Plan Healthy Meals That Are Fun For Kids

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.

Got to Have a Snack – Most kids prefer sweets when they’re looking for a snack. Give them sweets like applesauce and homemade oatmeal cookies so you control the sugar. When you make your cookies, substitute honey for sugar. Fruit snacks and Fruit Roll Ups that are made from 100% fruit juice are great ways to give your kids healthy snacks.

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.

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.

Dinner Time – It’s the end of a busy day and your kids are hungry again. If you make a dinner for grownups like pot roast, mashed potatoes, and carrots, you may not have happy kids around the table. Instead, get your kids involved with the meal planning and they will eat healthier; and happier. Look at the dinnertime menu as a time to find kid-tested dishes that you can make healthy.

Homemade pizza can be a great way to get a variety of healthy foods into your child’s diet. Toppings like low-fat cheese, shredded chicken, tomatoes, and other veggies are nutritious and, when presented as choices to “build” a pizza, kids tend to dig right in. Another fun food that kids like to assemble is tacos. Provide healthy choices for fillings and let your kids get creative. Lay small tortillas out on a baking sheet and have your kids choose their toppings for their very own individual pizzas.

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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