Friday, January 2, 2009

Feeding The Family In A Few Minutes

By Nicole Dean

Kids need to eat. Three meals a day, every day. All moms know how important it is to have an arsenal of quick meals handy. You never know when you'll have to put healthy food on the table in a hurry, or when you need ideas so dad can help.

Dip It: I haven't met a kid yet that didn't like to dunk carrots into ranch style dressing. Build on that "meal" by creating a whole arrangement of vegetables to dip. Choose some nice fresh cucumbers, celery, broccoli, carrots, red bell pepper, green bell peppers, radishes, and cauliflower, and arrange them on a plate just for your little dipper. Watch your picky eater devour their plate of vegetables before they even know what they're eating.

Sandwich Building 101: Your child will love experimenting with whatever you have on hand to build a sandwich. Use buns, waffles, bagels, English muffins, or dinner rolls to begin with, or anything you have on hand. Now you can start adding peanut butter, fruit, meat slices, vegetables, cheese, hummus, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, or hard boiled eggs, or whatever jumps out of the refrigerator at you. Let your child give it a try and remember, it is a work in progress.

Oodles of Noodles: If you've got noodles, you can make a meal. Add some salad dressing and some meat, garbanzo beans and veggies and you've got pasta salad. Or, start with noodles and add a little butter and Parmesan cheese to make buttered noodles. And, there's always the classic standby - add pasta sauce and a dollop of cottage cheese onto noodles and you just made lasagna.

Bundle Up: Flour or corn tortillas make a great start for creating a meal in moments. Grab your leftover chicken, veggies, beans, or anything you happen to have, heat it up, top it with cheese, and roll it up. You have a fantastic wrap, just like the food court!

Heavenly Spuds: I believe potatoes are a meal almost by themselves. Of course, adding all the toppings make potatoes a fabulous meal in just minutes. You can microwave a potato in about 4 or 5 minutes. Now top your hot potato with anything you like. Try any meat or veggies that you have leftover, put a little shredded cheddar, Monterrey Jack, mozzarella on top and you have a full meal. You may even want to add a little crunch with sunflower seeds or even some chopped peanuts.

Soup's On: If you have some chicken broth, you have soup. Pour the broth in a big pot, throw in whatever veggies you have leftover from the last few nights, maybe a can of diced tomatoes, and soup's on! If you have any noodles, rice, canned beans, all the better. Simmer for a few minutes and you have dinner.

End Your Day With A Good Start: Breakfast is more fun at night! A big bowl of cereal, with fruit, English muffin, and a glass of juice will make everyone comfy cozy. Fry up a batch of bacon and eggs with pancakes and watch your family dig right in. Night time is a great time to have a hearty breakfast.

Next time you're in a position to make a meal in a hurry, refer back to this list and presto - you'll have dinner on the table in minutes. - 16003

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