Sweet Tooth - Eat Your Veggies! Recipe

 My kids like junk food.  A lot.  And dislike vegetables.  A lot.  I keep serving 'em and they keep ignoring 'em.  If you don't count ketchup (and I'm sure you don't), the number of veggie servings they consume in a day is shamefully low.  So...

Today we read the book Sweet Tooth by Margie Palatini.  This book just couldn't be any cuter.  It's about a boy whose sweet tooth demands candy and sugar all. the. time. and he decides to defeat this sweet tooth with some vegetables!  (This reminds me of Samantha Loses Her Sweet Tooth.  That's a cute one too, but if you're only reading one Palatini's is better.)

Of course, it worked like a charm and all my kids eat now is carrots.  Well, no, not really.  But I decided to try a new veggie recipe for dinner, this one from Family Fun.  I have to be honest and admit that the kids didn't help me make it.  There was too much grating of my nerves vegetables involved.  (I don't have a food processor or this would've been less labor intensive.) Here's the recipe:

Veggie Pancakes (I called them space ships because if they heard "pancakes" I knew the syrup was going to come out-more sugar!- and "veggie", well...)

• 2 cups finely grated zucchini with the water squeezed out (doesn't it sound healthy already?)
• 1 cup grated carrots

• 1 cup corn kernels, drained

Toss together.  Add:

• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons low-fat plain yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Stir well.  In a separate bowl, combine:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal (I used regular because that's all I could find.)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Stir into vegetable mixture along with:

• 1/2 cup grated cheddar

Heat 1 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium heat.  Spoon 3 tablespoons of batter at a time into the pan, using a fork to flatten.  Cook about 3 minutes each side or until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels and serve hot or room temp (great for lunch boxes) with dipping sauce made of:

• 1 tablespoon pesto
• 1/3 cup sour cream

(Can be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

Here are the reviews:
My one year old would take a bite, yell "Like it!", and then spit it out.
My three year old wouldn't even try it.  He must have smelled a rat vegetable. (Foiled again!)
My husband said they were "okay".
I liked it but that's a lot for just one person to eat on their own, even for me. Don't let that deter you from trying it though. They don't like 90% of what I make.  Or skip the recipe and read the book. It's a good one, I promise.

How do you get your kids to eat their veggies?