When coming up with clean eating recipes to feed your kids, you might encounter a lot of resistance. Healthy food is often viewed with alarm. Rarely do kids volunteer to eat a bowlful of steamed broccoli because it’s good for them. The way to get past this resistance is to look for recipes that replicate famous meals but substitute healthy ingredients.
This is possible because recipes are a little like software. While some software is proprietary, others are open-source. Similarly, popular restaurants often reveal their favorite recipes in their blogs and famous chefs disclose their best recipes in “expose” style cookbooks. You can look up many of the meals your kids hanker for and substitute unhealthy ingredients with healthy alternatives.
This idea of cloning popular meals also works for health issues. You can make a few modifications to a preferred restaurant-style meal by preparing it at home. If, for instance, your child has a swallowing disorder, you can use simplythick honey when the recipe calls for sugar.
Eating Healthy When Dining Out
Although it’s less expensive to prepare a meal at home, you and your kids may want to eat out for several good reasons. Perhaps, you like to eat out because the restaurant takes care of all the cooking and washing up for you, which makes your life much easier, while your kids love to eat out because the restaurant prepares delicious meals that you simply don’t know how to cook at home. Ethnic meals, for instance, require a blend of unique spices.
Unfortunately, when you think of eating at restaurants, you also realize that the tastiest foods aren’t always the healthiest. Is there a way to treat your kids to eating out without jeopardizing their health? Absolutely! One way is to clone a healthier version of a restaurant meal and another is to select a healthier menu option when eating out.
The way to make healthier meal selections when dining out is to learn what to order and how to do it. While restaurants are in the business of serving generous portions of their main course, your healthiest option is to focus on peripherals like salads, entrees, and vegetables. You must also be specific about how you place these special orders.
How to Order Salads
Simply ordering a salad isn’t enough. Here are two tips to order one the smart way:
1. Order the salad before you place your order for the rest of the meal. Since the salad will fill you and your kids up, you’re less likely to be tempted to indulge in tasty, filling, and satisfying high-fat, high-caloric meals. It’s a simple trick: consume fewer calories by eating a salad first.
2. Ask for salads without unhealthy add-ons. Although a salad is often healthy and delicious all by itself, restaurants often load them up with dairy, meat, and fish products to make them even more appetizing. From a health point of view, you’re increasing the amount of fat, calories, and salt. For instance, when you order a Caesar salad, the restaurant will also want to add mayo to the dressing, shredded cheese, flavored croutons, and shrimp or chicken. Unfortunately, these enticing extras add 36 grams of fat and 560 calories.
How to Order Entrees
1. Focus on the healthy menu option. Many restaurants offer healthy and low-fat entrée options with a detailed nutrition and calorie profile. If your family is eating at Applebee’s, select a few Weight Watchers options from the menu.
2. Split or box the entrée. Some restaurants load you up with plenty of entrées when it will take time to prepare your meal. When this happens, split the entrée with everyone at the table or ask for a box.
How to Order Vegetables
Restaurants rarely consider vegetables as part of a complete meal. Instead, they view veggies as mere garnish. So, the vegetables that come with your meals will likely be a handful of baby carrots, a forkful of broccoli, or a spoonful of squash. Flip this menu script by asking to triple the vegetables and offering to pay for it. While restaurants are glad to accommodate your needs, they rarely charge you for the few extra veggies they add.
In conclusion, when you cook healthy meals at home make them as delicious as restaurant meals and when you eat at restaurants try to make them as healthy as your home-cooked meals.
