7 Healthy Eating Tips To Save Your Family Time And MoneyHealthy eating in today's fast-food fast-paced life used to be really frustrating for feeding our family of 7. "Mommy, what's for supper?" "Mom, I'm Hungry!" "Can I have some food?" You sit and spend 30 minutes asking yourself the same question and struggling to decide what healthy meal could you quickly make. Before you know it an hour has gone by and all that you've done is put the oven on because you are so sure that you will probably need to use it. Here are our 7 practical tips that we believe will save your family time and money, and still keep a balanced healthy eating lifestyle.
Practical tip #4: LabelsGet to know your vitamins and read those labels. You don't need to be an expert, we certainly were not, but we needed to have a better idea of what foods contain. This helped us to plan our food schedule, our shopping list and work towards better healthy eating habits. Practical tip #5: Food Fun Add presentation and story telling to your healthy eating meals. This does take a bit of time and imagination but the fun story telling conversations at the dinner table are well worth it. We have had a great time with catching butterflies, eating snails, and plates with happy faces, smiles and sunsets. Forget trying to get your kids to eat their veggies with "Eat your Vegetables!" Bring on the stories. "Oh no! your peas are getting away--Get'em quick before they run off your plate!" We loved using broccoli as a whole tree that needed to be eaten one branch at a time. Have Fun! Here are a few sample recipes and pictures to get you started:
Practical tip #6: Making Meals Together Making meals together allows the children to take ownership and have some family fun. Choose some meals that are easy and quick for you to prepare and that you can work together on. We have had great family times together with our children making pizzas, calzones, enchilada wraps, homemade burgers , spaghetti, meatballs or try our specialty homemade fries and potato wedges money savers to say the least. Baking can also be a lot of fun. We have enjoyed baking from scratch homemade cinnamon swirls homemade cinnamon swirls , muffins, cookies and other snacks and deserts. Our homemade french toast recipe with a delicious cinnamon twist as a breakfast casserole is a great Saturday morning activity that we enjoy making and eating together. Some of our family favorite cookie recipes are chewy chocolate chip , chocolate candies m&m's , peanut butter, tasty oatmeal raisin and reeces pieces. We love baking them together, and you guessed it--they don't last long, they taste great and we know exactly what we have put into them. Three of our family members have Celiac a gluten intolerance, quite a challenge to eat foods and snacks without any gluten, but here is a tasty and healthy gluten free muffin recipe with bananas you will love. Practical tip #7: Home Cooking Home cooking can benefit your family by saving you money without costing you more of your time. We have fun working together and making meals together like our Bauern Fruhstuck--a great breakfast recipe we often make for dinner and you and your family are sure to enjoy. Breakfast is a great start to your day and some healthy breakfast and brunch recipes can help you add fresh fruit, oatmeal, smoothies, and more to your meal plan. Working and preparing meals together keeps daily communication open and having some regular one on one time. Working together with our kids preparing lots of easy recipes from home have quickly developed for us into great opportunities to teaching values, principals and respect for each other. We see home cooking as a preventative medicine for our family in keeping a healthy eating lifestyle. Let's stop relying so much on the processed food industry and plan on adding some of our own homemade cooking into our weekly schedules. With a little forward planning we can make better healthy eating alternatives while knowing exactly what is going into our meals. Working together as parents and supporting each other we can help our children and families develop the best healthy eating habits that they will take with them throughout their lives. Return from Healthy Eating to Family-Life-Parenting |
Practical tip #2: Grocery List