Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Kid Lovin' Healthy Foods

We've been working to make our household more healthy and while this has been a frustrating thing a lot of times, I've been excited to find some great alternatives for the kids. I'd love to hear what you've found for your own families too!

I do most of our grocery shopping at Walmart (you can't beat their prices!), and although they've started carrying more healthy choices, there are still some things I have to buy elsewhere.


Our kids have always loved yogurt. I never really payed much attention to what all was in there though. Yogurt just seemed to equal nutritious.

WRONG.
Read the labels! Not all yogurt is created equal!

I'm no expert, but here are some things I've found and that all or some of our kids like:
  • Horizon's "Little Blends" is an organic yogurt that mixes a veggie with a fruit. It sounds gross but it's actually pretty good. It's made specifically for babies and toddlers.
  • Stonyfield's "Yo Baby 3 in 1 Meals" is another organic yogurt that combines veggie and fruit. It's bigger and the flavors are different. They are sold individually for about $1 apiece. Joshua scarfed it down the first time I gave it to him!
  • Stonyfield's "O'Soy" soy yogurt is surprisingly good if you're trying to do the vegan thing. It's just a fruit and isn't marketed to kids but my younger two like it. (The older two have had the sugary kinds too long and are taking longer to win over.)
  • Stonyfield's "Yokids" organic fruit yogurt. The packaging is obviously trying to appeal to kids. It's good! (It still has a hard time competing with the stupid Trix Rabbit.)


I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find these next things!!!
  • We use the twisted fruit (which is like a twizzler candy but is all fruit!) as a reward for eating dinner good without complaining. What a difference these have made in our home! You'll find them right with all the "fruit" snacks and granola bars.
  • Fruit Roll-Ups now has "simply fruit" roll-ups that are 90% fruit. The big kids were opposed to these at first since they knew there were a healthy kind, but once they ate one they loved them! So far I've only found these at Target.


  • Kashi cereal bars are like Nutri-grain bars but so much better for you. Nutrigrain bars was another thing that just seemed healthy and I didn't think much about. But then I read the label.....
  • These Kashi "Dark Chocolate Coconut" bars are absolutely delicious! If you have a sweet tooth and you're fighting cravings you should check these out. Trust me - I should know!


  • Another Stonyfield product we buy is "Yokids squeezers". These are just like the "'gogurts" (the tubes of yogurt with ScoobyDoo on them) but they are organic and don't have the corn syrups and other junk in them. Walmart doesn't carry them - not ours anyway. =(


  • Cascadian Farm Organic "Dark Chocolate Almond Granola" is my favorite breakfast cereal now. I eat is everyday and it doesn't get old. At less than $3 a box I really like this one.


  • Yea for Capri Sun who finally made 100% juice drinks! Again, my older two don't think these are near as good as normal Capri Suns, but I won't buy them those so they may as well learn to like the new kind!


  • These all natural fruit strips by Stretch Island Fruit Co. are kind of like fruit roll-ups just a different shape. They come in several different flavors and they've been a bit hit too.




These are some of the new food that work for me! I'd love to hear what's working for you......

2 comments:

  1. We do the cut up fruits and vegetables trick. This way they are readily available at all times. The kids have never tasted soda, so they always ask for water or milk(which takes care of drinks). Raisons, Craisons, Bananas with peanut butter, baked apples with a touch of smart balanced light and all natural granola, celery with laughing cow cheese and cranbary's, carrots with hummus(I'm not sure how healthy hummus is, but I have heard good things). We also do as much 100% whole grain as is possible and try and buy products that are as natural as possible. We do still use cow milk, but since Josh turned two we use Skim. The kids also eat quite a bit of salad I just mix it up with sour cream and all of the veggies so that they won't pick out the lettuce. We used your tip at Halloween about the magic bag. It went over wonderfully!

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