Can you bread and freeze vegetables?

[K8Tmay]

My boy is only a year and a half, but already will not eat vegetables.
I have found that if I hide the vegetables in breadcrumbs and bake them, he doesn't realize what they are. Lol

Problem now is, I'm working too much to prep this everyday.
I was wondering if frozen vegetables can be breaded, refrozen, then baked?

What i'm worried about is whether or not the breadcrumbs would burn if trying to cook from frozen?
(I've only done fresh)

Idk if I'm explaining myself very well, but I think you all understand.. any thoughts?

 

[Aunt Bea]

IMO it would be more work to freeze them than it would be to cook them from scratch. I think you would need to partially cook the vegetables prior to breading them, freeze them loose on a baking sheet and then bag them for storage. I would look for another recipe that fits your situation. Take a look at this one and also check out a couple of the breaded chicken finger recipes on the Best Foods site.

Parmesan Crusted Roasted Vegetables

I think you could prep the fresh vegetables and keep them in the fridge for a couple of days so all you would need to do is bread and bake them when you get home.

I would work to wean your son from these because IMO the breading and fat wipes out the value of the vegetables.

Another thought on getting a few fruits and vegetable into your son would be to give him apple slices, celery sticks, etc... and drizzle/smear a little peanut butter on them.

Good luck!

 

[Steve Kroll]

I don't think I would bread them before freezing. The thawing process is only going to make the breading mushy.

Personally, I think I would work more toward getting him to learn to enjoy vegetables without breading. By giving in to his demands, he is only going to get more and more picky as he gets older. I can tell you from experience that my daughter when she was younger used to be very picky, and picky about vegetables in particular. However, we put them on the table every night anyway, with the expectation that she didn't have to eat an entire serving, but she did have to try at least one bite. Within a year, she was a vegetable lover, even progressing over time to the point where she experimented with vegetarianism for a couple of years while in college.

Kids will learn to love many things (not necessarily everything, though) if exposed to it often enough.

Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Dawgluver]

I agree, freezing after breading would make the breading soggy.

Would your child like roasted vegetables? Roasting with a bit of olive oil and s&p brings out the natural sweetness. Carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli are all very good roasted. They will keep for several days in the fridge. You could dip them in a bit of ranch dressing.

 

[GotGarlic]

I agree with Aunt Bea and Steve - I would find other ways to get vegetables into him. For example, we always put sautéed onions, bell peppers and garlic in spaghetti sauce and Sloppy Joes. You can pre-slice these and keep them in the fridge for a couple of days to make dinners easier to prepare.

I also think that thawing, breading and refreezing vegetables will make them mushy and unappealing.

 

[GotGarlic]

I just came across this site again, which may give you some inspiration. This woman started cooking recipes from countries around the world, with her picky husband and young daughter along for the ride

http://globaltableadventure.com/welcome/

 

[K8Tmay]

Thank you for all your advice

I have tried hiding vegetables in foods he loves, but once he discovers they are in there ( upon eating his dinner ) he will pick them our and throw them to the floor:/
There are some points in here tho that I've yet to try though, so I'll give them a go!

I also didn't know that breading them depletes some of the nutrients - is this true with all breading?? I usually use whole wheat baby cereal or panko.

I will definitely do what you did, Steve, once he is a bit older.

Luckily he loves fruit. It's just the vegetables; it's like he has an internal vegetable detector lol.

 

[blissful]

I wanted to point out that tomatoes are fruit and eggplant is a berry (a fruit).
I don't think breading depletes vegetables of nutrition, it just adds calories that are less nutritional than the vegetable alone.

I used reverse psychology with my kids, and I told them that 'this is an adult food', and if they wanted to try it, I'd only let them have a little. (smoked oysters at age 3!) Then they'd declare they really liked it. This went on for pretty much their whole childhood. All three love everything and they've all become really good cooks with an exploratory curiosity for trying new things. They also love to garden. I believe that gardening (even just a few pots of tomatoes) is so fun, they just can't wait to try the tomatoes 'they' grew.

 

[GotGarlic]

Breading doesn't remove nutrients. As blissful, said, the breading isn't as healthful as the veggies themselves. I don't think this is a problem if you have it occasionally.

Just FYI, some people here follow a low carb diet, so they're reducing or eliminating bread, pasta and rice.