Kids Eat Healthy When Food Is Fun
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:
Start the Day Right – Give your kids a delicious, healthy breakfast by getting rid of the prepackaged cereals, pastries, and bars. Many of these handy foods contain lots and lots of sugar and ingredients you and I can’t pronounce. And, yes, that includes the so-called healthy breakfast bars.
Replace these sugary foods with healthy foods like whole grain pancakes with naturally sweet fruit toppings. Make the pancakes the night before and warm them in the microwave in the morning to make your breakfast time a bit easier. Try whole-wheat tortillas filled with things like fruit, scrambled eggs, cheese, and turkey bacon. They are delicious and nutritious, and your kids will have fun eating them, too. Wrap the filled tortillas in parchment paper and they make a great grab-and-go breakfast.
Snack Time – Most kids will ask for sweets when they’re looking for a snack. Grab sweets like applesauce and homemade oatmeal cookies. If you make your own cookies, you can use recipes that substitute honey for sugar. Fruit snacks and dried fruit roll ups made from 100 percent fruit are great ways to give your kids snacks without all that sugar.
Fresh fruit juice is a delicious substitute for those sugary fruit punch drinks. You can even cut the expense by adding a little water to the fruit juice. Poured over ice and your kids will think they have a grownup drink and won’t even notice the lack of sugar. Say NO to all sodas by serving flavored tonic water with a pretty slice of fruit for garnish. This is a sparkly drink that your kids will grow quite attached to and never miss the soda again.
Lunch is Ready – Whether packing a lunch for school or feeding your kids at home, you want something filling, healthy, and quick. Their day is busy, and so is yours. With a few lunch box tricks, you can have your kids well fed quickly. Just take a look at 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.
Dinner Bell is Ringing – At the end of a busy day, your kids want a big meal. You can make a routine dinner of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and beans, but that may not appeal to a youngster. Get your kids involved with the meal planning and see what they come up with. You want to look for kid-tested menus that you can make healthy.
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 preparing and serving foods in a fun way. Kids will eat healthy food when presented with a fun way to enjoy it. Use your imagination and excellent planning and you’ll have plenty of nutritious fun foods to feed your kids. Use these simple ideas to start and soon you’ll have your kids eating healthy meals every day – and liking it!
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