Making Nutritious Family Meals Easier: What You Need To Know

Family mealtimes can be hard work for many parents. Children and even some older kids or adults can develop fussy tendencies towards foods, and guess what? They tend to be the healthier foods on the plate. We have all been there, haven’t we? A child refusing to eat their broccoli. Even an adult pushing things around their plate with the fear of trying something new. But while we can all live along with these fussy habits, it doesn’t do well for our diets. Children need a healthy balanced diet, we are all aware of that, but how can you make nutritious food easy and more appealing for the family? Here are some of the things you can try.

Get the family cooking along with you

Family mealtimes aren’t always the easiest times of the day, but you may want to try getting your children to cook along with you and see if that makes a difference. Often children, and even adults, who have prepared the food themselves or been involved with the ingredients and cooking process, are more likely to try the foods out when they are presented as a meal. It may seem like you are adding more stress to the situation, but many kids are well behaved and concentrate when they are doing things outside of their routine and what is normal.

Meal plan to avoid mealtime drama

Part of the issue with family meals is the last minute rush to put something together. When you haven’t thought about the ingredients you have in, or what you can eat, and then end up with some fast and convenient. Which is more likely to be low on the nutritious scale. Instead, spending some time to plan the meals in advance can help you be calmer when it comes to preparing meals. Take it one step further and ask the family to get involved with the meal choices. They may be more enthusiastic about eating certain things if they have had involvement in the decision making process.

Try out some kitchen gadgets to keep food nutritious

We can all use a little help in the kitchen, and while we can’t all have a chef to prepare the meals for us, we are entitled to have a little help in the form of kitchen gadgets. Whether you choose to speed things up with something like an instant pot duo or prefer to mash of vegetables into sauces with a blender so that you sneakily give the family vegetables, they accept the help and fill your kitchen with all of the gadgets. Many of which can help food and ingredients keep their nutrients and vitamins due to the different cooking methods involved.

Grow your own food

Finally, you may want to consider growing your own vegetables and fruit. Doing things like this with the family means that everyone is involved and invested in what you grow and make. Therefore, being more interested in trying and preparing them when it comes to mealtimes.

I hope that these tips help you keep the family meals nutritious.