Are your kids’ picky eaters? If preparing healthy but delicious meals is a daily struggle, know you’re not alone. With a tight schedule, you might order take-out to keep everyone full. While keeping children eating healthy foods is essential, we can make mealtimes more fun. Even if you only have a few minutes to spare, there are ways to incorporate veggies into their diet without them knowing. Here are 14 easy Easy-Prep Healthy Food Recipes Kids Will Surely Love!
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Consider These 3 Things When Preparing Healthy Food Recipes for Kids
Tip #1: Keep it Simple
Research has shown that children eat more when they are involved in meal preparation. If you prep a complex dish, your child will get overwhelmed and not want to participate in the process.
But, if you cook a meal with fewer ingredients, you can delegate age-appropriate kitchen tasks to your kids. With more hands helping, you’ll spend less time prepping the food.
Use kid-friendly tools so no one gets hurt in the food-making process.
Tip #2: Involve the Children in Meal Planning
Children love seeing their parents proud of what they can do. Whether they’re put in charge of mixing the salad or preparing the menu, they will feel a sense of accomplishment once they’re done.
If you want to pique their interest in how their food is made, put them in charge of planning at least one meal a week. Please give them the ground rules for the menu following the guidelines for a kid’s healthy eating plate.
Once the menu is set, take them for grocery shopping. Please place them in charge of the list, including crossing off items. Use a visual grocery list if your kids are still in the toddler to preschool years, use a visual grocery list. Not only will this spark curiosity in meal prep, but it also enriches their vocabulary in a fun way.
Tip #3: Take Note of Preferences and Allergies
When kids see veggies, they immediately say “yuck” or “eew.” While it’s normal for them to have an aversion to bitter-tasting foods, they must start developing healthy eating habits.
To make the experience “more bearable,” give them a leeway through “treat days.” They get to prepare their favorite food one meal on certain days in exchange for eating healthy ones.
You can also get creative and add some silly designs to the food you’re making. Reducing the food’s bitterness by adding a sprinkle of sugar or a unique preparation method can make veggies palatable.
Take note of any food allergies, too. As some reactions are life-threatening, don’t buy food containing known allergens. Give food substitutes so the kids don’t miss out on their childhood.
14 Easy-Prep Healthy Food Recipes for Kids
Whether you have a whole hour to prepare the meal or a tight 10-minute squeeze, you can always give your kids healthy food. Not just healthy but fun to look at and yummy, too.
If you’re at a loss for meal-planning ideas, look at these healthy easy-prep food recipes your children will love.
1) Frozen Oatmeal Cups
Oatmeal is one of the best breakfast meals for kids due to its several health benefits. But as most mornings are a mad dash, even prepping an oatmeal meal can be time-consuming.
Hence, it’s better to cook your oatmeal in the evenings. Add your favorite toppings and freeze what you’ve made in muffin cups. Remove them from the muffin tray and keep them in storage bags.
In the morning, you only have to get one of those frozen oatmeal cups and heat them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Breakfast is served!
Fun fact: You can freeze oatmeal for up to 6 months, so long as it’s placed in airtight containers or freezer storage bags labeled with the date they were frozen.
2) Overnight Oats
If freezing your oatmeal isn’t what your kids like, try making overnight oats instead, and you must only combine rolled oats, Greek yogurt, and almond milk as the base.
Depending on what type of overnight oats you’ll make, you can add diced fruits as toppings. Once done, place the mixture in mason jars, seal them, and put them in the chiller overnight. What’s left for you to do is grab them from the fridge in the morning for you to eat!
Tasty features various overnight oats recipes for you to choose from.
3) Fruity Waffles
Though it can be an odd combo, you can make waffles healthier by topping them with fruits. You can make a waffle mixture from scratch or buy ready-made mixtures from the grocery.
Mix all the topping ingredients and the wet ingredients in separate bowls. Once the waffle iron’s hot enough, scoop about half a cup of the batter and spread it to the edges.
Wait for 3 minutes or until the waffles become golden brown. Once ready, top them with the fruits you mixed earlier. Don’t forget to drizzle maple syrup for a sublime taste.
4) Bite-Sized Pizza Pancakes
It might seem bizarre, but adding your fave pizza toppings to pancakes is possible. Ensure to have biscuit mix ready (store-bought ones are great, too). Mix it with Italian seasoning, dried herbs, or garlic powder.
Whisk eggs and milk together in another bowl until they’re thoroughly blended. Then stir in pepperoni, tomato, pepper, and cheese. If you want regular-sized pizza pancakes, pour the pizza pancake batter into a preheated grill. Cook both sides until they’re golden brown.
But for bite-sized ones, pour the batter into a mini-muffin pan and bake them in the oven. Regardless of the size, don’t forget to top those savory pancakes with pizza sauce!
5) Egg Wraps
Egg wraps are the perfect way of packing carbohydrates, proteins, and veggies in bite-sized portions. You only need about 10 minutes to prepare this meal, making it ideal for busy school days.
If you’re more scrunched on time than usual, mash a teaspoon of butter with hard-boiled eggs. Lay the egg-butter mixture in plastic wrap. Lay lettuce leaves and other fillings on the bottom ⅔ of the wrap. Roll tightly and cover with plastic wrap before cutting in half.
But if your kids prefer piping hot egg wrap, melt the butter in the pan and add the beaten egg-salt-pepper mixture. Keep stirring over low heat. Once the egg has scrambled, pile it with any fillings your kids love (veggies included) in a tortilla wrap for rolling up.
