Friday, June 17, 2011

Healthy Lunch Ideas Mixed With The Right Snacks Will Get Your Kids Eating The Way You Want!

Snacks are a corner stone of getting your kids to eat a nutritionally balanced diet. Kids are natural grazers, so keeping healthy snacks handy for your little ones will cut out a lot of food with poor nutritional value that they may eat. I would suggest clearing your cupboards of anything that could be given as a quick snack and is not healthy. To be honest, if you are busy and the kids are complaining it’s always tempting, so just remove the option!

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Healthy snack ideas for your kids:

* Fruit ices are easy and kids love them! Blend your child’s favorite fruit juice with vanilla yoghurt and just pop it in the freezer!

* Peanut butter snacks! These are great... just pop some peanut butter on a cracker or pita triangle and watch your kids demolish them!

* Dips - cut up a few veggies to have with humous or low fat ranch dressing. It’s simple, easy and keeps in the fridge… perfect snacking for little ones!

* Sweet potato slices - More nutritious than standard potato, just sprinkle some salt over thinly sliced baked sweet pots!

For more healthy lunch ideas visit my website!

 

 

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Little By Little Is The Key To Your Kids Eating Great Healthy Food!

Introducing your child gradually to healthy eating is a great path to a balanced diet for your child. More importantly, this way you will make sure that the lessons you are teaching them extend into their adult lives. If you have a child that is "forced" into healthy eating, meal times become a battle and at the first opportunity they will choose unhealthy options.

If you usually give your child sandwiches for lunch, try introducing whole meal bread first. If this is met with an adverse reaction, try making a sandwich with one slice brown and another slice white. Next, try and keep the fillings that you would have used before but switch to a tortilla or whole meal pita bread. Bread has very low nutritional value but flat breads are the best variety and can be used as a bridge to healthy eating.

Just remember that if your child really hates something, do not force the issue too much. I am sure there will be another alternative that is more appealing to them. For example, if they won't eat apples, try a banana and so on. The key is step by step to make it natural for them to have a healthy lunch rather than try and incorporate everything at once! Force is the easiest way to get your child opposed to healthy food and create a barrier of negative associations within their mind.

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Check out my website for more healthy lunch ideas!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Some More Healthy Lunch Ideas To Get Your Kids On Board The Healthy Wagon

The key to getting your kids eating great healthy food is getting them involved. If they feel you are simply imposing upon them, they are likely to resist and every meal time will become a battle! I am not suggesting that you give in and let your kids eat bad food, but it is easier to get them on board than you think. So when looking for healthy lunch ideas bear these tips in mind…

* Top Tip 1: Give them choices within healthy parameters. This means that you are still giving them healthy food, but you are also giving them some power over their own diet. Give them a choice of ranch dip or humous. Give them a choice of carrots or celery sticks. Would they like tuna mayo or chicken breast? Small choices within pre-defined limits make all the difference.

* Top tip 2: Relate healthy food to their favorite activities. Keep emphasizing that healthy food means they will be better at and have more energy for their favorite physical activities. This may not seem effective at first, but you are creating great associations for your kids that can last them a lifetime.

* Top Tip 3: Get them in the kitchen! Get them in the kitchen as often as you can. Start off on the weekends and get them stuffing pita bread with chicken and salad. Or making fun shaped oatmeal cookies that they can take to school that week. They will be more enthusiastic than you think!

Check out my website for more healthy lunch ideas!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Healthy Lunch Ideas – It Could Be Easier To Feed Your Kids Than You Think

Coming up with healthy lunch ideas for your kids could be far easier on you than you think…

* Step 1: Get a decent lunch box. This sounds silly but it makes all the difference in the world - get a lunch box with compartments. Bento boxes are huge right now, but you do not have to go with a brand, just something with compartments. The key is being able to divide everything up and getting into a formula. Main meal, something sweet, some veggie sticks with a dip and a piece of fruit.

* Step 2: Be kind to yourself and be as simple as possible. Choose things like ranch dip or cucumber and yoghurt that you can be made a few days before hand and just need veggie sticks added. Pre cook some chicken breasts to use for your tortilla wraps. The key is not putting pressure on yourself in the mornings. Make things that can be pre-prepared or take very little effort.

* Step 3: Try and choose things that the kids can help make! Obviously this is not something to be done first thing in the morning, but there is no reason why your little ones cannot help packing their lunch boxes the night before. I mentioned tortilla wraps and they are perfect for this! Just add some chicken breast, ranch dressing, lettuce and tomato and get your kids to roll it together, loads of fun! Another great option is pita bread. Again, all they need to do is be stuffed and kids love that!

So take these healthy lunch ideas and run with them!