once cooled, mash the potato and dice the carrots. You may like to mash the carrots as well, if preferred.
2. Mix potato and carrots together. Cut cheese into desired length for stuffing into the potato-carrot mix.
3. Shape the potato-carrot mix with hand, or use Daiso Rice Ball Shaker to create a longish shape. Slit the middle of the potato-carrot mix lengthwise, and insert the cheese in the centre. Shake the Daiso Rice Ball Shaker to seal the gap. Top up with more potato-carrot mix if need be, to seal.

   

4. Preheat oven at 180 degrees. Place the Cheesy Potato Carrot Fingers into the oven and           bake for 5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted slightly. Serve when ready!

Caution: Don’t forget to cool these fingers before offering your child as the insides would be too hot to handle – literally!

Tips:

• Feel free to adjust the “doneness” of the carrots and cut them in different ways. Personally, I prefer to offer chunks and food with varying bite and texture so the carrots were diced instead of mashed.
• Besides carrots, feel free to use other vegetables to hide. Basically, it required a little “strategising” in some sense. Vera loves cheese, and doesn’t mind potatoes, hence the two ingredients were incorporated to help “conceal” the 3rd ingredient (carrots) to make the dish seem more exciting :P
• It was perfect for dinner, so she had them for dinner sans rice. Potatoes are carbs so, skip the rice if there’s sufficient potatoes in there.
• This dish might be a little “dry”, so do offer plenty of fluids such as water or juice. We made a simple Fish and Mushroom Soup (here’s the recipe for a similar soup we did!) to go along, as she loves both ingredients. Yeah, we’re out to win her over during dinner – told you it required strategising! :P

So, what was the little girl’s verdict?

Well, I was a happy mama that night cos she wiped out every single bit! *happy dance*

Happy child = happy mum ;)

Do you have a picky eater? What are some of your fail-proof recipes that your kids love? Do share them with us too!

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