All moms are busy, whether you are a stay-at-home mom or you work outside your home it can be difficult to work in a healthy home cooked meal for your family. The idea of making a quick, healthy, kid friendly meal can be a puzzle. What usually happens is that you think you’ve prepared a tasty and healthy meal for your kids, but they crinkle their nose, refuse to eat and you order pizza. You wish you could be a Chef Ramsey in the kitchen and whip up a delicious and healthy meal but as hard as you have tried, you just don’t have the talent.  

You have the right ingredients in your pantry right now to make a delicious meal. You can do this, go to your pantry and find a carbohydrate. This can be beans, tortillas, bread, pasta, or potatoes. Next, go to your refrigerator and find a  protein, any meat or if you are a vegetarian, any protein replacement. It’s okay if you do not have any protein. Your goal is to cook a meal that is quick but still nutritious; your family will survive one meal without protein. Next, find a vegetable; it could be onions, tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce or any other veggie. If you cannot find a vegetable, look to see if you have any sauces, soups or broths such as tomato sauce, salsa, pasta sauce, tomato soup, or vegetable broth.

Getting your kids involved will make them feel like they have a role in making the meal. Let them pick the ingredients and see what you can come up with together. Your kids will be more willing to try the food knowing that they chose the ingredients.

This task may still seem daunting so here are examples of quick meals you can prepare. You can add or remove any ingredient to make it your own, there are no rules.

Personal Pizza

Carbohydrate: Tortillas (such as flour or corn), sandwich thins, or bagels

Vegetable: Tomato paste or sauce, pizza sauce, or marinara sauce (you may need to add some spices such as garlic or Italian seasoning if you use plain tomato paste or sauce), black olives, peppers

Protein: Whatever meat you have such as pepperoni, ground meat, chicken, or ham

Cheese

Directions: Cook meat. Place sauce, meat and cheese on pizza. Place pizza in oven for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Eat and enjoy!

Salsa Mac

Carbohydrate: Pasta (any, you can even combine different ones)

Vegetable: Salsa or tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes (you may need to add some Mexican seasoning when using unseasoned tomatoes)

Protein: Any ground meat or chicken

Optional: cheese, low fat sour cream, avocados

Directions: Cook meat. Prepare Pasta. Combine ingredients and add optional items. Eat and enjoy!

Mexican Casserole

Carbohydrate: Refried Beans, corn or flour tortillas, or rice

Protein: ground meat or chicken

Vegetable: Here you can use salsa, diced tomatoes, tomato soup, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste (again, you may want to use Mexican seasonings if using unseasoned tomatoes)

Optional toppings: cheese, low fat sour cream, crumbled corn or tortilla chips on top

Directions: Cook meat. Place a layer of carbohydrates, meat, and your vegetable in casserole dish and cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Add optional toppings and serve.

Sandwich Wraps

Carbohydrate: Tortillas (such as flour or corn)

Protein: deli meat, cooked chicken or steak, or any other cooked meat

Vegetable: lettuce, onions, tomatoes, spinach, avocados or green, red or yellow peppers (any vegetable can go here)

Optional: cheese, mayonnaise, low fat sour cream, salad dressing

This meal is your creation. You can prepare these in your kitchen or you can create a sandwich bar so the kids can create their own wrap.

Noodle Soup

Carbohydrate: Pasta, rice, or packaged rice noodles

Protein: cooked chicken or beef

Vegetable: diced carrots, peas, corn, or celery (pick your child’s favorite veggie)

Vegetable: vegetable broth (can use chicken or beef broth in place of vegetable broth)

Directions: Prepare pasta, rice or rice noodles, drain. Bring broth to a boil. Combine meat, carbohydrate and vegetables in broth. Season with salt or other seasonings as needed. Serve.

These are just a few quick meals that you can make when short on time. There are hundreds of choices in your kitchen right now… it just takes a little creativity from your taste buds! 

The post How to Prepare Quick, Healthy, and Kid Friendly Meals for Busy Moms appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

Ninety percent of kids don’t eat the recommended amount of vegetables each day.[1] To help get more kids on board with healthy eating, it’s important to show them how fun veggies can be.

