Helping Hands… Kids love to eat what they help make

By Caryn Roll

Let’s face it: When given a choice most kids will grab a handful of chips before digging into a bowl of green beans. They prefer junk food making meals and snacks challenging.  The trick is to feed them healthy foods without them knowing it.

Let’s start with breakfast. Fruit, milk or yogurt and a whole grain product would be optimal. Spread some homemade maple syrup butter on half a whole grain bagel. Serve it with milk and a banana. For extra protein, try cottage cheese, ricotta cheese or even Greek style yogurt mixed with thawed frozen fruit and a touch of honey. This can also be spread over toast.

Packing lunch boxes for school aged children is tricky since we can’t be sure they are eating it. If your child is in grade 2 or up, have them prepare their own lunch with choices you provide. For example, keep a basket filled with a variety of snack foods you deem appropriate like cheese and crackers or low sodium pretzels and from that basket they can choose snacks they like. Keep a basket for drinks, another for breads, another for fruits and cut up vegetables, and another for sandwich fillers like cheese, hummus, turkey slices, tuna and chopped egg.

The night before put all the baskets on the table and have them create their lunch masterpieces. While on the subject of having kids prepare foods why not include your toddlers in meal and snack preparation as well. Kids love to eat what they help make.  

When preparing a smoothie, have your little one work the pulse button on the blender. It’s fun and they’re likely to get excited about eating what they’ve helped with.

It’s the end of the day, time to make supper but the kids are starving even before you have made it through the door. Allow your kids to have snacks when they get home from school. Pull out those baskets again. Try to meal plan so you don’t end up ordering take out every night. If you are making a pasta sauce with added vegetables, purée the whole thing with an immersion blender.

The kids won’t taste the vegetables as much when the sauce is prepared this way. Puréed soups work in the same manner. Consider making a sweet sauce to go over chicken, meat or fish for those fussy eaters who don’t like protein. Everything tastes better with a sauce, even vegetables! When serving a cold salad add fruits such as strawberries or canned mandarins. It’s unexpected and it really tastes great.

For dessert try this trick. Using skewers, make a pattern with raspberries, blueberries and grapes. Freeze them and then serve with frozen yogurt. As you can see preparing healthy meals and snacks takes a little bit of creativity but knowing your kids are eating mostly healthy foods makes it worth it.