Easy Healthy Foods For Families

It can be a stressful as well as a time-consuming affair, if you have children and you have to prepare meals for them. Moreover, you need to ensure that they eat healthy foods.

The secret to doing all these is to creatively simplify food as well as eating habits. You can make simple healthy meals in several ways without spending much time and thus make sure that your family’s health is taken care of.

Simplify Your Shopping

Before you go to shop, be very clear about what all you have in your kitchen. Decide as to what you will require for the week and do not change it. It is a good idea to divide your requirements into basic groups of food to ensure that you make healthy choices for each group. Go for lean proteins such as chicken without skin, tofu or fish. Pick up a variety of vegetables and fruits. Choose whole grains instead of flour, white bread or rice products. It is important to exercise restraint and make sure that you go only according to your list.

Simplify Eating Out

Before you go out to eat, you can check the menu online to ensure that healthy choices for you as well as your family are available. Avoid restaurants that serve fried food and fast food. It is better to save money and eat once in a while in a restaurant that provides fresh as well as healthy food

Simplify Your Cooking

When cooking, be creative and prepare sufficient quantities for many days. For example, make a vegetarian chili using beans, vegetables, crushed tomatoes and peppers. Serve this with low-fat cheese and tortilla chips one night and on another night you can serve vegetarian chili on whole wheat tortillas together with cheese and non-fat Greek yogurt. Another idea is to roast chicken and serve it one night with brown rice and vegetables and on the second night the leftovers can be used to make soup together with carrots and serve it with whole wheat pasta or chicken can be used as a topping for salad.

Try to use cooking spray as an alternative to frying food. If at all you want to use oil, you must use olive oil instead of other fats. You must also ensure that you have easy-to-cook food available with you for the other days. One suggestion would be throwing in wheat pasta and beans or frozen vegetables with a little bit of olive oil, garlic and herbs.

Simplify Eating Habits

Eating together as a family at least once in a day can be made a habit, if it is possible, as it can be very helpful in building healthier food habits. It also helps to develop a bonding as a family. If you have older children, you can ask them to help you with cooking, setting the table, cleaning and other related chores. If you can make meal preparation a family affair, then you will find it to be a more enjoyable and pleasurable experience.