It’s no secret that kids love to play, especially with their food. While this behavior may normally be discouraged, the Birds Eye Vegetables brand is switching things up and encouraging parents to try rewriting the dinnertime rules this year. The Rewrite the Dinnertime Rules program lets kids have fun and play with their veggies while setting healthy eating habits at a young age.

“Getting kids involved in the dinner process makes them more likely to eat and enjoy what they helped create,” said Birds Eye Vegetables Corporate Chef Michael Christiansen. “With our Rewrite the Dinnertime Rules program, we’ve come up with some easy ways to get your kids excited about dinnertime and loving vegetables.”

Here are five tips to get your kids to eat more veggies, and a kid-approved recipe to try for your next family dinner:

• Get your kids involved: When kids are involved, they’re more likely to eat their creations. Let the kids help with the shopping, choosing of the recipes, prep and cooking of the meals. Have them choose the veggies they want to eat for dinner and which they want to pack in their lunch. Encourage them to try a variety of colors and flavors.
• Make family playtime with veggies: Kids can create rainbows on their plate with veggies or make smiley face pizzas. For the pizzas, use mini whole-wheat pitas as the base and let the kids add marinara sauce, reduced-fat cheese and Birds Eye veggies to make faces.
• Mix it up: Veggies can be used in surprising and delicious ways. Mix veggies with yogurt, orange juice and honey to make nutritious smoothies, or whip up refreshing popsicles with carrots and orange juice.
• Positive reinforcement: Celebrate veggies and how delicious and fun they can be by using positive words when talking about them. You can also amp up the cool factor by using some of your child’s favorite stars, such as Jennette McCurdy, as inspiration.
• Use new veggies in familiar dishes: Combine new veggies with a few simple ingredients for a twist on familiar favorites. Try making pea guacamole, corn salsa or other unique creations that combine old favorites with healthy veggies. For these recipes and other ideas, visit www.birdseye.com or www.pinterest.com/RealBirdsEye.

Chicken & Corn Sliders

Total time: 15 mins

Servings: 6

• 1 bag (12 ounce) Birds Eye Steamfresh Super Sweet Corn
• 1/3 cup prepared barbecue sauce
• 1/4  cup water or fat free, low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, skin removed
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Torn lettuce leaves, such as Boston, Romaine or Iceberg
• 12 (1-ounce) whole grain slider rolls

Bring barbecue sauce and broth to a boil over high heat. Simmer 1 minute. Stir in chicken and Super Sweet Corn; toss to coat and heat through. Stir in green onions. Evenly arrange on lettuce-lined rolls. Secure with fun toothpicks.

The post Put Play on the Plate with Veggies appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

Prep Time: 30 Min
Cook Time: 50 Min
Ready In: 1 Hr 30 Min
Yields 12 servings or 2-9 inch pot pies.

Ingredients
• 2 cups frozen peas and carrots
• 2 cups frozen green beans
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2/3 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup all-purpose fl our
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 4 cups cubed cooked turkey meat – light/dark meat mixed
• 4 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions
1. Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Place the peas and carrots, green beans, and celery into a saucepan; cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer over
medium-low heat until the celery is tender, about 8 minutes. Drain the vegetables in a colander set in the sink, and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2/3 cup of flour, salt, black pepper, celery seed, onion powder, and Italian seasoning; slowly whisk in the chicken broth and milk until the mixture comes to a simmer and thickens. Remove from heat; stir the cooked vegetables and turkey meat into the filling until well combined.
4. Fit 2 pie crusts into the bottom of 2 9-inch pie dishes. Spoon half the fi lling into each pie crust, then top each pie
with another crust. Pinch and roll the top and bottom crusts together at the edge of each pie to seal, and cut several small slits into the top of the pies with a sharp knife to release steam.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until the crusts are golden brown and the fi lling is bubbly, 30 to 35 minutes. If the crusts are browning too quickly, cover the pies with aluminum foil aft er about 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 539 | Total Fat: 33.2g | Cholesterol: 65mg
Recipe adapted from original submitted by michelle_cows, courtesy of www.allrecipes.com

The post Turkey Pot Pie appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.