It is so important to teach our children healthy eating habits while they are young. I also do not reward my children with unhealthy food. We even as adults have linked rewarding ourselves by indulging in alcohol and not so healthy food. Why not stock up on a few clearance toys and keep them on hand in your house to reward your kids or stickers or even 10 minutes added to bed time. I understand that it gets harder to control what your kids are eating as they get older but starting to educate them when they are young will ensure that they will want to make healthier choices when they are at an age when the decision is their own.
Picky eaters!! My daughter will literally eat almost anything that I give her. She even crawls up on my lap for a bite of my egg white omelets or tuna and mustard. My son on the other hand refuses to eat veggies besides peas occasionally, he wont eat eggs, plain chicken or fish and no cheese unless on pizza or occasionally a grilled cheese sandwich.
My children eat many mini meals throughout the day. I bake homemade bread for them and also make pizza from scratch (both recipes are on my blog). I try to balance their diets throughout the day to make sure that they are getting all of the nutrients that they need and I base their diets on lean proteins, veggies and fruits, whole grains and healthy fats as I do my own.
Smoothies are an absolute must in my house!! Some ingredients that I often use are bananas (over ripe, peeled and frozen in thirds), frozen strawberries and blueberries, unsweetened apple sauce, canned pumpkin, juice, peanut butter, flax seeds, almond milk or organic milk, greek yogurt and more greek yogurt and organic protein powder. I use honey, agave nectar or stevia in their smoothies to sweeten if I've used something like pumpkin in them. Another easy way to add protein to your smoothies is dry skim milk powder which you can buy in most grocery stores. Yes, children can have protein powder, just make sure that it is all natural and adjust the amount used for your child. I aim to get 1 gram of protein in per every lb of weight for my kids spread throughout the day from many different sources such as greek yogurt, chicken, cheese, fish, eggs, peanut butter, organic milk and protein powder etc. My son is an absolute greek yogurt addict!
Children also need lots of healthy fats in their diets. My children love the chocolate avocado pudding recipe, I add peanut butter and leave out the protein powder for theirs. I also often make them peanut butter and banana smoothies to get in fat from the peanuts and I will add a little flax to their smoothies for omega 3's. I fry things like my banana french toast(recipe on my blog) in coconut oil for the kids and serve it with peanut butter. I also use coconut oil when making grilled cheese sandwiches with my homemade bread. I make sweet potato fries in advance for the kids by chopping the sweet potatoes into fries and mixing in coconut oil, cinnamon and stevia before freezing them. When I want to cook them I just place the frozen fries into the microwave for 5 mins before baking them in the oven at 385 degrees for 20-25 mins.
As I said before, it's really hard to get veggies into my son so I find that the easiest way to do this is by adding a few extra veggies to his pizza. Both of my children love oatmeal. I quickly cook it in the microwave by adding double the amount of apple juice to dry oats and then sprinkling it with cinnamon and adding a little milk. My children drink a lot of water and I don't often give them straight juice but will sometimes water a little down for them. If I do give them juice I will often blend it up with some fruit like strawberries or a banana in the bullet to at least include some fibre. You can easily make Popsicle's this way for your kids to by freezing smoothies or juice blended with fruit. My kids love fruit and eat a huge variety of different kinds. I try to buy what is in season or on sale and stock up and freeze things that are really one sale to use in smoothies later.
I give my children a children's multivitamin and a children's omega 3-6-9 supplement daily.
Some of my favourite on the go snacks for the kids are cheese strings, raisins, fruit, squish ems (apple sauce in a squeezable hand held package), PC brand organic fruit chews, Annie's organic crackers and homemade protein muffins. My banana protein pancake recipe is a great alternative to pancakes for kids and gives them great nutrients to start their day. My kids also love rice cakes and will eat them plain or with natural peanut butter. My son is a popcorn addict, I don't often give it to him because a lot of corm is genetically modified but when I do make it for him I just use a pot and fry it with coconut oil. Microwave popcorn bags contain cancer causing chemicals so should be avioded and it's so much cheaper to make your own fresh popcorn!
I hope that a little insight into my home and what my chidren eat has helped you a little in making choices in your own home!! :)
