As a mom of five kids, I remember spending hours cooking for my family and teaching my kids to make healthy food choices. There were some days when I felt like I was talking to deaf ears, but I’m finally in a place where I can see the fruits (and vegetables) of my efforts. Now that my kids are getting older, they are often the ones encouraging me to eat healthier. How awesome is that? I’m excited to share these healthy eating tips (from the kids and for the kids) in partnership with Ruby Rockets and Trekaroo. All thoughts and opinions are my own…and my kids’.
A love for eating wholesome food and veggies is something I tried to instill in my children from the beginning, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Now that they are old enough to make their own healthy eating choices, it is awesome for ME to get encouragement from them. Yes, my 13-year-old likes to remind us to lay off the soda. My 15-year-old likes to encourage us to not eat fast food. I figured that it would be fun to turn to the kids to see what tips they had for moms with younger kids. These are their tips on preparing kids’ healthy snacks and meals and setting healthy food habits at home.
Trying different foods rocks
I think this is especially true as kids get older. My kids would tell you that they LOVE trying new foods now. Yes, even the kids that turned their noses up at new veggies. All of those hours of encouraging my kids to eat new foods paid off. Now my kids are the ones encouraging ME to try new foods! My oldest daughter keeps telling me that I should try sushi, but I’m not quite there yet.
Meal prep will save your sanity
Okay, this is one of my favorite tips – from our family to yours. Meal prepping has been a true sanity saver for the entire family. There is one day a week that we do a lot of our meal prepping. During the busy summer, it has been so helpful to go home and just pull some meals out of the freezer or fridge. Cutting up fruits and veggies at the start of the week is a true time saver and helps keep the whole family on track with eating healthy. Snack prep is just as important.
Let the kids help
This is a tip straight from my kids because they LOVE helping me cook in the kitchen. It’s amazing to me how great my kids have become at cooking. At first, I was nervous about them helping in the kitchen, but now I welcome it. What better way to encourage healthy eating than to let the kids help? Once they started helping out more regularly, they quickly realized that they loved using fresh, real ingredients and that homemade tastes better than processed.
Eat healthy on the go, too
My kids and I have talked a ton about eating healthy on the go. We may not always be able to sit down at the table to eat, but that doesn’t mean we need to settle for an unhealthy alternative. Although we splurge and eat fast food from time to time, we try to stick to a pretty healthy diet. My kids have to remind me to skip the fast food from time to time because I LOVE eating out! I never thought they’d be the ones telling ME that it would be better to eat at home versus grabbing a pizza.
Have healthy snacks available
One of our biggest pitfalls is snacking at home and packing wholesome snacks for school lunches. It’s so easy to rely on convenience foods, but convenience often means that you’re sacrificing somewhere else. We have created snack stations so that it’s easy to grab a good-for-you choice when hunger strikes. We have one in the pantry with granolas and nuts and crackers, and one in the fridge/freezer with perishable snacks like ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables, and frozen fruit and veggie pops from Ruby Rockets. When someone feels like snacking, it’s easy to grab a healthy choice.
I’m totally hooked on Ruby Rockets’ Non-Dairy Yogurt Alternative. They’re a portable snack made from fruits, veggies, creamed coconut, chia seeds, and pea protein with no added sugar. They’re also gluten free, vegan, and kosher, and don’t need refrigeration…but most importantly, they taste amazing. I know they’re probably meant for the kids, but I’ve been sneaking them for my mid-day snack and after-dinner no-guilt sweet treat. The kids love having popsicles in the freezer that are so good for them that I always give them a thumbs up to grab a cool snack (did I mention that the fruit and veggie pops are also non-dairy, gluten-free, no added sugar, AND they have probiotics?).
Healthy meal ideas my kids love
Now that you know some healthy meal tips from our family, I wanted to share some of our favorite meal ideas. We like to keep meals pretty simple, using common ingredients that we almost always have in stock. Check out some of these healthy meal picks that you’ll see our family eating on a regular basis:
- Tex-Mex Sausage Quinoa
- Tomato Basil Soup
- Homemade chicken pot pie (an all-time favorite and so much better than the microwave variety!)
- Black eyed peas and sausage
- Chicken tortilla soup
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Ruby’s Naturals, Inc., parent company to Ruby Rockets, makes delicious, healthy, non-dairy fruit & veggie snacks for the whole family. We’ve been creating organic, non-GMO, real food with no added sugar, since 2013. Whether it’s a refreshing non-dairy fruit and veggie ice pop enjoyed best on a hot summer day, or a kid-friendly, non-dairy yogurt alternative convenient for on-the-go occasions, Ruby’s Naturals, Inc. is committed to serving nutritious, yummy snacks that the whole family can enjoy.
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I love eating out, too! Especially since my family seems to be on the goo all the time. It just seems like the easier, and tastier, option. However, we do try to keep it to a minimum and just bring aling some healthy snacks. My older daughter has been the one to encourage me lately. She’s been quite the positive role model for her younger siblings.
I would love to try the chicken tortilla soup! Meal prepping has also saved me so much during the busy week! It helps with easy dinner and also staying on budget.
great tips and i bookmarked the chicken pot pies … sounds delicious! i also let my kids pick fresh veggies and fruits and we come up with a meal to cook them together .
Thank you! They really are our top two recipes that my kids ask for over and over!
The Tex Mex Sausage Quinoa and the Chicken Pot Pie recipes look amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I think the tip about getting the kids to help out in the kitchen would help a lot in educating them about healthy food choices.
When I prep in advance, it is so helpful to the way our meals go each week. With back to school coming soon, I need to get back into this meal prep mindset. Thanks for the tips!
You have good tips! and these recipes sound great to try! I used to spend the better part of Saturday chopping and preparing, it was good when it was done, but it seemed too long. Now I get up really early and do some every day, or at night, but the idea of having foods ready to be cooked is worth doing!