Moms are busy on weeknights orchestrating homework; driving kids to activities, piano lessons, or sports practice; making dinner; and all that goes into running a household with small children. That 4-8pm timeframe is jam-packed and you want to spend that time relaxing with your family, not preparing lunches. By utilizing a lunch system in your house, you can avoid the morning rush and simplify your life.

In order to make this work it requires a little advance planning. It is important to sit down with your kids on the weekend when you have extra time and strategize what they want for lunches the following week. It will make preparation and shopping easier, relieve the daily panic and reduce the number of last-minute PB&Js that you throw together. Let your child make their selections and take a look at your menu for the week and note where you can utilize leftovers.  Then once you’ve done the shopping, get your kids to help you prepare as much food in advance as possible.

• Make muffins or granola bars
• Prepare dips such as hummus
• Prepare veggies and fruits so they are cut up and ready to go
• Make batches of rice or beans and store in the freezer
• Prepare extra salad or veggies at mealtime to utilize in lunches
• Make a pot of homemade soup
• Bake healthy cookies

Making lunches can be fun and it allows your kids to utilize their creativity. I remember one day my son declared it was Green Lunch day. He packed a well-rounded, yet very green lunch of broccoli, pistachios, edamame, a granny smith apple and green grapes.

Packing a nutritious lunch doesn’t have to be complicated or take a lot of time, but it does require planning. Following these tips will allow you to save time in the kitchen and spend more time with your family. It will also instill lifelong habits for your children around building healthy, well-balanced meals.

How do you get your kids involved in lunch prep? Please share your thoughts in the comments?

I’m sure you’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what about lunch and why is it so important for children? What we eat is what our body uses to nourish, build and repair our cells, blood, bones and muscles. The old adage is true; we literally are what we eat.  Children need nutrient dense food to keep their bodies and minds working their best during long afternoons at school and to support growth. Research indicates a correlation between diet and academic success. You may not realize that eating is a learned habit for children, it is not intuitive or something they are born with and the eating habits you help establish before the age of 10 will become ingrained in your child for life.

This past year has been all about delegating and finding ways to encourage my kids to take ownership around food. It is very easy for us as moms to do everything for our families. It is human nature to want to nurture our families, but delegation benefits not only us but teaches our kids important life skills.

We’ve created a lunch system in our house to make lunch preparation a breeze for the kids. Together, we brainstormed a chart with healthy food options in 5 categories: Fruit, Vegetable, Whole Grain, Protein and Healthy Treat. The children select an item from each category and lunch is made!

Benefits to this system include:

• Gives your kids some control over what they get to eat yet the choices are all healthy
• Wide range of foods to choose from so they get a range of nutritional benefits
• Allows them to learn proper portion sizes when measuring the food out
• Once familiar with what encompasses a healthy lunch they will be able to utilize outside the home
• Encourages kids to rotate and try new foods
• Empowers them to make healthy choices

The best way to help our children become healthier is to help THEM take charge of their own health. By making healthy choices when and where you can, you’ll start to see positive changes in your family. This information empowers them to make the healthy choices for themselves, a habit that will last a lifetime.

Please leave in the comments section what types of foods your kids like to bring for lunch.  Tomorrow we’ll discuss putting this chart to work.

After a long day and time spent in the kitchen lovingly preparing a healthy meal for your family, the last thing a Mom wants to hear is “I don’t like this” or “this tastes yucky.”  Moms will often at this point avoid the battle and go the short-order cook route and prepare a different food for the child with the discerning tastes. Instead, put together a tray or basket of condiments and allow your child to season it up to their preference.

Empathize with your child and reassure them that you understand it is not their favorite meal; however you put time and effort into creating it. You might say, “Perhaps you can take a seasoning from the basket and make your own creation!” Keep it fun and light and engage their natural sense of curiosity.

