Mini Bell Peppers & Hummus: Mini Sweet Bell Peppers are a new favorite in our house. These can be packed with individual packs of hummus.
Homemade trail mix with dried fruit, nuts, & cheerios: Take your child to the grocery with you and have them pick out a few dried fruits and nuts of their choice. Combine them with a whole grain cereal for a quick and easy trail mix.
All natural, no sugar added applesauce with graham crackers: We like to buy either the applesauce cups or squeezers. Our daughter likes to dip the graham crackers in the applesauce.
Apple slices with peanut butter: To keep the apple slices from browning, we squeeze a little lemon juice over them and pack the nut butter in a small separate container. Try the Mix-n-Match Peanut Butter Dip for a new alternative to peanut butter!
Carrot & Celery Sticks: with a small container of light ranch dressing for dipping. Try the Sweet & Savory Poppers to add more fruits and veggies!
Pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and feta: Perfect lunch including the key food groups. Try the Zesty Pasta Salad or Bow Ties & Veggies for a fun, veggie packed pasta dish.
Strawberry & Cheddar Cheese Kabob: Using a kabob stick, alternate fresh strawberries and cheddar cheese cubes.
Cashews & Kiwi: Peel and slice fresh kiwi. Pack with ¼ cup cashews.
Graham Cracker Sandwiches with Sliced Banana & Peanut Butter: Kids love these little sandwiches. Or, try the PB Fruit Roll-up as a way to include different fruit!
Try some fruit & veggie packed lunchbox recipes from Produce for Kids:Ideal Meals are chef-created, registered dietitian-approved complete meal recipes. There are some great lunchbox friendly recipes where fruits and veggies are the stars!
Add veggies to cheesy meals like mac and cheese and quesadillas!
For children who do not like to see vegetables in their food hide squash in cheesy meals or puree the veggies and add them to the cheese
Give children a choice. Line up a variety of veggies and have them pick one. Then let them rinse and clean the vegetable themselves and help prepare it by placing the pieces on their plate as you cut it.
Let your child pick out their own fresh veggies at the grocery store. Then serve them raw with a dipping sauce on the side. This builds excitement and kids love to dip!
Add veggies to ground beef before preparing burgers. For extra picky eaters puree them and use less egg and other wet ingredients in your recipe.
Make a rainbow out of the veggies and serve hummus on the side
Make a veggie kabob- food on a stick is instantly fun and appealing to a child
Add cauliflower to your mashed potatoes- simply use half the potatoes and substitute cauliflower I use this mashed potato recipe.
Make green smoothies- we make these a few times a week for the whole family. Incredible Smoothies is my favorite source for recipes and offers lots of great recipes that help get kids to eat vegetables. Make green smoothies even more fun and make them Green MONSTER smoothies. Rosie and Jewel loved these!
The Sneaky Chef- this site is AMAZING and packed with ways to get kids to eat vegetables. This is one of my favorite resources for sneaking in those veggies.
Buy vegetable pasta or make your own. It is colorful, fun, and sneaks in those veggies!
The book Deceptively Delicious- while I have not read this book myself it was recommended to me several times by readers. The book offers simple secrets to getting your kids to eat good food and is packed with recipes. There is a sample recipe on the page too!
Add veggie purees to their yogurt along with a favorite fruit to disguise the taste.
Let kids plant and grow their own vegetables. As the veggies are ready to eat, let them harvest wash, and help prepare them. This is a great activity on so many levels and is very enriching and rewarding. Besides that, it helps get kids excited to eat those veggies! Lots of information relating to gardening with kids can be found on Nurture Store.
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday April 9 at 05:04PM
Add veggies to cheesy meals like mac and cheese and quesadillas!
For children who do not like to see vegetables in their food hide squash in cheesy meals or puree the veggies and add them to the cheese
Give children a choice. Line up a variety of veggies and have them pick one. Then let them rinse and clean the vegetable themselves and help prepare it by placing the pieces on their plate as you cut it.
Let your child pick out their own fresh veggies at the grocery store. Then serve them raw with a dipping sauce on the side. This builds excitement and kids love to dip!
Add veggies to ground beef before preparing burgers. For extra picky eaters puree them and use less egg and other wet ingredients in your recipe.
Make a rainbow out of the veggies and serve hummus on the side
Make a veggie kabob- food on a stick is instantly fun and appealing to a child
Add cauliflower to your mashed potatoes- simply use half the potatoes and substitute cauliflower I use this mashed potato recipe.