6) Fluffy Omelets
Nothing goes wrong with serving humble omelets for breakfast. All you need to do is whisk eggs, add some chopped veggies or other fillings your kids love, and fry them in the pan.
But to add some extra jiggle, beat the eggs side-to-side with a whisk until the top layer has become thick and bubbly. Adding a tablespoon of cream or milk can add creaminess to the mixture.
Tasty also introduced another way of cooking delicious fluffy omelets your kids will love.
7) Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
For a filling but nutritious breakfast (or midnight snacks), grilled cheese sandwiches are the simplest ones to make. Start with placing the side of the bread with butter on the pan.
Then top it with quick melt cheese or one of the 12 best kinds of cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches and another bread piece with butter.
Once it becomes golden brown, flip it and keep cooking until you’ve got melted cheese. Cut the sandwich in half and pull them apart to see the cheese stretch!
8) Mini Pizzas
Do your kids love pizza but always struggle to finish one whole slice? If your answer is yes, prepare this much-loved pie dish in miniature versions.
With the same old ingredients (dough, tomato sauce, cheese, veggie, and meat toppings), pop the pizza in the oven to bake. You can also allow the kids to add toppings to their pizzas; that way, everyone gets excited about how they taste.
Barbara Bakes has a list of the best mini pizza ingredients to make it a delicious and healthy snack.
9) Baked Meatballs
Meatballs are one of the best foods you can make meat-loving children eat veggies. You only need to mince or dice the veggies (carrots are my fave to add), so they can’t nitpick them during mealtimes.
Various versions of this savory dish can be made. But if you want a delicious twist, use ground chicken instead of ground pork, and Store-bought ground chicken would do. Mix this with diced veggies, eggs, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese before rolling them into balls.
You can even ask the kids to help roll the meatballs into shape (except if you’re hiding veggies). Then pop them in the oven and serve them straightaway or store them in the freezer for later use.
10) Veggie Egg Muffins
Hiding vegetables in bite-sized egg muffins is another way of encouraging children to eat them without them knowing. What’s good about this meal is you can prepare a batch in a day and store them in the fridge until you’re ready to reheat and serve them.
You only need to mix the usual ingredients for egg muffins (eggs, shredded cheese) with vegetables. The usual veggies you can mix include carrots, broccoli, and squash, and you can shred, mince, or grate them depending on how hidden you want them to be. Other veggies can also be used.
Once the batter’s ready, please place it in a greased mini-muffin pan and bake them to perfection.
11) TLC (Tomato, Lettuce, Cheese) Burger Bites
Nothing is a more sumptuous and filling dish for the day than a good old burger. But, as kids can barely finish a whole serving of regular-sized burgers, make them bite-sized instead.
But to add your mother’s TLC to those burger bites, add tomato, lettuce, and cheese to them. Making your bread from scratch would be great, but you can use store-bought ones. Cut out bite-sized portions using a cookie cutter.
As for the patty, you can use ground pork or chicken, and you can fry chicken fillet and use it as the patty if you like. Once the patty’s cooked, assemble the burger and serve them to your hungry kids.
You can also create a bunless version of these burger bites.
12) Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese
Mac and cheese are among kids’ favorite meals (and adults, too!). But as its main ingredients are made up of processed foods, it gets a bad rap for not being the healthiest dish, too.
But Thriving Home has developed a healthier version of this American staple. Prepare the dish as you usually would a regular mac and cheese. For the cheese sauce, place the flesh of the sweet potato with the milk, yogurt, pasta water, salt, and pepper in the blender until smooth.
Stir the milk mixture frequently in the same pot used for cooking the pasta over medium-high heat. Once the sauce’s melted and smooth, mix it with the pasta, place in a baking dish, add breadcrumbs for topping, and bake until the top’s browned.
13) Ravioli Casserole
For kids who love Italian dishes, a ravioli casserole would be a healthy dinner dish. If you have time to spare, make the ravioli filling yourself (meat, ricotta cheese, vegetables). But store-bought ones are also great for this meal.
While preheating the oven, prepare the ravioli according to the instructions and drain it afterward. In a baking pan, spread the pasta sauce and layer half of the ravioli with cheese. Repeat layering before sprinkling the top layer with cheese.
Bake for about 40 minutes and serve it once it has cooled down. You can garnish it with parsley for additional healthy points.
Check Taste of Home for the whole ingredients list for this delicious recipe.
14) Fried Rice
If you’ve got lots of leftover food and rice in the fridge, mix them in a popular Chinese dish called pork fried rice. Get a large skillet and start sauteeing pork and veggies you’d love to add. Usually, carrots, green peas, broccoli, and onion are added.
Butter can also be added but is merely an optional ingredient. After sauteing the veggies with the pork for 5 minutes, remove the mixture and stir the egg in the same skillet until it is set.
Add the rice with the soy sauce, minced garlic, and pork mixture. Garnish with green onions for added flavor and nutrition before serving.
Final Thoughts from Pragmatic Lifestyle – Playing With Food is Key to Get Kids to Eat Healthily!
Letting kids play with their food is often frowned upon by adults. Aside from being associated with bad manners, playing with food is also a hygiene issue.
But experts beg to disagree as research has shown that playing with food benefits kids. Children learn with their five senses, and the more senses are involved, the more kids will learn about the food’s characteristics and retain them better.
And what better way to encourage this than by allowing them to join in prepping their meals? Please give them a real-life experience by letting them help make your meals. For all we know, this meal preparation will become a weekly parent-child date that you both wouldn’t want to miss.