Healthy Cooking for a Family: Quick and Delicious Ideas

Busy lives can make it tricky to ensure that your family is eating healthily, but with some
handy hints and a little planning it becomes a lot easier. And once you’ve found a routine
that works, the whole process gets quicker and quicker. So, let’s take a look at how you can
put together a healthy, hearty and tasty plan for your family.

1. Make a plan
When it comes to ensuring that the family is eating healthily, planning is key! That means
making lists of nutritious foods, being creative with healthy lunch box ideas and ensuring
that you’ve got everything you need at the start of each week. The time you spend planning
at the beginning will pay off in the time you save during the rest of the week.
2. Healthy lunch box ideas
Whilst the kids are at home you’ve got control, but when they’re out you give some of that
up. However, making tasty packed lunches allows you to know that they’ve got what they
need to get through their day. Fruit pots, wholemeal wraps or sandwiches with their
favourite fillings, smoothies and homemade cereal bars packed with dried fruit and oats are
all great ideas.

Get your kids involved with what goes into their packed lunches. After all, the more
ownership they can take of what they eat and drink, the more likely they are to finish their
lunch. Healthy and fun always wins the day.

3. Slow cook for flavour
Slow cooking is a brilliant way of making delicious food and it also allows you to mask the
flavour of certain items that kids don’t normally go for. Imagine a broccoli floret that’s taken
on the flavour of a slow cooked, skinless chicken thigh, or soft carrots that have become
infused in hearty cooking liquor, or lentils that have soaked in a delicious tomato sauce… you
get the idea!
Slow cooking also allows you to do other things whilst the meals blips away. And, if you cook
plenty each time, you’ll have healthy leftovers to use as a quick option another day. It’s all
about a bit of experimenting; giving different flavour combos a go and finding a handful of
slow cooked meals that everyone loves.
4. Soups, smoothies and snacks

Sometimes a little guile is required to get kids eating healthy foods. Just like slow cooking,
soups and smoothies give you the chance to pack in a whole host of ingredients that they’ll
never even know about. Chuck a handful of spinach into an apple and banana smoothie,
some chickpeas as a base for a sweet tomato soup… there are so many options and ways to
disguise the goodness.
Snacks and desserts are the same; it’s all about the way you sell them. For example, popcorn
is a movie treat, right? Well, if you make it and add your own seasonings, rather than going
for the high sugar/high salt shop-bought options it’s actually quite a healthy option. What
about ice cream? Whip up some whole yogurt with some berries and a few nuts, squirt in a
little honey and freeze. Delicious! And far more nutritious.

That should give you plenty of inspiration to help you come up with a nutritious meal plan.
Take your time putting it together, employ trial and error as your main method, and you’ll
be on your way to healthy family
If you want to get your children interested in cooking read ideas here

As always questions and comments are welcome.

Until next time.

Karen

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