You may be struggling with getting your kids to eat healthy, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Just a few tips and tricks to use during mealtimes, and you’ll both be happy. Food can be healthy and fun at the same time. Let’s look at a few fun ways to serve healthy foods to your family all day long:
Begin with Breakfast - Start the day right with a healthy breakfast by avoiding those prepackaged cereals, cereal bars, and pastries. Read the ingredients on any of these and you’ll find too much sugar and ingredients that are right out of science class. Even those supposedly healthy breakfast or protein bars.
Instead, mix up a batch of whole grain pancakes at night and stick them in the refrigerator. Pop them in the microwave in the morning and serve with an assortment of smashed berries for toppings. Or, take whole wheat tortillas and wrap up a breakfast burrito with healthy food choices like scrambled eggs, cheese, and turkey bacon, or even make a fruit wrap. Tuck this burrito inside a parchment paper roll and you’ve got a breakfast-to-go that’s fun and healthy.
Time for a Snack - Kids typically will ask for sweets when they’re looking for a snack. Give them their sweets, but in a healthy way with applesauce and homemade oatmeal cookies. You want to make a batch of your own cookies so you can control the sugar, even substituting honey. Fruit roll ups that are 100% fruit are great ways to give your kids snacks without tons of sugar.
Replace sugary fruit drinks with fresh fruit juice. Go ahead and cut the expense by adding water to the fruit juice. Serve it over ice and your kids won’t know the difference. Cut out sodas with flavored tonic water. Perk these drinks up with a fresh slice of fruit for garnish and your kids will think they were served a very fancy drink.
Time for Lunch - If you’re looking for lunch ideas for school or home, you want foods that are filling, healthy, and fast. Your kids have a busy day and so do you. With a few lunch time tricks, you can have your kids fed quickly and with healthy foods. Examine some of your kids favorite foods and make the same dishes with healthier ingredients.
You can make macaroni and cheese healthier by mixing up your own batch at home using whole wheat pasta, skim milk, and low fat cheese. Make it nice and cheesy and your kids will fall in love with their new favorite mac and cheese with no boxes involved. Chicken nuggets are another favorite lunchtime meal that can be made simply. Just cut up chicken breasts into small pieces, dunk in an egg and milk mixture, then roll in either crushed cornflakes, cornmeal, or a flour and Parmesan cheese mixture, and bake in the oven on a cookie sheet until crispy.
Time for Dinner - It’s been a busy day and everyone is hungry. You can make a dinner that grownups will like, but if it doesn’t appeal to kids, they’ll pick and go hungry. Instead, cook foods that are fun and nutritious. One great way to make sure your kids eat right at dinnertime is to get them involved with the meal planning. Your kids know what appeals to them and with their ideas you’ll be able to create menus with all their favorite kid-tested meals tweaked by you for ultimate healthy food choices.
A great place to start is with homemade pizza. Choose healthy toppings and let your kids create their own personal pizza. You can even use flattened biscuits or tacos to create individual pizzas so each child can have their own favorite toppings. Tacos are another fun way to let kids get creative. Choose healthy fillings like shredded chicken, low-fat cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and green peppers and let each child fill their own. Normally when kids can make their own meal, they are more likely to eat it; and like it.
The secret to getting kids to eat healthy is in the fun presentation. Arrange an assortment of healthy foods in a fun way on your child’s plate, and you are most likely going to watch that food disappear. It’s not difficult to get kids to eat healthy foods when you use a little extra thought and planning. Start with these simple tips and you may be soon be surprised to see how healthy your child will eat.
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