Meal Pattern Minute: Pureed Vegetables

In the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), pureed vegetables hold a hidden potential to add flavor and nutrients to meals. When serving pureed vegetables to infants as a single ingredient, that is considered creditable in the CACFP. However, as children age and move on to more solid foods, can a CACFP provider make a meal with pureed vegetables mixed into a dish and credit the pureed vegetables towards the vegetables component? All they want to do is to get children to eat more vegetables! 

Get your answer by listening to this Meal Pattern Minute as Isabel Ramos-Lebron, MS, RDN, LD, discuss how pureed vegetable may be able to credit towards the CACFP meal pattern. Look below for the full script and additional resources. 

Can pureed vegetables that are mixed into a dish credit towards the meal pattern? The answer is that it depends. Pureed vegetables once mixed into a dish become unrecognizable. They may contribute to the CACFP meal pattern if you have a 1/8 cup of recognizable, creditable vegetables per serving. For example, if you had a serving of macaroni and cheese with 1/8 cup pureed carrots and 1/8 cup of whole cooked peas, because the peas are recognizable, you can then credit the vegetables ¼ cup per serving for this dish. 

Check out these resources for more help on crediting pureed vegetables:

• The Crediting Handbook for the CACFP 
  • May food ingredients that are unrecognizable (not visible) contribute to meal pattern requirements (for example, carrots pureed in a sauce for Macaroni and Cheese)?
  • Pureed vegetables or fruits may contribute to the CACFP meal pattern requirements if the dish also provides an adequate amount (an ⅛ cup or more) of visible, creditable fruits or vegetables. Therefore, in the carrots and macaroni and cheese scenario, the pureed or mashed carrots can count toward the vegetables component if there is at least an ⅛ cup of another visible vegetable per portion. Meals served in the Child Nutrition Programs are a nutrition education opportunity to help children learn how to build a healthy plate. It is important for young children to be able to identify the components in a healthy meal.
•  USDA Food Buying Guide Yield Table 
  • The yield table contains various pureed vegetable products such as beans, carrots, spinach, winter squash and tomato. Using the yield table, you can determine how much to buy to meet a specific number of servings for the age you are serving. 
•  USDA Crediting Vegetables in the Child Nutrition Programs Tip Sheet 
  • This resource provides a summary of how vegetables credit in the CACFP and the regulations when serving vegetables. 

Try these recipes using pureed vegetables! 

• Beef Taco Pie 
• Purple Power Bean Wrap 

Want to share this video on Facebook? Click here, and then you'll find three icons along the right side of the screen. Click on the arrow, and you'll be able to choose whether you want to share it to your feed or to a group. You can also include a short note about why this Meal Pattern Minute is so important! Click on the "Post" button when you're finished, and that's it!