When preparing quick cooking recipes for kids, you should include carbohydrates for energy, fat and protein for muscle-building processes and vitamins and minerals for maintenance of healthy body functions. Grains such as cereals, rice, and bread are sources of carbohydrates. Milk, meat and beans provide fat and protein while fruits and vegetables supply the body with vitamins and minerals. 

To make food choices in each category healthier, here are some guidelines that moms can follow in preparing healthy meals for their kids.

1. Make half your grains at least whole grains. Whole grains provide the body with more dietary fiber. Dietary fiber gives the feeling of longer satiety and helps regulate bowel movement.

2. Make your meal more appetizing by adding color to your plate. Serve with all kinds of great tasting veggies, about 2 1/2 cups everyday. Choose from dark green (broccoli, asparagus), orange (carrots), starchy dry beans, peas or other veggies (cauliflower, eggplant). 

3. Make most fruit choices fresh fruit, about 1 1/2 cup daily, because they are richer in vitamins and minerals. Juices are fine if freshly squeezed. Most commercially prepared juices and canned fruits have lost the nutrients in the processing and are high in added sugar. 

4. Choose lean meat, chicken or turkey. Remove the skin and all visible fat prior to cooking. When stewing meat, preboil the meat, cool in the refrigerator and you can see the solidified fat on top. Remove it for a healthier, non-artery clogging stew. As much as possible, limit the serving of processed meat like hotdogs and sausages which have high sodium content. Vary instead your meal choices with more fish, beans, peas, nuts and seeds.

5. Limit the sweets and fat intake. Though you can serve some once in a while.

Teaching your kids how to eat healthy should start at a young age. Though they will have their own food preferences, the healthy meal plan you give them while young will influence them to eat healthier for a lifetime. As it is said, train up a child in the way he should go, that includes what he should eat, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

photo credit: Leszek.Leszczynski

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