Three Ways I Add Nutrition to My Kids’ Meals
Original Post by: Laura Evans on Mar 20, 2012 in Healthy Weight, Natural Nutrition Blog
Laura has three children, ages 8 to 17 years old. They are not only highly active, but they also have varying tastes in food and varying appetites. Because they are young, growing fast, and learning from her influence, she feels it’s especially important that she help them create healthful eating habits now. For her, it begins with creating
nutritious meal options for them.
In general, she keeps a supply of the Shaklee Cinch Snack Bars on hand for when her children need a low-calorie, high-protein snack. Of course, each of her children favors a different flavor, so she keeps a Snack Bar Assortment Pack in their pantry at home.
Here go-to strategies for creating nutritious meals for her children:
1. 
Use soy protein whenever possible.
She always bakes with Shaklee Instant Soy Protein. As a rule of thumb, she substitute about 1/3 soy protein for every cup of flour that a recipe calls for. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, she’ll change it to 2/3 cup of unbleached or wheat flour plus 1/3 cup of soy protein. And a favorite kitchen activity she can all do together with her kids is to make Shaklee protein snacks. Add a cup of Soy Protein to 1/3 cup Peanut Butter and ¼ cup of Honey. Mix the ingredients together like dough and then roll into Balls or Snakes or any shape you desire. Cover with Shredded Coconut or Chopped Nuts and refrigerate until hard. Her kids love these for dessert or as an afternoon snack! I will be trying these too, they sound delicious!! For adult healthy snacks… I would even add a couple teaspoons of Fiber Plan.
Cuisinart Prep Plus Food Processor
2. Sneak veggies in everywhere
Either celery with Peanut Butter or baby carrots make a great snack. Soups are another great meal to pile with veggies, such as carrots, spinach, broccoli, or celery. For example, she likes to cook carrots or celery in a stock pot and then puree in a food processor. This not only thickens the soup base, but her kids never even know the veggies are in there!
3. The more fresh fruit, the healthier.
At home, we call fruit “nature’s candy.” Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, bananas, and apples are always on hand in our kitchen. The berries are easy to grab by the handful, and we often bag a variety of berries and other cut-up fruit to take on the go. Another specialty in the Evans household is to replace sugary jams or jellies in a traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich with fresh fruit. They put berries or even bananas in the sandwich and smush them into the peanut butter. This sounds yummy too… I never thought about putting real fruit on a P & J Sandwich before.
Probably the most important thing is getting her children involved in deciding what to eat and being creative with meals. The more they are involved, the more likely they are to make healthier food choices when she’s not around—and that makes her a happy parent!
To Your Health,
Kaetlin OBrien
Living Healthy
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