Feed your children a healthy and delicious meal with these easy tips

While keeping the basic grains, milk, fruits and vegetables intact in your children's diet, here are some innovative ways by which you can feed them healthy yet delicious meals

Children may get bored of the regular proteins and vitamins you pile on their plates in the form of legumes, milk, fruits, wheat etc. After all, their taste buds demand something different and tasty every day. So, why not make some innovative meals for your little ones with the basic yet healthy grains and proteins? Here are some ways in which you can make innovative meals for your child.

Sujetha Shetty, nutritionist and diet expert at online fitness platform Gympik, and Gulneer Puri, dietician at tele-medicine platform Doctor Insta, suggest how:

Grains: This is one of the basic pre-requisites of a child’s meal. For a healthy yet delicious supper, make a whole- wheat bread sandwich, butter toast, oats khichdi, barley and quinoa idli. Whole grains are rich in fibre and Vitamin B, which keeps your child full for a longer time. Whole grain food items also help in digestion.

Protein: An essential nutrient for kids, proteins help to repair tissues, make haemoglobin, boost immunity and develop muscles. Rather than making your children intake protein through plain milk and boiled legumes, try to feed them a protein rich soup cooked with chicken, eggs, and legumes. Make a tasty vegetable salad with protein rich veggies like beans, peas and mushrooms, spinach, and broccoli. Add boiled corns and sprinkle a pinch of salt, pepper and one table spoon butter for good taste and more health benefits. If your children suffer from protein deficiency, add soy products to their diet.

Fruits: While fruits are a must inclusion in your children’s diet, they might get bored to the regular taste of fruits may make them irritated and its inadequate intake may result in lack of nutrition. Try to make something innovative like mixed fruit salad, fruit shake, and fresh homemade fruit juice. However, let fruit juice be the last option because juice takes out fibre from the whole fruit. You can mix ice cream or home made fresh cream at times to the salad to give it a different taste. In this way, children will develop their taste and their bodies will be rewarded with adequate nutrients.

Vegetables: Include a variety of vegetables to a kid’s diet on regular basis. However, children get bored of eating the same veggies every day. So, to give them a tongue tingling taste, do not put the same veggies every day, and instead mix and match the vegetables and make different preparations like mixed vegetable soup, vegetable salad, mixed vegetable rice, and steamed vegetables tossed in butter, salt and pepper. Mixed vegetables make a plate colourful and supply protein, vitamin, fibre and carbohydrate in ample amount.

Dairy: Include low-fat dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese or fortified soy beverages in your children’s diet. Try some innovative ideas and recipes like milk shakes, cheese sandwich, badam milk, fruit yogurt, to incorporate dairy in their diet, as these are some of rich sources of calcium, which is essential for better bone health.

Do not add artificial sweeteners, trans fats and unsaturated fats to a children’s meal. Try and keep the meal fresh and natural and keep the little ones away from fast food and processed food items.

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