I was raised pretty much eating everything from chicken feet (thanks Grandpa) to fancy formal home cooked meals (Grandma Sallie) to not so fancy home cooked meals.  When visiting my Grandma Sallie I would ask her “what is for dinner?”  she would say in her stern formal voice, “Wait and See Pudding.”  That was her way of saying, “does it matter? I’m in here working my butt off cooking you a meal, be grateful for it and shut up.”   LOL  

 I remember my dad would always have dinner cooked on the table and we would eat as a family.  I think there is something to training your own tastebuds and kids tastebuds when a family sits down and eats the same thing.   My family cooked and it wasn’t an option for another meal or “what will the kids eat.”  We rarely ever got fast food.  Maybe twice a year.  I was taught if I was invited over to dinner not to ask, “what are you having.”  Not only that, I remember when my dad would ask my friends if they wanted to stay for dinner and I would cringe when they asked “what are you having”  because that was not the point.  Therefore, I will eat whatever is placed before me if someone graciously wants to feed me or my kids.  I do believe that I was trained up in a way to be open to different foods and closed to nothing.  For that I am grateful and hope to raise my kids this way. Open to everything and all possibilities.  Even chicken feet.  (Thanks Grandpa.)  

With that, inside this blog post you are going to get the answer to the question I get OFTEN.  What do you feed your kids and how did you do it.  

First of all, I don’t have kids with any type of allergies or food challenges so keep that in mind. This is just my simple story of feeding my kids from birth to now.  I believe a lot of what we do with our kids stems from our beliefs, values and mindsets.  I follow similar strategies as my grandmother. I tell my kids we are  eating “wait and see pudding” if they ask what I’m making them.  If my child doesn’t like what I put in front of them, I say, thanks for letting me know looks like you’re not that hungry.  I do give choices often. I believe in choice theory and that children should be given the opportunity for making many choices throughout the day.  I will say, “do you want apple or pear” Or do you want “carrots or broccoli?”   Do you want hummus with your carrots? Do you want a green smoothie or a pink one today?   Things like that.  

When opposition comes up I will say “I love you too much to feed you unhealthy things all the time.”  

Another thing .. I think this is the most important thing I can share out of this whole post.. is as parents, we decide WHAT they eat and WHEN they eat. The kids decide on IF they will eat and how much they will eat.

I use a lot of Love and Logic strategies and Adlerian Psychology techniques when reacting to my kids as well as with food choices.  

The biggest thing is we as a parent control the environment.  We buy the food, we do the grocery shopping and we prepare it.

As I started writing this post I realized I can give you all the things I feed my kids but if I didn’t share my mindset, training and strategies with you it wouldn’t be fulfilled.  Like anything great, it takes training and training is not always fun or easy.  Consistency and effort.   I train them on how to respond if something is not their favorite.

Another thing that I think I do that help is let kids be HUNGRY! YES! Snacks are very intentional, timed and REAL FOOD. If they had a huge helping of crackers and carbs shortly before you put a healthy meal on the table they will not be that hungry for it. I train my kids to understand that snacks are not to fill you up. If they say they are hungry still I say, “great you will eat up dinner then!” Also no seconds on snacks to make sure they are hungry. Now this is not perfect but this is the overall philosophy I train them on. I save the packaged snacks for “on the go.”

Here are some of the common things I feed my kids and what I put in their lunch box.  

 Breakfast

Oatmeal, with protein powder, cinnamon, pomegranates or apple, chopped dates, Mila (chia seed) or a few dark chocolate chips and almond milk.  

My husband makes them pancakes often and he will put a chocolate chip face or give them greek yogurt or applesauce to dip it in.   He also made the lunch below. Lots of lean proteins, and color.

They don’t know what sugary cereal is except for at Mimi’s house.  (Special cereal at Mimi’s they call it)  For me, I don’t hide anything or limit them . I teach them to make healthier choices and that if they get it at Mimi’s or a birthday party it’s an every once in a while thing.   

Smoothie bowls or a smoothie is an everyday in our house one way or another.  

Eggs, eggs, eggs!  Egg muffins, scrambled eggs, fried eggs.  We love eggs!  

Toast with almond butter and fruit 

Cinnamon roll protein pancakes as a treat.  Get recipe here.

Snacks/lunch

If I am at home I try for the most part to give them real food.  Such as

Apples and celery with nut butter and raisins, goji berries or mulberries. They love mulberries. Toasted mulberries are really good!  

Rice cake with avocado and MIla on top. One of my favorite foods for kids brain development and digestive tract is this chia right here.

Veggies (broccoli, carrots, celery, peppers dipped in taziki or hummus. 

Guacamole and chips.  

Homemade snacks such as:

Homemade protein/ energy balls . My kids love these. 

Smoothies

The Food Babes Forever Cookies, low sugar cookies or Zucchini muffins. 

Charchuteri board:  Deli meat with strawberries and crackers and cheese and nuts  

Ricecakes with nut butter or a fancy “Treat” nut butter like Jem’s or Nuts N’ More protein butter.  

Popcorn 

Frozen smoothie in a cool popsicle mold.  Here’s one of their favorite popsicle molds.

Goji berries, Golden Berries and Mulberries are a favorite.

Mila is a fine cut chia seed that has very high omega/DHA in it. It’s extremely helpful for brain development.

For the on the go snacks (package snacks):

Other on the go snacks I do is nuts, or nut butter packs or Cutie oranges, bananas, or pea snaps, pretzels, sweet potato chips/crackers or Mary’s Gone Crackers.

When my third baby was starting solids I found Yumi foods.  I loved Yumi foods for training the taste buds for all different kinds of tastes and herbs/spices.    

I start my kids on smoothies at around 8 months and try and get one in them every day.  Greens, cucumber, celery, chia. Smoothies are a fabulous way for less mess, quick healthy meal that is filling for their tummy. For all my favorite smoothie recipes get a copy of my smoothie e book: The Smoothie Habit.

I also give my kids Juice Plus gummies every day for fruits and veggie intake.  They LOVE them and remind me every day to give it to them.  

Lunch and Dinner varies.  

I don’t always “cook” a meal for them.  They are ages 6, 2, and 4 so they aren’t awaiting a big meal every day. I do “breakfast” a lot at lunch or dinner as well. 

Plain pasta with shredded gouda cheese and olive oil. 

Sweet Potato and goat cheese “pizza.”

Goat Cheese/nut butter and apples

Almond Flour and Coconut chicken nuggets

Rice Cake with avocado or hummus and Mila on top.

Kale Salad with Salmon or chicken 

Veggies and Hummus 

Shrimp with a veggie 

Hummus Veggie Pizza 

Snack plate or random things in the fridge like taziki sauce with veggies, deli meat, grapes, cheese, nuts, Golden Berries,

Flatbread 

Fritatta

Egg Scramble

Salmon dip and crackers and veggies

Chicken and veggies

Cooked zucchini or other veggie noodles with cheese and olive oil 

Sweet potato 

Baby peppers, cucumbers, chicken and taziki sauce in a wrap.   

Chicken taco 

My kids love fresh raw or frozen veggies. They don’t like them cooked. So saves me time. I just throw them in a bowl and they think its the best thing eating them from the freezer cold. Get creative and think outside of the box.

I hope this helps you find at least one “aha” you can try to make your life simpler in the preparing food part of life.

Comment below and let us know what creative healthy ideas for feeding your kids you have. We all need more ideas!

And make sure to check out The Smoothie Habit Ebook here to get a quick meal in your kids’ bodies without all those dishes!