Fast-Paced Nutrition for Kids: Buying Healthy Ideas

Nutrition, to me, is trying to stay away from fast food restaurants. As a mother of 3, I am very busy traveling from school, to practices, and to other appointments. This past weekend in fact, in order to save money and provide some type of nutrition to my family, I purchased squeeze and go peanut butter and jelly. As a parent, I allow the kids to eat only one junk snack per day.

As long as they eat at least one piece of fruit, I am happy. In fact, there is no limit to the amount of fruit that they are allowed to eat; they can eat as much as they want. I try to encourage/require them to eat 1/2 a banana and 1/2 cup of orange juice for breakfast. I consciously choose vitamin fortified cereals, At our house cereal can be breakfast, lunch, and dinner or snack. When shopping, I buy 2 pieces of fish to plan into my meals. We probably eat red meat only once a week. Most of our meals are pasta in some form: spaghetti, frozen ravioli, macaroni. Salads can be costly to keep on hand, so usually we eat one salad per week and have cucumbers or sliced tomato instead. Salad dressing doesn't worry me too often because I am happy to find a way to get the kids to eat their vegetables. I keep their favorite fruit on hand like watermelon, pears, and strawberries. I keep peanuts on my list also.

Nutrition is something that I try to keep in the back of my mind when I am trying to decide what to prepare. It can be tricky and costly. And although I know that variety is important, I can't seem to fit too much variety into my budget, often opting for the cheaper meal than the healthier one. Eating healthier cannot just happen for us, it is a slow process that requires constant attention, but hopefully the eased changes will result in changes that will eventually come without hesitation.