Recipe For Success: 7 Easy Ways to Boost Nutrition in Your Children’s Meals and Snacks

Parents are always on the lookout for new ways to boost the nutritional content of the foods our children consume, but since we often don’t have time to prepare elaborate meals and snacks, we need to get creative. Fortunately, there are many “quick fixes” that will make our family’s meals healthier – and don’t require us to spend hours in the kitchen. 

Quick Fix #1: Sprinkle, Sprinkle

Wheat germ and ground flaxseeds are nutritional powerhouses that will stay fresh in your fridge for several months, and both can be easily incorporated into a variety of kid-friendly dishes. Store one or both in a salt or parmesan shaker and you’ll be able to “sprinkle” an extra dose of the essential vitamins and nutrients they provide into anything from meatloaf to cookie batter to Saturday morning pancakes.

If you refer to them as “special sprinkles,” you might even convince your kids to get in the habit of sprinkling extra nutrition on top of their favorite yogurts, cereals, or desserts.    

Quick Fix #2: Keep the Secret

What your kids don’t know can actually … make them healthier? Yes. Especially if you’re hiding a fruit or vegetable they would not otherwise consume. Next time you serve burritos, try mixing a small amount of ripe, well-mashed avocado into refried beans, topping the mixture with a generous helping of cheese, and rolling it all up in a flour tortilla. Your family will be so busy devouring a delicious meal that they’ll never discover your “secret” ingredient.

A word of caution: be sure to hide ingredients that won’t be easily detected. “Your sneaky additions should be fairly bland tasting so they don’t impart an off flavor, and similar in color to the food they’re hiding in,” advises Missy Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals.

Quick Fix #3: Go Half and Half

We all know that whole grain bread is more nutritious than the processed white variety, but many kids (and adults) don’t care for its “heartier” flavor. Solve this dilemma with the half white, half wheat approach.

Buy a loaf of white bread and a loaf of whole grain, and then make sandwiches using one slice of each. Your family will enjoy the familiar flavor of the white but gradually grow accustomed to the taste of the whole grain, and you’ll feel better knowing they’re consuming at least some of the added fiber and protein that the whole grain option provides.  

Quick Fix #4: Sweeten the Deal

Young children like to graze throughout the day, so snacks are an important part of their overall diet. But if your kids won’t touch any healthy snacks to fuel their active little bodies, then sweeten the deal. A few strategically placed chocolate chips can turn ordinary strawberry halves into “Chocolate Ladybugs.” Banana slices and some chocolate syrup can transform a plain scoop of yogurt into a “Banana Split.” Even the humble carrot is far more appealing when served with a simple, protein-packed dip made of peanut butter and honey.

Quick Fix #5: Eat This, Not That

Get in the habit of swapping nutrient dense ingredients for foods with empty calories, and before you know it, these substitutions will become routine. Serve a handful of almonds as a snack instead of potato chips. Boost the nutrition in cakes and brownies by substituting canned pumpkin or other pureed fruits for some of the oil. Replace some of the sugar in baked goods with healthier alternatives like powdered milk, which is still sweet but also adds protein and calcium.

Quick Fix #6: Use Your Words  

Hannah Mayer has been known to take a few liberties when describing the healthy foods she wants her three daughters to eat. There may be nothing unusual about adding olive oil and steak seasoning to asparagus and roasting it in the oven until crispy, but not every parent thinks to tell her kids they are being served “green” French fries. “They devour them,” says Mayer, who has discovered labels matter. Try it for yourself and you’ll marvel as those “X-ray Vision Sticks,” otherwise known as carrots, rapidly disappear. 

Quick Fix #7: Stress Less

It’s normal to worry when your three year-old only eats macaroni, but it isn’t helpful to force her to eat her broccoli. According to Lapine, we should never threaten or bribe our children to eat healthy foods. “The less you show them that you care about what they are eating,” she says, “the more likely they are to try the healthy foods you secretly want them to eat.”

In her book The Sneaky Chef, she advocates hiding fruits and vegetables in dishes kids love because she believes this approach takes pressure off parents, allowing us to teach and model healthy habits, without feeling like we have to force the issue. “Serve those beautiful green veggies in their natural state, alongside the sneaky dishes,” Lapine suggests. “Now that the pressure is off and you have peace at the family table, the kids will be more receptive to learning and trying new foods.”

Better nutrition for kids and less stress for parents? For most of us, that’s a definite recipe for success.