With the pace of life as it is these days it is tempting to take a few shortcuts in the kitchen in order to get your family fed and move on to the task on the agenda.
We all understand that a take-out pizza is fun every now and again, but if you want to put some healthy family meals on the table, it could pay to learn a few Clean Eating recipes that tick all the right boxes, in terms of taste and nutritional value.
Building your kid’s confidence and interest in healthy food
It doesn’t really work when you prepare something healthy for your kids and then tell them to eat it, just because it is good for them.
The best approach is often to interact with your children and talk to them about what is on the menu and encourage the to learn how to make healthy choices on their own in time, without you needing to persuade them to choose more wisely and healthily.
The way that they can do this is to talk to them about where various foods come from and why natural foods are better for our bodies. If you can achieve this, you will soon find that menu-planning becomes a lot less stressful and a great deal healthier too.
Clean food explained
If you want to find the best possible way to feed your family safely with clean food, it is important to understand exactly what that term really means.
In simple terms, clean food is about sourcing non-GMO foods and going organic.
In order to satisfy levels of consumer demand for food and to achieve high yields from their crops, producers may resort to using GMO’s. Genetically Modified Organisms are used to produce some agricultural crops such as potatoes or tomatoes, but there are perceived risks attached to these methods, some of which are still not fully understood.
To be sure that your family eat clean food, your first step is to search out products that are enrolled in the non-GMO Project Verification Program.
Lead by example
It goes without saying that you are going to have a hard time persuading your children to make healthy eating choices, unless you lead by example.
Many of us have moments of weakness where a drive-thru burger seems like a great option, and craving for some junk food at times, is perfectly normal. But none of us are born with a natural disposition towards junk food, it is just that we have become exposed to it as such an integral part of modern society, that it is now freely available whenever you want it, which makes it difficult to resist at time.
Your kids will definitely appreciate your honesty if you tell them that you sometimes feel like eating some junk food, but the key is to lead by example, so go on a journey towards healthier eating together as a family.
If your children see you trying new and healthy foods and cutting back on unhealthy foods, they are much more likely to follow suit.
Put some fun on a plate
If you have younger kids, you have plenty of opportunities to make healthy eating fun.
Making shapes and faces out of the healthy items you are putting on the plate, instantly turns it into a fun game where you challenge them to eat the various parts on the plate, like red pepper that you have shaped as the lips of a face and the cucumbers used for the eyebrows.
You can always find some creative ideas to work with when you search online, and you can also get the cookie cutter out and work on presenting fruit and vegetables in a fun and exciting way that inspires your children to play around with their food in the right way, which they often love to do.
Eating as a family
If you want to reinforce your commitment to serving up healthier options for the family, the best way to do that is to make sure that you all eat together at the table when tea or lunch time comes around.
Eating together as a family and sharing new and healthy taste experiences is beneficial in so many ways and not just in terms of the better food choices you are making in unison.
Healthy meals for the family are perfectly achievable, even when you are extremely busy, so work on getting some recipes together that could soon become firm favorites at mealtimes.
Rebecca’s husband, four children and I have been eating clean for many years. She says, “We’re not perfect at it, but we feel better when we eat healthier and our children definitely act better. I’ve developed many recipes that our family loves and my blog has lots of Clean Eating recipes on it so you too can feel healthier and enjoy easy, delicious food.” She enjoys sharing her tips and ideas online.
