5 Simple Healthy Meals and Snacks to Make with Kids

 Now that we’re months into the coronavirus pandemic, many parents (myself included) have hit a wall up the kitchen. 

Yet, while we are mainly staying home, it doesn’t mean we can’t mix things up. In fact, let’s find some inspiration for cooking healthy meals for teenagers during the work-from-home period. this manner we’ll avoid food boredom and stay safe! 

I started brooding about how we as a family are constantly striving to serve a nutrient dense diet, but often we still find ourselves rotating through an equivalent five recipes. This makes for a few pretty boring meals! So, to avoid the food blues, we've involved what we are eating, and most significantly , we attempt to include the youngsters within the meal planning. 

To do this, I typically found out my two boys (ages one and three) with an activity while I’m within the kitchen. Recently, however, they’ve taken an interest in helping out with the cooking process! 

I offer these points when cooking with kiddos:

Making memories together is that the goal.

If the tortilla gets a touch burned, or the bread doesn’t appear as if it does within the picture, it’ll still taste great.

The messier the method , the more fun it is!

Now here are some ideas for five simple healthy meals and snacks to form with kids:

Nutritious Meals

1. Spinach Quesadillas

My kids live for a quesadilla. I can’t blame them, what’s to not like? 

Cheese? Yes, please. Tortilla? in fact . Guacamole? Ok, officially hungry. 

This quesadilla recipe elevates that late-night fare from my college days (cheese + tortilla popped into the microwave). It layers in flavor and nutrition and provides a chance for teenagers to participate. While an adult mans the skillet, the kiddos build the quesadilla. began bowls of the ingredients on the counter: cheese, spinach (or a leafy green you've got on hand), beans, shredded meat, etc. the youngsters inevitably get messy, but the result is worthwhile . 

2. Tacos

Taco Tuesday wont to be an enormous hit once I was growing up and I’m bringing it to my house during the coronavirus pandemic! My company, Little Pickins, makes pre-cooked and frozen nutrient-dense nutriment . It’s an excellent healthy option for busy parents. We designed them as stand-alone meals-in-a-bite, but Pickins also can be dressed up! 

Little Pickins provides recipes on the way to use our nutriment , which boasts plenty of veggies, many fiber, and healthy protein – during a format for the whole family. chop some chicken, turkey, or Pickins and blend them together with your family’s favorite taco party fillings. 

You even can think outside the taco shell together with your kiddos. to try to to this, have each kid use a lettuce cup or a taco cup made up of a croissant and build a taco with Pickins, cheese, avocados, and any taco toppings that talk to them. 

Healthy Snacks

3. Smoothies

My oldest son wont to inhale yogurt as if his tiny body couldn't go another moment without it. Then he turned three. and every one things that wont to be were not . 

I guess I even have come to simply accept that I officially have a threenager. Since yogurt is one among life’s great treasures primed to assist our gut bacteria flourish (this may be a good thing!) and has many anti-viral properties, I insist my kids eat it. Using one among parenting’s greatest tricks, I camouflage the yogurt and he's none the wiser. 

The best a part of smoothies is that my one year-old and three year-old both help “make them.” the small guy can throw random berries into the blender while his older sibling scoops yogurt (with some assistance from Mom). i exploit milk and yogurt because the base and contribute any random berries I even have within the freezer. I also contribute Coconut Cult (a powerhouse of nutrition), avocado, and a leafy green. the youngsters have a blast turning the blender on and off, and that i have a blast drinking a number of the reward. 

Bonus round: See who can make the simplest smoothie mustache. Trust me, endless giggles for a minimum of quarter-hour .

Low-sugar Desserts

4. Spread cookies

My kids have an addiction to spread . they might eat it straight from the jar if I allow them to . I’m unsure where this comes from (*she said with a spoon of PB hanging from her mouth). When spread meets cookies, I’m in heaven. then are my kids. 

Yet, while I’m all about dessert and letting my kids eat a diet , I attempt to cut sugar out where I can. 

What i really like about this recipe is that coconut sugar is slightly more nutritious than regular sugar. you'll also make this without sugar to actually pack a healthy punch! counting on the age of your kids, they will help measure and dump into the bowl, but regardless of the age, everyone can celebrate mixing with their hands and making the classic fork marks on top of the cookie. 

5. Quick bread 

Unknowingly, my husband and that i will both order a bunch of bananas in our grocery delivery then have 20 bananas we'd like to try to to something with. We actually use bananas in oh numerous things (blended into pancake mix, added to oatmeal), but this quick bread recipe is clutch and versatile to whatever you've got in your pantry. I’ve used spelt flour, whole flour , almond flour and white flour. All worth making a second time. 

Cook and be merry!

No matter how you opt to return together within the kitchen, remember that it doesn’t need to be perfect. or maybe on the brink of it. you're making memories together with your kids. They don’t know what an ideal loaf of quick bread should appear as if . they're going to simply be excited to eat something that that they had a hand in making (and trust me, they're going to have a hand or two in it). 

When we conclude cooking at our house, i really like to conclude with a hand washing game. I bring a number of the bathtub toys into the sink (if you've got littler ones), and that we wash the toys, dishes, and maybe a couple of little hands within the process, because we all know teaching our kiddos the way to clean hands is critical, especially during this point .