Raising two boys 5 years apart hasn’t been an easy feat for Jane of Hamden, Connecticut. One thing her two boys did have in common, though, was a common distaste for vegetables. For Jane, this often meant coaxing these pickiest of eaters into eating their veggies by colorful and often creative means. The hardest part? Battling the boys’ initial reactions and recoil upon them witnessing fresh greens on their plates.

As it turned out, the solution lied in Jane letting her sons be more active and involved at the table. “Try dicing up fresh tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables for build-your-own-tacos night,” she suggests, “or mix canned vegetable soups with alphabet soup and hit them with impromptu spelling contests. But my best idea by far was dip night—just let them dunk different veggies in different flavored dips for more freedom and choice. There’s nothing better for the taste buds than letting them get a little adventurous at the table.”

For Jane’s two boys, this even went as far as dipping raw carrots into medium salsa, two foods they had previously avoided at all costs. “It was on the first veggie dip night that the boys discovered their love for spinach,” Jane says. “Who’d have thought?”