Kevin normally makes all the quesadillas at our house, so when I made this for the first time, I decided to include step-by-step photos so its easy to make it again and again. Enjoy!

10 Fun Ways To Teach Your Kids About Nutrition

1. Be a healthy role model. Kids need healthy role models in all areas of life – and that goes for food too. Kids are much more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables if they see you eating yours. 
2. Avoid labeling foods and “good” or “bad”. This usually only makes “bad” foods more desirable. Instead, point out the functions of different foods (i.e. carbohydrates give you instant energy needed for sports, etc.)
3. No food rewards! Rewarding kids with food sends the wrong message and can lead to weight problems down the road. Instead, use something fun and active like a quick family bike ride or 15 minutes of frisbee.
4. Take a trip to the grocery store…but not to shop. Take a special field trip to the grocery store to explore and learn about food. Ask kids to pick out a few new foods and then go home and have a taste test.
5. Choices. Choices. Choices. We all love choices. Help your child to make better food choices by giving them options. For example, if you serve three vegetables at dinner, ask your child to choose at least two of the three for that meal.
6. Cook together. A great hands on way to teach kids about nutrition is to ask them to help prepare a recipe – like this one! See age appropriate step by step recipe below.
7. Eat together. Eating meals together as a family is critically important to the development of healthful eating habits. Aim to set aside at least 1 night per week for a family meal.
8. Question time. Kids love questions! At meal time, ask kids to use their senses to describe the smells, flavors and textures of the food they are eating.
9. Story time. There are so many great children’s stories with positive nutrition messages. A couple of my favorites are: Too Much Junk Food by Stan & Jan Berenstain and Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat. How to Teach Nutrition to Kids by Connie Liakos Evers, MS, RD is an excellent teaching guide.
10. Puppets & Stuffed Animals. When all else fails, using a puppet or favorite stuffed animal to convey nutrition messages is almost always a success. In the photo above, you can see my friend, Mitch, the lamb puppet. Mitch helped me out last week and made the nutrition lesson go a lot smoother.

Click here for a Healthy Eating for Preschoolers Daily Food Plan by ChooseMyPlate.gov.

Below is an age appropriate, step by step recipe that you can use with preschool aged kids. Just click on the image to download a free PDF of the recipe.

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Have a box of quinoa and you’re not sure what to make with it? If you like Greek salads then you might really enjoy this recipe because it combines the flavors of a traditional Greek salad but replaces the Romaine lettuce with cooked quinoa. It works well as a side dish for fish, chicken, steak or grilled tofu.

This is also a great recipe to bring to a pot luck or make if your are having guests for dinner. We almost never have leftovers : )

Suggested garnishes: tortilla chips, diced avocado, diced tomato, diced green pepper, wedge of lime, chopped cilantro, shredded jack cheese, sour cream, scallions. *Note: Nutrition Facts are calculated without the addition of suggested garnishes.

“How can I get my kids to eat more vegetables?”

Ohhhh the lengths a parent will go to get their child to eat a vegetable – you name it and it’s been tried – disguising, hiding, transforming, bribing, coercing and the list goes on. But does it work?

If you are a concerned and frustrated parent of a picky eater don’t waste your time hiding 1/4 cup of spinach in a muffin or promising $5 if they eat their green beans. These methods are ineffective at getting your kids to like vegetables. Sure you might fool them for a week or two, but in the end it usually backfires making meal times stressful and sending the message to your kids that vegetables need to be camouflaged in order to be considered edible.

If you want your kids to eat more vegetables, may I suggest a more simple method – the dip. I don’t know why, but kids like to dip their food in stuff. It’s true – just ask one.  This recipe is one of many healthy, simple, kid approved dips. Skip the packaged stuff and make your own. It’s quick, simple, tasty and healthy. So the next time you’re chomping at the bit to get your kids to eat some carrot sticks, get rid of the cookies and crackers and put out a tray of raw veggies and dip and let them go to town. You might be pleasantly surprised at the results.

Avoiding peanuts? Not a problem. You can easily swap the peanut butter for any other nut or seed butter like almond, soy, cashew, sunflower seed, etc.

Here are a few fun PB & J Facts:

• It is estimated that the average American school child will have gobbled through 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating from high school.
• When surveyed, 96% of people said that they put the peanut butter on before the jelly.
• Celebrate – April 2nd is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!

If you’re visiting for the first time, we’re glad you’re here. If you’re a regular supporter, we’re glad you’re back! We’re glad to be back too. In this post, you’ll get a quick tour of the site and some of the main features.

Before we do that, we’d like say a special thank you to Matt Rossi, Web Designer and Developer of Keep Your Diet Real who has made this site not only user friendly but beautiful at the same time.

New things about the site:

The Shop

Yes we now have a shop! We hope to continually add to it!

Ingredients, Nutrition, Weight Watchers Points™ (added to all posts) and Social Media are all on the right side.

Ingredients

Nutrition Facts

Weight Watchers Points™

Like a recipe?  Let others know.

Now you can share with friends without having to leave the website.

Directions

They are located at the bottom of the post. The new layout is easy to read with clear steps laid out.

More Recipes are at the bottom of each post

Responsive

Easily enjoy the website from any of your digital devices that can connect to the internet.

Tablet Navigation

Click the blue icon on the right to access the ingredients, nutrition information, Weight Watchers Points™ and social media links.

You can also post to your favorite social sites from this tab.

Touch the X at the top right and you will be back at the main view.

Newsletter

We will be doing a monthly newsletter.  The newsletter will go over the posts from that month and there will be giveaways like gift cards, kitchen gadgets and other fun free stuff - sign up on our Facebook fan page. (You must be logged in to Facebook in order to see the email signup icon).

RSS Feed

We know that a lot of you get updates from us via Feedburner. Since this service will be terminated sometime this summer, we are letting you know that we will be using Feedly as our alternative. You can connect it to your Google Reader. Kevin already uses this on his iPhone and enjoys it. To make sure you are definitely aware of new posts though, please sign up for the newsletter above.

We hope that you will enjoy what we have for you!

Rarely do people have lukewarm feelings about Brussels sprouts – very little gray area here.  I happen to love them, but I know other people, like Kevin’s friend Steve for example, who refer to them as “evil baby cabbages”.

My first impression of Brussels sprouts left much to be desired (think boiled and bland). Thankfully, I have since discovered that there are lots and lots of tasty ways to prepare and serve them. This salad is a light and refreshing way to use up some fresh Brussels sprouts.

Come on, give the evil baby cabbage a second chance.