Many adults have made a New Year’s Resolution about eating; kids are picky eaters but there are some great ways to promote healthy eating for kids. This is another post in the New Year’s Resolution in a word series and today’s word is e for Eat.
One of the simplest, but perhaps not the easiest, is to involve kids in food preparation and cooking. At first, before they are too young to use any tools, kids can help to wash vegetables and fruits. Carrots can turn from something spurned to almost an old friend when kids get to give them a wash and a scrub in the sink. By the way, do you know if a carrot will sink or float in water? Kids can do this quick science experiment when they are washing carrots before a meal. When a little older, kids can use a plastic picnic knife for spreading and cutting something soft, like bananas or grapes. Little Sister loves to help make a fruit salad and eat it all up.
Another way to promote healthy eating for kids is to make food fun. This means being a little more creative. We turned a black bean dip into dirt and planted some baby carrots. This garden in a dish was more than yummy for eating. Eating dirt never tasted as good as this garden. Ordinarily, a food like chick peas wouldn’t become a favorite treat, but this chocolate chip cookie dough transforms them completely. A popular treat, all this needs is mashed chickpeas, a bit of vanilla, a couple of spoonfuls of a nut butter your family can eat, and a sprinkle of chocolate chips. It might not fool you that this is raw cookie dough, but it doesn’t matter, it’s so good. It’s great by itself or used as a dip. Another dip is yogurt with chocolate also known as mud.
As children become more aware of their bodies and begin developing healthy habits, like brushing teeth and washing hands, we can talk to them about the importance of eating good food. We need to let them know that some choices have lots of sugar and so we only eat them sometimes. Bodies need foods that help them go and grow. Have you made any New Year’s resolution about foods and eating for yourself? Are there some ideas you can add to the list of ways to promote healthy eating for kids?