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The Great Big Veg Challenge: How to get your children eating vegetables happily

Written by

Charlotte Hume

Published

10 July 2008

The Great Big Veg Challenge: How to get your children eating vegetables happily

‘Take one seven-year-old boy named Freddie and his mother as they face the challenge of turning him from a vegetable-phobic into a boy who will eat and even enjoy some of life’s leafier pleasures. Join us as we work through the A to Z of vegetables’ are the opening words of a blog started by Charlotte Hume after another dinner table drama involving her seven year old son and peas. She called it the Great Big Vegetable Challenge and opened it to ‘all of you parents out there who have tried and succeeded to introduce your offspring to the joys of carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, beetroot, green beans – in fact any vegetable. Any idea gratefully received.’

The strategy of the challenge was simple. As Freddie systematically refused nearly every single vegetable, his mother was going to introduce him to the entire alphabet of vegetables cooked in a variety of original and tempting ways and post the results – successes and failures on her blog. And so began a delightful exploration of the world of vegetables. From artichokes to zucchinis, broad beans to yams, every aspect of this family vegetable adventure is lovingly chronicled in Charlotte’s book The Great Big Veg Challenge.

As well as being highly practical containing over 100 delicious child-friendly recipes, this fully illustrated book is also the funny and touching story of how a mother changed her son’s eating habits for good.

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