Behavior problems, and life long healthy problems, and even your ability to think clearly all start with what you eat. Getting adults to eat right is hard enough – but how in the world do you get your kids to eat right so they have the best start to a long healthy life? Most people struggle with getting their kids to eat healthy. But it doesn’t have to be a struggle. Here’s what’s worked for me –
1. Eat healthy yourself – they learn from you.
2. Put out lots of food choices and let them taste different foods.
3. Don’t force them to eat something they don’t like. Just ask that they taste new foods. Most kids will accommodate if you start them early. And if they know you won’t force them to eat it if they don’t like it, they’ll be more willing to take the plunge!
4. Remember that kid’s taste change seemingly overnight. Just because they didn’t like it one time doesn’t mean they won’t like it the next time.
5. If you like it, put it out. When they see you enjoying something, they’re more curious.
6. Kids like simpler foods. They’ll eat a hamburger with nothing on it, or a salad with no dressing. You don’t have to be a world class chef.
7. Rather than talking to your kids about how healthy the food is, talk about how great it tastes. They turn off to the notion of healthy eating just the way you do. But if you’re eating it because it tastes really good, you’ll all be a lot happier – and healthier just happens.
Nothing is better than a great example. If you know a lot about foods, and you eat a lot of different foods, kids will naturally learn from you. How can you learn about healthy food?
By the way – These tips also work on adults!
Here’s a quick kid friendly dinner idea –
Creative Wraps Dinner
1 pound chicken or steak cut into strips
Garlic Powder
¼ cup orange juice
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
Place chicken or steak in a shallow glass baking dish. If cooking both, marinate separately.
Sprinkle with garlic powder. If using steak, also sprinkle fresh ground black pepper to taste.
Sprinkle orange juice, lime juice, and vinegar over meat. Refrigerate overnight.
Drain meat.
Grill quickly only until meat is cooked through and no longer pink. About 10 minutes. Do not over cook.
Put out –
Warmed Tortillas
Refried beans
Guacamole
Salsa
Diced fresh tomato
Diced onion
Shredded lettuce
Shredded cheese
Bacon
Let everyone make their own creations!
Serve with Spanish rice, or beans, or rice and beans, and fresh fruit.
I love good food, don’t you?
Enjoy!
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Thanks for that , very interesting. I get bored of plain rice but I’m not exactly very skilled when it comes to cooking. There’s tonnes of good ideas at this rice recipes homepage I found that your readers might find useful too.
Thank you so much, this was very interesting. I was actually born in Madrid (I’m not telling you when though!) but was moved around various parts of europe and lastly settled in the UK when I was 7. I dont remember much of the few years I was in spain, but the smell of spanish food always seems to get me going or something. It’s weird how I dont remember anything except the smells,isn’t it! I even found a whole internet site dedicated to spanish recipes, which gave me great delight and thought I really should to share. Anyway, thank you again. I’ll get my husband to add your feed to my rss thing…