Protein-Hacks for Your Pickiest Eaters

How to sneak the good stuff into mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and the other seven things they'll actually eat

Author

Saanya Ali
January 13, 2026

✨ 2026 Ins & Outs ✨

Out:

  • Beige food

  • Worrying about growth charts at the pediatrician

  • Being tired, hungry, and cranky halfway through the day

  • Every night feeling like WWIII trying to get a single nutrient into a fourth grader

In:

  • Colorful plates with the whole alphabet of vitamins and nutrients

  • Strong bones and healthy, growing kiddos

  • Eating enough protein to keep you energized and satiated all day

  • Making the whole process drama-FREE (with the help of Pepper, ofc)

You’re probably thinking, “Ok, that’s great and all, but when my child has eaten pasta and dino nuggets for six straight dinners, how the [expletive] do I make eating a bit healthier not make me want to cry on the tile floor?

The reality is that you can’t force it. The kids will always win. Especially if you’re outnumbered. What you caaan do is be a wizard: a master of deception, creative concoctions, transfiguration, and invisibility.

Let's get into it.

What's Cooking on Pepper This Week 🌶️

Kids aged 2 to 7 have 2x more tastebuds than adults. That means that everything literally tastes more intense to them. Their evolutionary biology is literally telling them to be suspicious of new foods, so the next time you feel like you’re failing at getting the healthy stuff into them…I promise, you’re not. You're just fighting against thousands of years of survival instincts.

That said, Pepper makes it easy to sift through the millions of recipes to find the ones that won’t trigger your kids’ fight or flight from the dinner table.

Just head to the Pepper app and click on or search for the Tag that you’re looking for and browse away! (Personally, I find the Hot Tags to be the best place to start when I get paralyzed by too many options)

The Actual Nutrients Kids Need

Protein

  • Builds muscles

  • Supports growth

  • Keeps you full longer

They need about 13-19 grams per day. One chicken nugget has about 3 grams.

Iron

  • Powers brain development (learning, memory, and focus)

  • Improves energy levels

  • Helps with growth and muscle functioning

This is the one most kids are actually deficient in. Red meat, beans, and fortified cereals are key.

Calcium

  • Bone growth

  • Bone growth

  • Bone growth!

Kids need about 700-1,000mg per day. One cup of milk has 300mg. Cheese, yogurt, and fortified plant milks all count.

Fiber

  • Keeps everything…moving

  • Digestive health

  • Stable energy source

They need 14-20 grams per day. Most kids get about 7, so try incorporating fruit, veggies, and whole grains wherever you can.

Vitamins A, C, D

  • Immune system

  • Vision

  • Bone health

The Master Incorporation Strategy

TLDR: Hide the new stuff

Kids trust what they know. Your job is to start with something they already eat and upgrade it without them noticing.

1. The Protein Smuggle

Pasta Sauce

If your kid will eat pasta but won't touch meat, sneak it into a protein pasta sauce. All you have to do is take whatever jarred pasta sauce they already love, brown 1/2 lb ground turkey or beef in a pan until it's completely crumbled (tiny tinyyy pieces), add the sauce, and then blend it smooth with an immersion blender.

It looks exactly like regular sauce and one serving has the same amount of protein as two eggs.

Cream Cheese

Mix 2 tablespoons of plain cream cheese into mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, or pasta. It melts in completely and they'll think it just tastes creamier, but really it has an extra 4g of protein.

The fat from the cream cheese also helps them absorb vitamins A and D better.

Greek Yogurt Swap

Replace sour cream, mayo, or regular yogurt (5g of protein) with plain Greek yogurt (15g of protein) in anything creamy. This works for a ranch dip, smoothie, quesadilla topping, anything you can think of.

2. Vanish the Veg

Vegetables are the universal challenge. It’s just the truth. The key is to make them either invisible or totally unrecognizable.

Zucchini Bread/Muffins

One thing I can always count on is that kids will eat anything that resembles cake. Shred zucchini, squeeze out the water, mix it into muffin or pancake batter. Bake it. The zucchini adds moisture but disappears completely. Add mini chocolate chips to sweeten the deal even further. Butternut squash and carrots work the same way.

Cauliflower Rice in Regular Rice

Mix riced cauliflower (frozen is easiest) 50/50 with regular white rice. Cook them together. The cauliflower pieces are the same size and texture as rice, so they are totally undetectable.

This works in fried rice, burrito bowls, or anything with sauce on top.

Spinach Smoothies

This one takes a little while to get them to try, but once they do they get totally hooked because at the end of the day, it really does look like the Grinch just made a milkshake.

Blend: Frozen banana + frozen mango + handful of spinach + milk + tiny bit of honey.

The fruit completely covers the spinach taste. The smoothie turns bright green (call it Alien Juice or Shrek Slop or something).

One smoothie = 1-2 servings of vegetables and 8g protein if you use milk or add Greek yogurt.

3. The Fun Factor

Often the barrier to entry with healthy foods is that kids feel like they “have to” eat them rather than want to. The fix is to make it into something they choose to eat rather than a punishment or a consequence.

Ants on a Log

Celery + peanut butter + raisins on top.

This has been around forever because it works. The peanut butter is protein and fat (7g per 2 tablespoons). The celery is vegetables and fiber. The raisins are natural sugar that makes it feel like a treat.

Yogurt Parfait Bar

Set out: Plain Greek yogurt in a bowl. Small bowls of granola, berries, honey, mini chocolate chips. Make it feel like an ice cream sundae bar so it’s a snack and an activity.

Breakfast for Dinner

Make scrambled eggs. Add shredded cheese. Serve with toast and fruit.

This takes 10 minutes. The eggs have 12g of protein, the cheese adds calcium, the toast has fiber if you use whole grain, and the fruit covers vitamins. Easy.

4. Dips

Kids will eat almost anything if there's a dip involved because it makes it interactive.

Ranch

Mix: 1/2 cup Greek yogurt + 1/2 cup mayo + ranch seasoning packet

This tastes like regular ranch. The Greek yogurt adds 7g of protein per serving. Serve it with carrot sticks, cucumber, bell pepper strips, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets.

Peanut Butter Dip

Mix: Peanut butter + Greek yogurt + tiny bit of honey

Serve with apple slices, banana chunks, pretzels, graham crackers.

The peanut butter is protein and healthy fat. The fruit is fiber and vitamins. Two for one.

5. Fortify Everything

If all else fails, try upgrading all the things that are already in their rotation.

Wheat Germ

Wheat germ is 23% protein, has fiber, iron, and B vitamins and it tastes like nothing. Stir 2 tablespoons into: pancake batter, muffins, smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, meatballs, meatloaf.

Use Whole Grain Pasta

Mix whole grain pasta 50/50 with regular white pasta. Same shape, same sauce, more fiber and protein. After a few weeks, go 75/25. Eventually 100% whole grain. They won't notice if you do it slowly.

Whole grain pasta has 7-8g of protein per serving vs. 5-6g in white pasta. The fiber also keeps them full longer.

Fortified Milk

Buy the milk that’s fortified with extra vitamin D and protein. Some brands have 10-12g protein per cup instead of 8g.

Fairlife and Organic Valley both make versions. Same taste, more nutrients.

What hacks have worked for you? I need all the help I can get 😅

Xx,

Saanya