Healthy Eating with Kids

Things are a lot better food-wise in our house than they used to be. Years ago I remember making a separate meal for the kids and us. We didn't eat together and the kids had a limited range of foods they'd eat.

We've made a lot of changes that have helped with that. We gradually started introducing more foods to the table. We started eating together at the table. We lay out the food so the kids can put what they want to eat onto their own plates. And it's really helped mealtimes to be more enjoyable.

Leigh and Erin no longer feel harassed to eat something they don't like that's already on their plates. JD and I don't worry if the kids will try what we've made, they either do or they don't. The range of foods the kids will eat has grown and grown, much more quickly than I expected. We now eat curries together, Leigh likes lasagna and shepherd's pie and Erin enjoys pulled pork and meatballs (to name a few examples that have changed recently).

JD made up a spreadsheet to list the foods the kids eat/don't eat which has made it much easier to see how their tastes have changed. All colour coded to easily see who likes what. Green is things we all like, red is something nobody really likes etc.

Leigh and Erin still don't eat as much fruit or vegetables as I'd like but it's much better than it was. Leigh loves salad now and instead of negatively asking "Is there onions in it?" she now wants us to add onions. Erin used to eat such plain food it's great that now she's developing a love of spicy foods as well.

I've decided lately that I'd like us to try eating healthier snacks to help with getting the kids to eat well and try an even bigger range of foods. The meals they eat are much better now but for snacks/treats the kids will almost always go for Pringles often spending their pocket money on them. More variety is needed!

I have a slight distrust of healthy versions of snack foods though. They often describe themselves as delicious (or even better than the original) but aren't! I'm going to experiement anyway and give some more recipes a try.

Today I made us some chocolate cornflake cakes with bran flakes instead of the usual cornflakes.

Obviously not the MOST healthy snack since they're covered in butter and chocolate BUT it's something delicious we sometimes have, now with added fibre too.

I've bookmarked some more healthy snack recipes to try so expect to see them here soon!

Let me know if you have any good healthy snack ideas. I'd appreciate any recipes you've tried and loved. Thanks x