Healthy Meal Planning Even Toddlers Approve Of
It’s pretty hard to eat a week’s worth of mason jar salads when you’re making mac and cheese every night. Moms who meal plan for health know the struggle all too well — you just wind up making two dinners (sometimes three, if there’s a picky spouse in the picture), and ultimately eating cold pizza while your salads turn to slime in the refrigerator.
The reality? It’s a lot easier and more realistic to stick to cleaner eating habits when you’re not making the other stuff for the rest of your family.
But kids are picky, and getting a toddler to eat quinoa can be almost as traumatic as trying to wash their hair. Not. Worth it.
But you know what is worth it?
You are.
Your health, your confidence, your sanity, your time — you are worth everyone finding compromise at mealtime.
Here’s how to find balance, and get into a healthy meal planning routine that doesn’t have you cooking different meals for everyone in the house.
Variety Is Everything
Kids can be picky eaters, but they can also be trained to try new things. Even if they have some well-established habits with their favorite comfort foods, start incorporating a greater variety at mealtimes, and use one simple rule:
You don’t have to like it, but you do have to try it.
Then if they don’t like it, that’s that — more for you, mama.
Eat Together
Kids are little mimickers at heart, it’s how they learn. Turn off the TV, put the phones away, and sit down together to focus on your food and conversation. Kids have a tendency of falling into the rhythms and routines that surround them, and eating together, even if it’s steamed vegetables, can start shifting the way mealtimes play out without ketchup in the picture.
Make Food An Experience
Lead by example, and make a big deal about how awesome what you’re eating is. The more involved people get with the story of their food — no matter what their age — the more likely they are to care about participating in that story and actually eat it.
Hit some u-pick berry farms this summer, get your eggs from a local backyard chicken farmer, or start some container gardens in the backyard. Whatever you decide to do, do more than just make the food and ask them to eat it.
Get Consistent On Boundaries
If you decide you’re not making a different meal for your kids every day, communicate that clearly and without a reprimand — it’s just a rule, not a punishment. Then stick to it. When the going gets tough and your kids push back, start talking about things you can make for dinner that everyone — including mom — will want to eat, and reach a compromise.
Healthy Meals to Try Together
We collaborated with the Hangry Moms, two brilliant moms on a mission to make healthy eating a no-big-deal family affair, and came out with a slew of easy and delicious recipes that are clean, wholesome, and totally toddler approved.
Here are a few of their best recommendations. All of these recipes are vegetarian, but adding meat is a-okay!
Breakfast
Got a yogurt fan? This lineup of smoothie bowl recipes has something for every picky eater under your roof, and tons of superfoods that are jam-packed with tough-to-get nutrients. The PB&J Boost Bowl is a crowd-pleaser, but chocoholics will REALLY love the Chocolate Berry Bowl.
Snack
Peanut Butter Toast and Fresh Fruit
It’s easy, it’s delicious, and it’s packed with fiber, protein, and vitamins. Get the good bread, some powdered peanut butter to cut back on the fat if you’re watching your intake, and your kids’ favorite fruit to go with it.
Lunch
Have a kid that lives for pizza? These miniature versions are packed with cheese and protein potential but with way less sodium and fat than your typical delivery version. Build up the hype by making them together.
Dinner
I know what you’re thinking mom — pasta? The waistline’s sworn enemy? Not so fast. This chickpea pasta by Banza is protein PACKED, with a whopping 25 grams per serving, and nearly half the net carbs of traditional pasta.
Set up a pasta salad station with all of your favorite toppings, and let everyone make their own freaking dinner.
Dessert
No-Bake Blackberry Cheesecake Cups
With zero refined sugar and a pile of fresh blackberries, these oven-free cheesecake cups make the perfect sweet treat for kids and grownups alike. You’ll need a food processor for this recipe, so make sure you do it before the baby goes down for a nap.
