1.  Plan a wholesome meal with your children. Include one food from each of the four food groups for main meals and at least two food groups for snacks. For great recipe and meal ideas, check out the Dietitians of Canada Website

2.  Involve your children in preparing meals. They are more likely to eat them if involved with the meal choices. Young children can mash, stir, pour, count, mix, wash, knead and measure foods. Older children can chop vegetables and meat, of bake dessert while you are preparing dinner. It’s also a great way to touch base with your kids and to find out what they are doing and thinking.

3.  To save yourself time and to have more time for your children, batch cook on the weekend by preparing several dishes/meals at once, for example, chili, beef stew, etc.  Portion the food into family-size containers or smaller containers for snacks and lunches, label  and freeze them, then you just have to pull one out of the freezer for an instant meal. Pre-prepared meals are cheaper than ordering in and usually, healthier.

4.  Make lunches for the whole week on the weekend as a family activity. Freeze them in individual portions and let your child choose which lunch to take which day.

5.  Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into interesting shapes.

6.  Boost the fibre of your meals by adding wheat or oat bran to meat sauce, casseroles or homemade muffins. Ground Flaxseed works well too.

7. Try keeping “on the go snacks” in the car for those last minute munchies-dry cereal, granola bars, cereal bars, homemade mini-muffins, fruit leathers and fruit.

8.  Keep healthy snacks, like cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, yogurt with graham crackers or digestives for dipping, and cut up veggie sticks in the fridge for your children to snack on when they get home from school or from an outing.

9.  Make dinner time a social time for the whole family-eat together as often as possible.

10.  Make your own trail mix to bring on outings. Check out our recipe in the fact sheets.