Ready, Set, Cook! Healthy, Kid-Friendly Dishes for School and Home

Kids across the country are becoming more invested in healthy food thanks to their schools launching vegetable gardens and holding taste tests allowing students have a say in what makes it on the cafeteria menu. When kids have a hands-on opportunity to learn about nutritious dishes, they are more likely to enjoy consuming them.

Going a step further, families can bring kids into the kitchen and involve them in healthy meal preparation. The National Institute of Health’s We Can! program has a list of fun ways kids of all ages can help create nutritious dishes and develop healthier eating habits along the way. For example, young children can wash fruits and veggies, peel hard-boiled eggs, and measure ingredients.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently launched an online resource, “20 Recipes to Get Kids Cooking,” featuring healthy and delicious meal options ranging from fruit kabobs, to Tuscan bean soup, to fish tacos. Not only can parents and kids cook these dishes together at home, but educators can also use them for recipe taste tests or simple cooking demonstrations in the cafeteria.    

A recent United States Department of Agriculture blog post highlighted a New York elementary school’s successful cafeteria taste test event where parents and families had the chance to try nutritious dishes like broccoli gratin and white bean ragout. Read the full story to learn how taste tests can be a great way to introduce kids to fruits and veggies they may never have been exposed to before: http://1.usa.gov/1aNjx9c

Below is one of our favorite recipes by CSPI’s Kate Sherwood that encourages kids to get creative with healthy ingredients:

Rainbow Sandwiches
Think of sandwiches as your chance to eat a salad with your hands! Pick 100% whole grain bread, add a healthy base like hummus, 1 slice of cheese, turkey, chicken or tuna, and then pile on the shrubbery.

Suggested Combos:
Turkey + avocado + red tomato + yellow pepper + romaine lettuce
Cheese + cole slaw + radish + butter lettuce
Hummus + grated carrot + roasted red pepper + cucumber 

Photo credit: Kate Sherwood

How do you get kids involved and excited about healthy cooking? What are your favorite healthy, kid-friendly dishes? Tell us your story by tweeting us @BagtheJunk, writing on our Facebook wall, or leaving a comment below.