Kids Healthy Diet Hinges on Substitution

You can give your kids healthy diet choices that will still keep them running to, rather than away from, the dinner table.  The secret to a kids healthy diet is often just substitution.  Instead of giving them foods in their diet that are high in fat or questionable in dietary benefit, substitute a few ingredients that won’t change taste but will keep your children healthy.  For instance, when making meatballs for spaghetti, it is a good idea to substitute whole wheat or bulgur breadcrumbs for some of the ground beef and bake the meatballs rather than frying them.

Other recipe ideas for a kids healthy diet include coating chicken tenders in an almond and whole-wheat crust and cooking them in the oven rather than deep-frying in oil.  This makes for crispy, delicious chicken fingers with half the fat of the usual ones.

Another kids healthy diet recipe idea is to make baked beans into a main dish by adding chicken sausage and spinach.  Baked beans are low in fat and high in protein, adding to a kids healthy diet options.

Using whole-wheat breadcrumbs and whole-grain cereal flakes, you can make your own homemade fish sticks.  Again, cook them up in the oven instead of deep-frying and save on fat and cholesterol as part of a kids healthy diet plan.

Update a Sloppy Joe as part of a kids healthy diet by cooking down chopped mushrooms and diced fresh plum tomatoes to make a zesty sauce added to lean ground beef.

Pepperoni pizza can get an overhaul by using whole-wheat dough, adding pumpkin puree to the tomato sauce for increased beta carotene and fiber, and substituting turkey pepperoni for the topping.

Cut pork tenderloin into long filets and bread it with the same coating as the chicken fingers for a delicious kids healthy diet dinner.

Stuffed cheeseburgers are a tasty alternative to sticking the cheese on top of the burger.  Simply form lean meat patties around cheese and cook as normal.  Using lean meat, real cheese instead of cheese processed food, and whole grain buns makes this meal part of a kids healthy diet plan.

Remember that at the heart of kids healthy diet recipes is the simple idea of substituting less healthy ingredients for more healthy ingredients.  You can do this with almost any of your children’s favorite foods.  Make sure to change ingredients that will not drastically alter the flavor so that your child will hardly notice the difference at all.  You might also only want to change the recipe slightly at first and then change it a little more each time it is served until they become used to the fully healthy variation.  For instance, when first making the pizza recipe above, you might want to only change to turkey pepperoni.  The next time you make the pizza, switch out the dough for whole-wheat and then, finally, add the pumpkin puree to the tomato sauce.  Your child may be less likely to notice the subtle change of the recipe over time than the full switch to a kids healthy diet recipe all at once.

Article Source:http://www.babycenter-blog.com/2010/09/07/kids-healthy-diet-hinges-on-substitution/