Vegetables might be one of the best ways to get vital vitamins and minerals into your family's diet but how many times have you told you children to eat their vegetables? Probably quite a few.

Almost all children seem to have an aversion to vegetables. They will kick up a fuss, cry, and push the vegetables around their plate.

So which vegetable recipes work? The key is to find an interesting, creative way in which to prepare vegetables and your family is bound to love them!

When you stop and think about it, when you were a child and your mother dropped a droopy, soggy, green hunk of broccoli on your plate, would you eat it? Probably not.

There are ways to get your children to eat vegetables without going crazy doing it. Broccoli is one vegetable that is highest in vitamins and minerals, and there are many different ways to prepare it.

Raw - leave a platter of raw broccoli cut up into bite size pieces in the fridge as a snack for your children. Serve it a little bowl of salad dressing for them to dip it in and you will have an instant hit. Make sure you leave the tips of the broccoli on the platter and encourage your child to eat them. If you are creative, you can make a game of it.

Bribery - Do not laugh, it works! Tell your child that if he or she eats their veggies, you will give them a special treat when they are done. It is important that you follow through and give him or her the treat.

Use cheese. Cheese and broccoli go very well together. If you pour a cheese sauce over the broccoli, you are adding texture and changing the flavor. You might find your children eat the broccoli in cheese before whatever else you have served with it.

Lasagna is delicious with broccoli added. Smothering it in cheese can add to the flavor and disguise the broccoli. Children will be too busy enjoying the cheesy flavor to bother picking out the bits of broccoli. Vegetable pizza is another way of sneaking in broccoli. Nearly all kids love pizza so a healthy vegetable pizza recipe will produce something they associate with fun rather than veggies.

Try chopping it up. You can pre-cook the broccoli, cook it for a few minutes, and put it in the food processor. You can then add it to whichever recipe you are preparing and the kids will not know it is in there.

Shakes - this might sound weird but it works. Make a milkshake with milk, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. Add some broccoli to the shake (make sure the kids aren't watching!) and blend it some more. As long as you use a chunky type of ice cream, your kids will not realize the broccoli is there and hopefully they will drink the shake too fast to notice any stray green bits!

These are just some of the ways you can encourage your children to eat vegetables and get more vitamins, minerals, and nutrients into their diet.