As mentioned in Project Eat More Veggies, I’m always looking for ways to make vegetable consumption more appealing to my boys–specifically Little Brother, now almost 5.

Colorful Rice was a happy discovery for all of us.  It’s easy for me (hooray), and for some reason Little Brother will happily eat veggies in Colorful Rice that he would not normally touch with a ten foot pole.

Another great thing about Colorful Rice is that it allows you to serve vegetables with dinner even if you’re out of fresh veggies.  If you keep an assortment of frozen vegetables on hand, you’ll always have a backup plan.

And taking that a step further, why not make a huge batch every time you prepare rice, and freeze the extras?  I love to keep cooked rice in the freezer.

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Colorful Rice

This dish is so easy, it’s more of an idea than an actual recipe.  So if you have picky, pint-sized eaters at your house, maybe this will work as well for them as it did for us.  Give it a try!

Ingredients

• Cooked rice (I use organic brown rice cooked in 3rd batch homemade bone broth)
• Assorted colorful vegetables, cooked or frozen (see below)

Favorite veggies for Colorful Rice

• Frozen: corn, roasted red peppers, carrots, peas, spinach
• Fresh: carrot matchsticks, diced sweet bell peppers
• Leftover: just about anything!  Roasted broccoli, sauteéd green beans, roasted carrots, sauteéd red peppers, etc.

Procedure

I generally make Colorful Rice with leftover brown rice, reheating it on the stove top with some coconut oil.

1. Put a heap of coconut oil–maybe 2-4 TB–in the pan and melt over low heat.
2. Add leftover rice and stir to combine.
3. Frozen vegetables–heat lightly in a separate pan.  When veggies are thawed and separated, add to the pan of rice and stir to combine.
4. Fresh veggies–prepare separately, then add to rice.
5. Leftover cooked veggies should be diced and added directly to the rice.
6. When rice and veggies are heated through, remove from heat.
7. Season with unrefined sea salt, to taste.
8. Serve and enjoy!

How do you “sneak” more veggies into your kids’ meals?  I’d love to hear your ideas…

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