Often a few simple condiments or spices can totally transform the taste of a meal and make it more enticing. Create a condiment tray for your table so that you and your family can personalize every meal. Lazy Susans are perfect for storing all the different condiments on your table. Here are some suggested condiments to experiment with. Feel free to add your favorites, and look for those with minimal ingredients, additives and processing.

• Tamari or soy sauce
• BBQ sauce
• Pesto
• Lemon pepper
• Dijon mustard
• Italian herb blend
• Chili powder or paprika
• Salsa or hot sauce
• Hummus

Condiments have been a life saver for my picky-eating son. I remember the days when he put soy sauce on everything he ate; including eggs (sounds gross, huh?). He even received soy sauce in his stocking one year from Santa! These days hot sauce is king. Condiments are an excellent way to bridge a picky eater’s food preferences and expand their palates to new textures or tastes. I encourage you to give your child free reign of the condiments and put your short-order cooking aside for good.

What condiments work for your child? What interesting combinations do they like to include in their meals?

Meal planning can be an overwhelming task for any mom. When putting the plan together you not only have the family’s crazy schedule for the week to consider, but you also have to try and stay on budget and incorporate healthy foods that your kids might actually eat. So why not get the kids involved in the process? They can’t complain about the food if they have been instrumental in deciding what ends up on their plates.

This may sound like even more work for you, but once you give the kids some basic guidelines you may be surprised by how much they enjoy it (while you sit back and do something else!). I like to stick with a food theme for each night of the week. It allows a framework to build from and you can then let the kids choose the specific meal. For example, the themes may be Asian, Mexican or Italian cuisine and they can pick a dish such as Chicken Stir Fry, Enchiladas or Lasagna. There are some ground rules that they must follow, such as half your plate must include fruits and vegetables, and the meal can’t be too labor intensive (no handmade pasta on a school night!). Allow them to be creative and look through cookbooks or blogs for ideas

This is the beginning of teaching your kids how to think about food and build a meal plan. Through this process, you are teaching your children valuable life skills and how to take care of themselves. Developing this relationship with meal planning is a skill that will walk with them for years to come. You are also creating a system for your family which will simplify your life and help you avoid being a short-order cook when the meal you selected is not a winner.

It is an exceptional strategy when dealing with picky eaters because you are giving them control over the meal. Please share your tips in the comments section for getting your child involved with meal planning.

Tomorrow we will talk about building a condiment tray to spice things up

There are many benefits to eating together as a family including stronger family bonds, better nutrition and portion sizes, emotional nurturing and a sense of belonging. Kids get to be themselves, feel comfortable and build confidence. It also gives your family a chance to unwind and tune in to each other after a busy day. Studies show that kids who eat with their families are less likely to get involved with drugs or alcohol. But what happens when your child doesn’t like to eat or is an extremely picky eater and mealtime is anything but stress-free?

Typically in our family we sit down to a meal and most of the family is finished within 20 minutes. It is just about that time when our son with Russell Silver Syndrome (www.magicfoundation.org), gets started on his meal. He is a notoriously slow eater and it used to bother us greatly and we would prompt and nag him to eat. Mealtime would quickly escalate from being an enjoyable experience to one filled with stress for everyone involved.

However, the WAY you eat is just as important as what you eat. Digestion is greatly improved if one actually sits down to dinner, relaxes and enjoys the food without conflict. When digestion is improved, the absorption of nutrients is also enhanced. It is important to be mindful of how you are eating. It makes all the difference! And when you are focusing on what your child is or is NOT eating, it will cause stress and impede digestion for everyone at the table. Instead, as we’ve learned to do, just allow them the time they need to eat. We often set a timer and that seems to motivate him to finish by the allotted time.

Another suggestion is to get your child involved in meal planning and preparation. If they have some input into what is served it will help get them excited about the meal. It also helps them to become invested in it and all that goes into getting a meal on the table. We will talk tomorrow more about getting your child involved in meal planning.

Do you find picky eating causes stress at mealtime and how do you deal with it?