SoyMilk Crossroads

Change can be hard, especially for children. Any parent will know that getting children to try new foods can be a chore beyond belief.

Ooo… Healthy Food

Once the word ’soy’ is mentioned the connection to ‘healthy food’ is made.  That can be the killer.  Some children will be even more resistant to trying it because they associate ‘good for them’ with ‘not being tasty’.
 

So how do you introduce soy into the family diet? One of the easiest ways I found was to start with flavored soy milk.  Very flavored. 
 

If you have young children it will be easier to do, well, maybe. But if they start on it when they are at the formula stage, in all likelihood you will not have much difficulty as they grow older.

Switch Milks for Baking

However, in addition to introducing soy into the family meal when children are young, there are other creative ways to incorporate it into the family diet.   One tried and successful method that worked for me was to introduce it in small and attractive ways. Start by substituting soy for cow’s milk in some recipes that normally call for milk.
 

So if you are baking bread pudding, instead of milk try using soy milk.  Most of the time, no one will notice any difference.   If you are afraid that it will be too noticeable, go half and half the first few times.   If you are making French toast, try substituting with soymilk and you may find it’s just as tasty or maybe even more so.

Simply Substitute Meat with Soy

Remember that some, if not all soy products can be prepared in the same way as meat products, so why not make some sweet and sour tofu? Or just add bits of tofu into the sweet and sour you are making with chicken or beef. Replace about 25 percent of flour with soy flour in your recipes or use soft tofu in your salad dressing instead of sour cream.
 

So give some of these tips a try and even come up with your own creative ways to make the family meal, fun, tasty and best of all, nutritious.  You’ll have your family hooked in no time.