This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and Tropicana.
Feeding your children healthy food can be a challenge, but really rewarding! I'm sure we can all agree that getting proper nutrients in every meal is ideal, but what do you do when your kids aren’t exactly eating their fruits and vegetables? Well, it's easy to make healthy meals and snacks that are full of flavor too!
It's amazing what we do for our kids. Whenever I am cooking a meal when I am pregnant, like now, I think about how much my unborn child would benefit from the foods I am about to eat. Just how many vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients will my baby be getting? At this point, I can control what nutrients my baby will be receiving but what to do when they start to grow up and tell you that they don't like apples or broccoli?
Well, here are some of my ideas for children who are picky eaters:
Add some honey or fruit to a bowl of oatmeal to make it more appealing.
Add fresh fruit to their cereal or yogurt.
Try a breakfast or lunch using a whole wheat wrap with turkey, eggs and cheese. It is packed with protein and fiber.
Start the day with a glass of fresh orange juice.
If you make tasty snacks your kids will never guess how healthy they really are. Like fresh fruit purees, fresh fruit popsicles, frozen bananas and strawberries on a stick.
Keep organic baby carrots in the house for snacking during the day.
Hummus is a high-fiber nutrient in which they can dip fresh vegetables.
Add vegetables like broccoli, peas or spinach to mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf.
Blend vegetables into their favorite tomato sauce.
Make pizzas with your kids and ask them to add their favorite vegetables on top. Kids love to make pizza and eat their own creations.
Eat together as a family and role model good eating habits.
Okay guys, those are my tips for parents to help get your kids eating fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods without complaining...as much! Now, for a chance to win a $100 Visa Gift Card from BlogHer and Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice, leave a comment on this post with your tips for how you do the same for your kids.
The sweepstakes: 4/11/2011-5/9/2011
Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry
methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment
on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on
this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about
an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be
selected.
For Official Rules Click here.
Tropicana helps put the “good” in morning.
Tropicana Pure Premium provides an array of 100 percent orange juice varieties to help meet individuals' nutrition and lifestyle needs. All options are nutrient-dense, with one eight-ounce glass delivering two fruit servings and a full day’s supply of vitamin C.*For more information visit them here:
Facebook – the official Facebook page
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Website – The Offical Website
Pledge to squeeze more fruits and veggies into your day and Tropicana will
help kids in need. Tropicana will donate one 8-oz glass of orange juice to
the USDA School Breakfast and Summer Food Service programs, up to 184,375
8-oz glasses. Please pledge by going to http://bit.ly/gAU7Eq. Promo will end 12/31/11.
I wrote this post while participating in the Tropicana Pure Premium/BlogHer program on behalf of Tropicana Pure Premium. I received product information to facilitate my post and monetary compensation for the time to write my post.
Mari
I tweeted:
twitter.com/LuckyDuckyToo/status/67628785192812544
Mari
I keep a veggie tray with my family's favorite dips out on the table in between meals, rather than processed junk food.
Anne
I blogged
unaj14568.blogspot.com/2011/05/tropicana-giveaways.html
Anne
I just serve healthy foods and figure that sooner or later the kids will eat them. We keep little junk food in the house, which helps because they do get hungry. My oldest daughter commented just yesterday that she loves black beans now, and can’t believe it took her so long to try them.
Jennifer
We told our daughter that you can't visit new, exciting places if you don't try new food.. now she'll try anything for a chance to go to Paris!
Betty C
Tweet -twitter.com/willitara/status/67489274685177856
Betty C
I'm very fortunate that my children have never been picky eaters. In fact, they love almost every type of food that they have tried. The main problem was keeping enough fresh fruit in the house. It always seemed to disappear too quickly.
STEPHANIE EDMOND
EXCELLENT NUTRITIONAL TIPS. GOOD FOR ADULTS AS WELL AS CHILDREN BECAUSE MANY TIMES WE ARE SO BUSY THAT WE NEGLECT PROPER NUTRITION
Donna B.
I make sure we eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and I keep plenty of healthy snack options on hand. I also limit sweets, sodas, fried foods and other junk food. My son has always loved all fruits and veggies so getting him to eat a healthy, varied diet has never been an issue, but I will add veggies to spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and casseroles to boost the nutrition.
Sherry Williams
I really love veggies and fruits. Good tips above. Thanks.
Joyce Raymond
My daughter always loved grapes and small chunks of cheese.I would also give her a glass of milk or a juice box (only real juice, no kool aid or hawain punch).
terri weber
What great ideas for getting move veggies in your food. Yum!
JanPattersonRN
My kids are older now, but with my grandson one of the things we do when I go visit is find places to pick fresh fruit. There's almost always someplace with blackberries growing wild, or [he lives in Southern California] date palms dropping fruit, or oranges, or lemons. And when he comes to visit here we do the same.
It's helped him understand where fruit comes from and how it looks on the tree or bush, and now he's a right good fruit shopper on his own.
Judith
We are a vegetable eating family so the kids and now the grandkids don't know anything different.
sy
tweet:twitter.com/#!/syytta/status/67029004284215296
sy
i love organic baby carrots, i try to add fruits and vegetables to our diet but we often don't have enough, so i add supplements too, i like powder supplements that i can add to drinks.
songyueyu at gmail