It happens about three times a week: Abhorrently, I pick up my son from kindergarten and find that he has eaten almost nothing because there was pepper or fish or something else healthy. So you have to cook fast at home. And as a good mother, of course, I want to serve him with something rich in nutrients and vitamins, but there’s no time for shopping and I do not feel like cooking after a hard day. So what to do?
In the course of the kindergarten era of my son, I have developed several strategies for such crisis situations, which guarantee me a quiet conscience and my son a delicious dinner and ensure a healthy diet for children. This emergency plan needs only some basic ingredients and a certain forward-looking organization.
If the point is more for something fresh, can be prepared with ready leaf salad mixes, a few carrots and cucumber quite fix a salad. The sauce I make myself with vinegar, oil, salt and pepper or yogurt, lemon and fresh or frozen herbs. Finished dressings contain a lot of calories, for example with mayonnaise and cream additives. Very popular are also cut kohlrabi and peppers with a light yogurt dip or grated carrots with lemon and some sugar. In addition, bread with butter and the child is supplied.
Tip: Carrots, kohlrabi, cucumbers, and tomatoes can be stored well in the fridge for a few days. Salad, on the other hand, should be consumed quickly, as it quickly wilts and then hardly contains any vitamins.
Vitamins are essential for a healthy diet for children. If my son insists on noodles without anything, I’ll give him the necessary vitamins with a fruit shake. For this, I give half a banana with a few strawberries or raspberries (frozen go too) and some orange juice in a blender, puree everything and the healthy drink is ready. Pure banana with milk and a little vanilla sugar or honey is the richest variant.
Beware of Nutritional Errors
Similar to the legend about the enormous iron content of spinach, there are also mistakes in the diet for children that persist. In some of these stumbling blocks, I’ve even tapped … In times when my child almost exclusively ate noodles, I gave him as a snack, like whole-wheat biscuits and fruit, in the assumption, thereby covering his need for nutrients. Not even close. The fruit is fine, only the wholegrain biscuits are and will remain biscuits and as such a sweet. They definitely do not replace the slice of bread. To add at least some vitamins to the naked noodles, I like sprinkling fresh parsley over them.
Nice idea, but in order for the vitamins from herbs to really come to fruition, my son would have to eat a whole tuft of it. I do not want to expect him to do that. Better is a banana for dessert. However, herbs are good for saving salt and improving the taste, of course. Because he plays a major role in a healthy diet for children.
Avoid Spiced Finished Products
Taste is the keyword for the next pitfall: flavor enhancers. These are named as glutamate (E 620 to E 625) or yeast extracts hidden in almost all finished products and not only unnecessary but also controversial because of their possible adverse health effects.
Since I’ve been careful, for example, I only use bouillon cubes very sparingly or take products from the health food store without flavor enhancers. And even with ready meals from the freezer, I look more closely. If in doubt, choose purely frozen vegetables or blanch fresh vegetables for a short while and freeze them in portions.