Nutritious Recipes and Tips
Delicious healthy recipes for your little picky eater
Breakfast Recipes
Lunch Recipes
Supper Recipes
Snack Recipes
Healthy Nutritional Tips :
Does your child like only certain foods like french fries or peanut butter sandwich and refuses everything else?
Is yesterday’s favorite food suddenly unwanted by your child today?
Is meal time turning into a battle time?
If you answered yes to any of the previous questions, then most probably you know the difficulty of dealing with a preschooler who is a fussy eater.
But don’t worry. These habits usually fade away with time as your toddler matures.
Practical Tips
With a little patience, a plan and an artistic touch, you will be able to make healthy eating second nature for your child and make meal times a breeze. Below are useful tips to help your little picky eater get lots of adequate nutrition and keep his edgy food-bound temperament at bay.
Let your child be
Forget the old ways of force-feeding to the last bite. Offer your child smaller meals (around 5-6 per day) and respect your child’s small appetite. Limit milk and snacks to one hour before meals. To know how much to offer, look at your child’s fist: its nearly the size of his tiny stomach.
Food in shapes and colors
Cut up your child’s veggies and fruits into fun shapes with a knife or a cookie cutter! Serve colorful smoothies and juices. Ask for your child’s help in choosing new shapes and colors. For more fun snack suggestions and recipes, keep reading!
Food quality over quantity
A healthy child needs a rich and balanced diet containing adequate nutrients like minerals and vitamins to grow up strong and healthy. Focus on what food you give your child without over-emphasizing how much they eat.
Please your child’s sweet tooth naturally
If your child is always asking for desert, try to alternate that often with naturally sweet food like watermelon, cantaloupe and apples.
Mealtime truce
No fighting on the table, mom. Arguing with your child over eating creates a food power struggle that could stay well into adulthood. Also, don’t bribe them with desert if they finish their plate; its going to teach that veggies are the punishment and desert is the reward. What you can do is put at least one kind of food that you know your child likes on the table and clear the table when they are done no matter how much they ate without commenting on it. If they ask for desert, give it to them without much fuss.
Invite a little friend
Give your child a good role model his age. If your child is going through a difficult picky eating phase, invite over a friend his age or a bit older who “loves to eat” for a meal. Let them eat together and watch your child follow suit.
Steam those carrots
Steaming those veggies is not only healthy, but it also tastes better. Steaming locks in all the rich flavor and sweetness, so chances are your child will love it!
Finally, be your child’s hero
There’s a good chance that your child will develop healthy eating habits if mommy is eating her carrots and drinking her milk. Remember, children may not always listen to their parents but they never fail to imitate them.
Suggestions for healthy snacks
- Diced cooked salmon
- Whole-wheat muffin
- Yogurt or whole milk
- Fruit cups
- Hard-boiled egg
- Cut-up vegetables such as mini carrot strips with cottage cheese
Fun Ideas That Children Love
Children would love to do anything as long as it’s fun to do. Why not make meal time pure fun that your child looks forward to? Try out the following fun ideas and get your child into the healthy eating fan club.
1. Children love to squish foods
Give your little one healthy squishy food and let them go wild (of course, only on the eating table or area). Suggestions are banana, sweet potato, and strawberries that are full of vitamins, minerals and sheer fun.
2. Children love frozen foods
Playing with frozen things is the ultimate fun for children if you haven’t noticed already! Try homemade juice pops made from 100% fruit or vegetable juice but be sure whatever you freeze is large enough to suck on, to avoid a choking hazard.
3. Children love to dip foods
Toddlers love dipping their food and it never seems to get old with them. Let them dip fruit pieces in vanilla yogurt or thinly sliced carrot sticks in hummus.
4. Children love shaped foods
Cut up your child’s food into bite-size fun shapes like circles and sticks, balls and even triangles. You can even give their foods playful names like apple moons (thinly sliced), avocado boats (a quarter of an avocado), carrot swords (cooked and thinly sliced), cheese building blocks, and little O’s (o-shaped cereal).
5. Children love to eat veggie artwork
Join your child in making veggie faces that has spinach hair, a carrot nose, cooked bean eyes and cooked chickpea teeth. Let your child unlock the Picasso within and make original veggie masterpieces. Broccoli makes great trees, and brown rice can be molded into mountains!
Snaking Tips
Your child has a small stomach capacity – so small nutritious snacks eaten between meals will keep him well fuelled for his growth and development. Snacks are also a great way to help ensure your child is getting a balanced, healthy diet.
Tips
- Try to serve snacks that might be missed at meals – such as fruit and vegetables.
- The best snacks are small in size and nutritious.
- Serve snacks 1 - 2 hours before meal times to avoid spoiling your child's appetite.
Some snack suggestions include:
- diced fruit with vanilla yogurt as a dip
- a fruit smoothie
- whole grain crackers and cheese
- yogurt or whole milk
- whole grain muffin
- cut-up vegetables (such as mini carrots cut into narrow strips with dip or cottage cheese)
- apple sauce or other fruit purees
- fruit cups
- cookies
- whole grain cereal
- hummus with whole grain crackers or cut-up vegetables
- hard boiled eggs
