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Practice what I preach.  After writing my last post about my girlfriend’s text and how I keep an organized menu and shopping list, I thought I would share some of the meals I whipped together over the last week that were seriously easy, inexpensive, quick and healthy.

I have commited to making my twins’ food.  I even went so far as to ask for the Beaba Baby Food Cooker for Christmas.  I have my nannies and husband enlisted in the process, and I have found easy ways to steam, roast and puree their meals so they eat what we eat.  Then it dawned on my after I wrote and re-read that statement…they eat what we eat, so why don’t we eat what they eat??

With the constant struggle of getting my kids to eat healthy, without knowing it, (man, do I love a challenge!) I had a DUH moment after steaming and puree-ing (is that a word?) some beets and kale for the twins.  I had enough left over to add it to my kids’ tomato sauce for their spaghetti that night.  As you know, I also added it to their mini-pizzas the following night.  Then I started to get even more creative in how I was serving them up some of the healthiest greens on the planet.  Here are a few ideas that might work for your family:

(If you want to know more about the health benefits of kale and Swiss chard, click here.)

  • Spaghetti and Red Sauce: I prefer Rao’s when I don’t have time to make my own sauce from scratch.  You can get as creative as you want with the purees and the sauce.  It’s dark red color and robust flavors allows you to hide any veggies you want in there!  Carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, cauliflower, mushrooms…the sky is the limit!  Consider changing up your noodles a bit for some that offer Omega 3s, Flax Seed, Whole Wheat, Brown Rice, Gluten Free…there is so much you can do with pasta itself these days, there’s no reason not to choose one with some added health benefits.
  • Mini-Pizzas:  This is great for the night after spaghetti using any leftover sauce as your base.  Again, getting the hidden veggies, and using a whole wheat dough, and organic mozarella cheese.  I roll out my dough on the counter and let the kids use cookie cutters to make shapes.  They were so excited about the pizzas and they couldn’t stop telling me how delicious it was!  You can cater to their liking, my daughter prefers pepperoni with no cheese.
  • Salads: For an added health benefit, I chopped up the kale and swiss chard and mixed it in with the things my daughter already loves-mixed green salad for a base, carrots, cucumbers, purple cabbage…I try to make the salad a rainbow of colors as much as I can.  My kids won’t eat tomatoes, so I will substitue radishes or beets every once in awhile.  You can also throw in some Flax Seed Oil into the dressing for more hidden benefits.
  • Kale Chips:  I got this from a Clean Eating Magazine recipe.  Basically, you wash and dry the kale, slice it on the diaganol until it is bite size pieces (think potato chip size), very lightly toss it with Olive Oil, spread it out on a cookie sheet, then pop it in the oven at 350 for about 6 minutes, or until it looks crispy.  I throw in some swiss chard as well.  They come out crispy, tasty and fun to eat.

Do you have some Kale and/or Swiss Chard recipes??  Share!!  Leave a comment here or post to my FaceBook Page!