How to get your kids to love dinnertime (even when it’s healthy)

(This is a sponsored post by Balance the Superfood Shot and Life Equals. All opinions expressed are my own, and my opinion is that Balance the Superfood Shot is wonderful! Love this stuff.)

Dinnertime can feel like a battlefield. In my house, everyone has a different opinion on what we should eat, and they definitely don’t want whatever it is I’m making. This is especially true if the meal includes anything green, food that touches other food, or anything that looks like it might be remotely healthy. On those nights when one child is crying under the table and the other is digging in the fridge trying to find anything else, it can be easy to consider giving up on a healthy family dinner and just ordering pizza for the sake of peace.

Why can’t kids come into this world loving kale and Brussels sprouts? We all want the best for our kids. We want them to eat foods that nourish their growing bodies. We want them to grow up to be healthy, active, happy adults. But how do we teach them to treat their bodies well in those frustrating moments when they are crying over the broccoli on their plates?

Here are a few tricks we have used in our home to help our kids enjoy dinnertime, even when the food is healthy:

• Get them involved in meal planning: We have a handful of healthy cookbooks that we hand out when it’s time to do meal planning. Everyone looks through for ideas and we add the meals to the calendar. My daughters rarely complain about a meal that they picked out themselves, and they love being part of the process!
• Find extra ways to pump up the nutrition: I love pureeing or shredding vegetables and adding them to the food to pump up the nutrition. An easy way to do this is to add a Balance the Superfood Shot to recipes. We especially love the foundation blend in our blueberry muffins or pancakes. Balance is also super simple to add to school lunches or tuck into a backpack. If you use the code ALL50 to purchase your own Balance the Superfood Shot, you get half off your subscription order on anything! It’s an amazing deal, be sure to grab yours today!
• Talk to your kids what different foods do in our bodies: We love to look up the foods to see what benefits they have. My kids eat carrots better when I remind them that those carrots help them to see, and green beans go down the hatch more easily when we talk about how they boost our immune systems and help keep us from getting sick as often.
• Play the grocery store game: One day in the grocery store while trying to decide which vegetables to take home, I turned to my daughters and told them to each go pick one vegetable of their choice. One came back with artichokes, something I had never cooked before. I almost told her to choose something else, but I decided to give them a try. We were surprised both by how easy they were to cook, and how delicious they were! I guarantee that if I had placed artichokes in front of my kids with no warning, they would have flatly refused to eat them. But because it was their choice, it was a novelty, a fun game, and now a new favorite in our house. I encourage you to try the same game with your kids!
• Have your kids cook with you: When your kids cook it, they will want to eat it! Once a week our kids have a turn helping to cook a meal, and they have a lot of pride in their work. They love to do fancy plating as they do on the cooking shows, and they even brag to their friends about their cooking skills. And I love that we are giving them skills that they will use for their entire lives.

Remember that teaching healthy eating is a long game. Keep exposing your kids to healthy foods, teaching them, and being a good example. The more you involve them in the process, the more they will enjoy the meal. I believe that kids want what we all want, to eat delicious food with enjoyment and love.