It is a truth universally acknowledged that most children have a highly skeptical opinion of the value of eating vegetables.
Everyone I know has a story about hiding their peas under their chicken bones to avoid eating them; or scooping pumpkin onto their sibling's plate when said sibling wasn't looking; or surreptitiously passing vegetables to their pet dog under the table. As long as parents have believed in the value of feeding their children vegetables, children have taken it as a point of honour to outwit, outsmart and outlast parents at every turn in an ongoing and heroic battle to avoid these villanous vegetables.
But...
What if you could persuade your child that what they are eating is in fact a fun treat and not a dreaded vegetable? It is another universally accepted truth that kids like pizza. Vegetables are boring; pizzas are fun. Vegetables are school nights; pizzas are weekends. Vegetables are Skodas; pizzas are Ferraris.
So what if you renamed something boring - say, for example, fish fillets with a tomato sauce - gave it a sprinkle of cheese, and called it a pizza? You could be on to a winner that will keep all members of the family, from the tallest to the smallest, happy.
As far as getting them to eat the wonderful green beans pictured though, you're on your own, buddy!
PIZZA FISH FILLETS (serves 4)
Ingredients:
about 1kg firm white fish fillets
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp sugar
200g grated cheddar or other cheese of your choice
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tsp dried oregano
Method:
Heat the tomatoes and sugar over medium heat in a small saucepan together with half the garlic. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Rinse and pat the fish dry. Spray a shallow oven-proof dish with olive oil spray and lay the fish fillets in it. Brush with olive oil and scatter the onion and remaining garlic over the fish. Season with salt, pepper and oregano.
Spread the warmed tomatoes evenly over the fish, then sprinkle the grated cheese over the top. Bake in the oven for 30-45 mins or until you can flake the fish. Turn on the grill for the final few minutes to brown the cheese.
I served mine with brown rice and sautéed green beans with toasted almonds.
I'm submitting this recipe to Michelle who is this month's guest host for the lovely Meeta's ever-popular Monthly Mingle event. The theme this month is healthy family dinners and you still have until the 9th to get your entries posted :)
I think I have to try this on my Big Baby, in order to eat more fish.I have always prefered fish dishes made with tomatoes of any kind.
Posted by: courtney | February 07, 2009 at 02:21 AM
I like the idea. Next time my nephew come to visit I'll introduce them with Pizza fish!
Cheers,
Elra
Posted by: elra | February 07, 2009 at 03:43 AM
Love the idea of a pizza topping on fish!
Posted by: Jan | February 07, 2009 at 05:14 AM
This is a good invention! love the combinations, will try it! Yum Yum,...MMMMmmmm...
ps: I love your foodblog!
Posted by: Sophie | February 07, 2009 at 08:37 AM
In the race of life, you bet the ferraris always win, Jeanne. Love the post, & love the way you did the fish. It's very yummy.
Posted by: deeba | February 07, 2009 at 09:46 AM
This sounds really tasty. We are trying to eat more fish, so I'm on the lookout for nice fish recipes - this will definitely go on my list!
Posted by: Gill | February 07, 2009 at 10:11 AM
It's true mine do love pizza and the only way our son will eat spinach is on pizza - for some reason their pizza of choice when we're out is salami and spinach - I have no idea why.
But I'm not sure that this would fool our son into eating either fish or tomatoes ... he'll only eat fish as fish fingers or kingklip nuggets. However I'm sure it will work with plenty of kids and maybe even my girls, who are adventurous enough to eat linefish when we're out.
Posted by: Kit | February 07, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Great idea Jeanne. Of course my daughter is 21 now and is working towards being a dietician...no more "miss fissy pants".
Posted by: Bellini Valli | February 07, 2009 at 02:00 PM
pizza fish, what? forget kids--perhaps this is the way to trick myself into liking fish. :)
Posted by: grace | February 07, 2009 at 08:25 PM
Looks fantastic, even for adults!
Posted by: Kalyn | February 08, 2009 at 03:35 AM
What a great idea!
Mind you, I think when kids are really hungry they'll eat anything. Gabriel is starving every morning and vegetables go down very well with him then. ;-)
Posted by: Michelle | February 09, 2009 at 01:08 PM
i love this! i've gotta try it!
paz
Posted by: Paz | February 10, 2009 at 12:24 AM
Jeanne! this is lovely - it's a perfect way to get the best of both worlds. I am sure Soeren would love this too! Thanks for the entry!
Posted by: Meeta | February 11, 2009 at 09:49 AM
Pizza Fish! what a lovely idea :)
Posted by: Nags | February 13, 2009 at 01:29 AM
Calling fish pizza is a stroke of genius. Also it is a delicious idea.
Posted by: Femke | July 03, 2009 at 10:18 PM