The Best Tricks To Get Your Kids To Eat Plant-Based Beyond Meat - Exclusive

Getting kids to eat healthy meals can be a significant struggle for the adults looking after them. Sometimes, kids will only eat one kind of food and refuse anything else. Other times, it can be a matter of creating meals that are engaging in order to hold their attention long enough to finish it.

Two great things about plant-based Beyond Meat Chicken Tenders are that they look very similar to the real deal, and there's also a slew of ways to make them interactive and exciting for kids. So, when your little ones will only eat tenders and need a break from meat-based products a few times a week, Beyond Meat is a great option to shake things up.

Mashed spoke to the brand's chef Diana Stavaridis during an exclusive interview where she offered some tips, tricks, and recipe suggestions to get kids to eat more plant-based meat.

When it comes to some of the ways that parents can make Beyond Chicken Tenders and other Beyond Meat products fun for kids to eat, the brand's chef Diana Stavaridis said, "Look at playing with the chicken tenders ... [that's] really fun for kids. Kids like to play with their hands." She then added, "I've [done] culinary lessons for children over the years, and I really enjoy working with kids. I know they like to work with their hands mostly and play."

Of course, kids love food they can pick up and eat, and it's easy to adapt plant-based options into classic finger foods as well. "[They love] wraps and tacos and quesadillas and roll-ups, all those types of things, pitas and gyros. All that type of stuff works really well," the chef explained. "When I do these cooking classes, with whatever the product is, it's nice to have a bowl of chopped-up veggies and sauces and things. The kids can get down and have the product prepared for them, cooked according to the instructions, and then roll things up and fold them and eat them with their hands."

What kid (or even adult) doesn't love having breakfast for dinner? As it turns out, that's also a great way to adapt plant-based products for picky eaters. "Breakfast for dinner [is something] I love to eat. [With] Beyond Ground Beef, [there are] 10 million recipes you could do, but something really simple and fun, especially for kids, is a quesadilla," Chef Stavaridis suggested. "Buy some [seasonings], scramble it up, [and] pick some veggies if you can. If you can buy some carrots or something that comes in a bag if it's easier for these areas, [add] a little bit of cheese, and fold it up. You could obviously add an egg for breakfast. Those are some fun, quick things that you can do."

The chef has some tried and true methods of cooking Beyond Meat products for her nephew. "Some things [are] from my childhood that I've tried to do [with] my nephew — he's five and eats a lot of plant-based products as well. I know how he eats, and he's a good cook for being a five-year-old," she explained. "They do nachos with veggies on top. He loves vegetables. They've started doing seasoned beef, a simple taco spice, scramble up the Beyond [Beef] 3.0, and then it can go on top of nachos with lettuce and tomato. He [sometimes] puts everything on there." Really, there's a plant-based hack for any palate and any age!

To find the nearest location that offers Beyond Chicken Tenders, select the product on the drop down menu here, and enter your location in the search tool.