So, a friend asked me to give some healthy meal and snack ideas for kiddos. Here are some of the things we eat around here. I don’t think there will be anything exciting and new, but maybe it will help!
We eat combinations of a protein and carb at most meals. Proteins are: meats, beans, legumes, dairy (but we rarely eat dairy), nuts, seeds, etc. Carbs are: Veggies, fruits, grains. So you can see in most meals here, both are present. We also add a healthy fat usually to meals where the protein is lean, such as roasting/grilling veggies with olive oil or a salad with dressing made with olive oil, or protein shake with coconut oil.
Meals and Snacks:
Almond milk and flaxseed pumpkin cereal (or another organic, low or no sugar added cereal)
Eggs (scrambled and boiled are our favorites) and blueberries or strawberries
Omelets with cheese, red or green peppers, red onion, and sometimes sausage or bacon–confession!)
Oatmeal (with a little “real” maple syrup and frozen blueberries)
Protein shakes with spinach, ground flaxseed, frozen fruit, whey protein powder, coconut oil
Salad: spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, fruit, pumpkin seeds, carrots, walnuts
Raw walnuts, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, or cashews with raw veggies like carrots, cucumbers, peppers, or broccoli
All natural peanut/almond butter with celery, rice cake, apple slices, or just a spoonful of PB and a fruit or veggie
All natural pb with spreadable fruit on rice cakes
Taco salad: Spinach, tomatoes, beef browned with cumin & chili powder, maybe some shredded cheese, non GMO corn tortilla chips (Aldi’s or Trader Joe’s), black bean and corn salsa
Chili with Laura’s lean beef (Kroger), beans, etc., adding in pureed sweet potato
Other homemade soups like Pasta Fagioli, chicken tortilla soup, veggie, etc, all pasta is brown rice pasta
Spaghetti with brown rice pasta, beef, and low sugar or homemade spaghetti sauce
Many different “chicken in the crock pot” meals with brown rice and a salad or quinoa and a salad
Roasted veggies like sweet potato fries, broccoli, potatoes, etc with chicken or fish
Beans and brown rice
Grilled veggies like peppers, onions, mushrooms with grilled chicken or fish
Frozen fruit: pineapple tidbits, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, straight from the freezer
That’s pretty much what we eat around here! We try to keep anything processed or junky out of the house. It is so easy to grab stuff like pretzels, chips, granola bars, and gummy fruit snacks when we’re hungry…and then we over eat these “foods” because none of them have nutrients that nourish our bodies. So keeping these all out of the house helps a lot. We try to make half of every plate raw veggies and/or fruits.
Also, we pack snacks every day that we are leaving the house so we don’t get stuck in town starving! We pack baggies of nuts, seeds, green peppers, raisins, carrots, grapes, strawberries, apple slices, and sometimes rice cakes and peanut butter. Wish I had more exciting foods to share with you, but these are all nutrient dense and filling, and I’m sure we’ll branch out and find new things as we learn!
Kids will eat good food if that’s all they are offered. Try cooking the veggies in different ways, or just keep offering them raw, maybe one slice of green pepper a day. They aren’t going to like all of them, but they will get used to many and eventually this will be the new normal. We have a couple types of dips in the house, like ranch dressing (as all natural as I can find until I learn to make my own), and I think if kids need bbq sauce, salad dressing, butter, or cheese to eat these foods, that’s fine. Eventually they will not need these extras. Tastes change! Whole food supplements such as Juice Plus can help them change; it’s really amazing!