Make green smoothies- we make these a few times a week for the whole family. Incredible Smoothies is my favorite source for recipes and offers lots of great recipes that help get kids to eat vegetables. Make green smoothies even more fun and make them Green MONSTER smoothies. Rosie and Jewel loved these!
The Sneaky Chef- this site is AMAZING and packed with ways to get kids to eat vegetables. This is one of my favorite resources for sneaking in those veggies.
Buy vegetable pasta or make your own. It is colorful, fun, and sneaks in those veggies!
The book Deceptively Delicious- while I have not read this book myself it was recommended to me several times by readers. The book offers simple secrets to getting your kids to eat good food and is packed with recipes. There is a sample recipe on the page too!
Add veggie purees to their yogurt along with a favorite fruit to disguise the taste.
Let kids plant and grow their own vegetables. As the veggies are ready to eat, let them harvest wash, and help prepare them. This is a great activity on so many levels and is very enriching and rewarding. Besides that, it helps get kids excited to eat those veggies! Lots of information relating to gardening with kids can be found on Nurture Store.
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday April 9 at 05:04PM
Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, here's a healthier take on mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Start with a 16 oz. container of vanilla chocolate chunk Chobani greek yogurt. Add a little less than 1/8 of a teaspoon of peppermint extract and then a couple of drops of green food coloring (only if you want it to have that real mint look). Put the lid back on and pop it in the freezer for a few hours and there you have it!
Patterning food after real life objects is a great way to get kids excited about eating healthy foods. Try these fun takes on stop lights from superhealthykids.com. Just take a graham cracker, a cream cheese spread, slice of strawberry, half an apricot, and a kiwi slice.
For this variation with vegetables, try a celery stalk, cream cheese spread, and red, yellow, and green peppers. (You can use the back side of a frosting tip to help cut perfect circles).
Enjoy!
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday February 19 at 10:33AM
Spatulatta.com is a fantastic place for kids to go to learn how to cook. With 350 step by step video recipes, kids can not only get ideas for what to cook, but see exactly how to do it. Have them take a look and get those kids cooking!
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday January 8 at 05:18PM
Take a look at these fun and festive snacks from creativekidsnacks.com (visit their site and see tons more fun stuff).
#1: Veggie Christmas Tree
Use cut celery arranged on an angle to create the shape of the tree. Slice a baby carrot into wheels for the ornaments. Cut a yellow pepper into the shape of a star for the top of the tree.
Create the trunk by rolling a slice of deli ham into a one inch wide roll-up and folding it in half. Slice the bottom off to create a straIght line if you wish.
The snowflakes are created by slicing some string cheese into wheels, then carefully slicing little triangles out of them (from the outisde in).
Serve with a little ranch for dipping, and enjoy!
#2: Santa Panini Sandwich
Start off by making a turkey and cheese panini on a panini press.
After placing it on the plate, spoon some cottage cheese around the bottom of the plate and leave a little gap where Santa's mouth would be. Note: the sandwich is placed with the rounded side of the bread down.
Next, create his hat and nose with some strawberries. Finish the look of the hat with a little whipped cream and finish with some raisin eyes.
#3: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph is made out of a peanut butter sandwich. Leave the round (top) part of the bread in tact, then slice into an oval for the main part of the body as shown.
From the remaining portion, slice four thin legs and a head. Think of cutting the shape of a shoe for the head. Add a raisin eye, a strawberry nose, and two pretzel antlers.
A little pine tree made of sugar snap peas completes the look of Rudolph's flight through the air!
#4: Cottage Cheese Snowman
This snowman has a cottage cheese body , raisin eyes and buttons, 1/2 a baby carrot for a nose, and celery sticks for arms.
Scoop the cottage cheese onto the plate with a small spoon into three circles. Slice your baby carrot in half and add for his nose. Place his eyes and buttons on, and finish with arms. Done!
#5: Holiday Wreath
For the wreath, use celery for the greenery, then add carrots and grapes sliced up for the "berries" of the wreath. You could use cherry tomatoes, red bell peppers, or even strawberries here.
The bow was made out of a slice of ham. Cut one full slice from the deli into quarters, and roll each up as big as you want it to be for the parts of the bow.
If you like cottage cheese, add some for some snow!
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday December 18, 2012 at 10:44AM
Superkidsnutrition.com is a great resource filled with nutrition articles, kids activities, a nutrition blog, an ask the experts section, and lots more. Check it out!
Posted
by thedevereaux
on Tuesday October 30, 2012 at 12:11PM
