Healthy Meals - Lone Tree,IA

My rule of thumb that its healthy if it is half raw. I usually give my kids something normal like grilled cheese, or banana pancake...etc...but half the plate is a raw fruit mix or veggie mix. My oldest gets fruit at two of her meals then veggie at one and my youngest gets a veggie side at two of hers and fruit at one. Most of the time the veggie is a salad, or dipping veggies and we always have fruit in the house available for snacks also.

The lunch you made sounds fine, id use whole grain bread and half olive oil/1/2 butter to toast it, plus real cheese.

I think the lunch sounds good to me? Did you use whole grain bread? LOL. I think a meal for our kids with the least amount of processed ingredients the better.

Sounds good to me. I'd add carrots or a fruit with color (strawberries, grapes).

For me healthy includes a whole grain, and at least 2 servings of fruit/vegi's.

I also consider just about anything made from scratch to be healthy (not treats, but dinners). So, if I make pizza, I include whole grains in the crust, limit the sodium and don't pile on the cheese - I figure it's a healthy meal.

J.

Thats not a bad lunch at all but instead of grilling the sandwich, toast the bread and then melt the cheese. I like to make soups that keep in the fridge for a couple days do I can just reheat my homemade soups. My son's fav is vegatarian split pea. also whole grain elbow noodles with tomato sauce is pretty quick too.

I think that lunch sounds fine as long as the bread was whole wheat and it was real cheese.
I try to do balanced meals with fruits and veggies, protein and good carbs (100% whole wheat bread, tortillas, pasta etc)

Excellent lunch! I would do bananas in the morning, the have the most sugar so the earlier in a day the better. Substitute bread, pasta, rice to whole wheat and serve for lunch rather than dinner. No sodas, no juices substitute with real fruit and water. Big fancy salads and meat or fish for dinner.

I am for balance, generally following Weight Watchers and Cooking Light ideals. No food is off-limits but anything fatty or less healthful is eaten in smaller quantities. I aim for low-fat, low-calorie, but tasty. For instance, last night we had wheat pasta with butternut squash and shallots. No fried or fatty foods. Lean cuts of meat only.

I make sure fruits and vegetables are eaten daily; however, we also have a supremely picky child who will only eat two meal options right now and his diet is anything but healthy.

We just do the best we can.

Healthy for me is whole wheat, high fiber, high protein, low fat, low sugar. Lots of fresh produce and veg. Lots of color on the plate.

I try try try to get all that in my kids. But honestly, somedays i'm relieved if they'll at least eat a bowl of cereal

Tomorrows lunch is peanut butter spread on a whole wheat wrap, then I cut up strawberries and bananas roll it up and cut in half. Two cucumbers stuffed with hummus. A handful of trail mix and chocolate almond milk.

I know they should get more veggies, but I try and make a lot of protein for lunch because it is a long time before the next meal and I need stuff that will fill them up and keep them full until they get home.

sounds pretty healthy and tasty to me :) We have gluten and dairy sensitivities in our house so we really don't eat much grain or dairy products--my kids are both extremely healthy and on the upper percentiles of growth charts (despite the fact that they've rarely had yogurt, cheese, cows milk, or whole wheat bread). For breakfast this morning we had sausage omelets: eggs, organic apple sausage, red and green bell peppers, spinach, kale and onions with raspberries and clementines on the side. Healthy comes in all kinds of varieties! Our meals are composed of meat, seafood, nuts, fruits and veggies only and we're all happy, healthy and thriving!

~A. (Wife of a 230 pound athlete, and mom of an almost 3-year old ball of muscle, and a 1 year old giggly girl)

I think a healthy meal is one that comes from real food.

That means there are no chemicals in the ingredient list, no hormones fed to dairy or meat-producing animals, and very little processing in a factory.

Eating this way means that you buy, grow, or raise the raw materials for food and assemble meals yourself (more work!) It also lets you eat real butter (from grass-fed cows-perfectly healthy), real meat (such as from free-range chicken), and whole food (such as a piece of fruit, olives, nuts, veggies). Also, drinking water is important.

Humans evolved eating this way, and so the food we evolved with is healthiest for us. (Fortunately, wine's been around for centuries, so I have no qualms about a glass every once in a while!)

That lunch sounds healthy to me.

We try to buy low-sodium, low-fat items. We eat whole grains (all our bread, tortillas, bagels, crackers, etc.,) and try to avoid partially hydrogenated oils (in bread & all kinds of other stuff). When we eat rice, we aim for brown rice & not white rice.

We try to eat low fat, high protein cuts of meat, and eat meatless meals 1 or 2x per week (cheaper on the budget). We mostly eat chicken, with occasionally some red meat.

We try to eat a fruit or veg, or both, with every meal. This is one area I think we need to try harder, but I get so discouraged doing the prep & not having it eaten and then going bad..... wasted effort & money depresses me (DH is good about eating pretty much whatever I give him, but DS is not).

No chips or regular soda (I do occasionally have diet, caff free sprite or root beer; DH is addicted to diet Mt Dew, but at least he'll let me buy store brands, so it's a) not so expensive, and b) the caff content is lower in store brands). Occasionally cookies, but I do try to health them up a little bit by subbing applesauce for part or all of the oil and lowering the sugar and swapping part of the regular flour for whole wheat.

We try to keep non-home cooked meals to 1 per week (usually dinner, occasionally lunch), because you just don't know what's in fast food or restaurant food most of the time. We do occasionally do fish sticks or Tyson chic nuggest & sweet potato fries at home (maybe 2x per month, total). We do homemade pizza (store bought whole wheat crusts, homemade sauce, mozzarella from the store, with diced cooked chic & sweet peppers onions, garlic and sometimes spinach).

We occasionally do juice, but it's diluted or low sugar (ie, if we do frozen OJ from the can, instead of 3 cans of water added, I'll add 4). It stretches the juice and lowers the sugar. I also usually pour the juice over ice to dilute it more.

We do drink milk (whole for DS, 1% for me) and do buy & use cheese regularly. We eat yogurt or drink kefir (a probiotic yogurt drink).

We try. I know we could do better. When DS was a baby, we did really well, but as he's gotten older and more picky, I've lost some of my motivation. I keep trying and will do so, but it's hard when we're busy and when I know that the choices, even if I let him pick, will often get rejected.

My favorite go-to healthy meal for my kids is griilled chicken and whatever vegetable we have on hand. I'm trying to give them a taste for what veggies really taste like, so I don't usually put butter or salt on them.
That being said, last Sunday, while we were watching football, I made them mini-pizzas out of some Grands biscuits I was cleaning out of the freezer. Moderation, right?:)
Tomato soup, grilled cheese, and banana sounds like a lovely lunch to me.
In our family, we just try to focus on eating "real" food, not processed stuff, not overdoing the white-flour bread products, no soda, we don't go to fast-food places, and we sit together at the table and eat dinner at least Monday through Thursday. Fri/Sat/Sun is more casual.