Each of us at some point in time had difficulty in feeding healthy foods to our kids. Even in our childhood, we don’t usually like to eat them. Just the phrases “veggies” or “healthy food” puts the “yucky” face on. But there are tricks and tips to have kids eat healthy food and love it. These great ideas can get you and your family walk your way to a healthier living.
Veggies in Disguise
Try to sneak vegetables into everyday food. That way, they would not be able to recognize them. You can try these ideas:
- When making pizza, have a cup of pumpkin puree mixed into ½ cup pizza sauce before topping it on the dough. You can also add minced broccoli with the usual toppings.
- You can mix steamed carrot, sweet potatoes or winter squash puree into a cheese sauce.
- Blend a jar of spaghetti sauce with lightly steamed vegetable like cauliflower. You can also substitute pasta with a vegetable just as in spaghetti squash or zucchini.
Replace Food for a Healthier Substitute One at a Time
It is quite understandable for your kids to dislike healthy food when you suddenly replace frozen chicken nuggets for quinoa. Instead, try to make the change slowly, replacing one food for a healthy substitute at a time. Here are cool ideas:
- Replace white flour with whole wheat. There are food items in your house that needs to be substituted for whole wheat such as pasta and bread. You can also start making your own bread instead of finding processed whole wheat bread at your local stores. Your cereal and crackers can also be swapped for whole wheat ones available at your store.
- Start making your own chicken and fish nuggets from whole meat cut into bite-sized pieces. You can then coat them in bread crumbs and bake them in the oven. Surely your kids would lick their chops on this one.
- Mix healthy food with lesser ones to make the transition easier. For example, you can replace about a third of white rice with brown or wild rice. Gradually, you can then increase the amount of brown rice. That way, you can have kids eat healthy food by a patient process.
Read Healthy Books
Literature on healthy living can be a great resource for knowing how the body needs nutrients from healthy food in order to grow. This subject can be read from books suitable for almost all ages. This way, kids can be inspired into healthy eating once they know how their developing bodies work. You can reinforce their knowledge by teaching them on your free time. To have kids eat healthy food means a good mental conditioning on their part.
Healthy Food the Positive Way
Lastly, try having a positive approach when it comes to food. You can have your children help in the kitchen if they can. When they have a sense of fulfilment of cooking their own dishes, they would likely want to eat it. You can also give some snippets of knowledge as you cook by teaching them of the nutrients they can get for the food you are preparing. Try to make eating healthy seem like a good cause, not a big battle to overcome.
These tips can help you have kids eat healthy food to nourish them as they grow. In an age where binge eating is rampant, it is important for them to have this knowledge to prepare them for a healthy long life ahead.