Soph with her Healthy Kids Plate

As parents, we all want what’s best for our children and that is especially true when it comes to their health. A key element of being healthy is the food you eat. With kids and all of the not-so-healthy food messages they are exposed to, it’s important to reinforce positive messages about food choices early.  There are lots of resources out there to assist parents with this healthy eating education and here are a couple of our favorites.

Today I Ate A Rainbow Kit

The ‘Today I Ate a Rainbow’ Kit allows kids to interactively and colorfully see what fruits and vegetables they’ve eaten for the day.  By working toward their daily goal of eating a food from each color of the rainbow, the kids learn the healthy goal of eating a rainbow. The kit is also helpful to remind Mom and Dad to keep lots of rainbow foods on hand!

I Can Eat A Rainbow

For the youngest eaters in the family, the ‘I can eat a Rainbow’ book is colorful and fun way to start learning about healthy eating.  Similar to the ‘Today I Ate a Rainbow’ kit, it teaches the goal of eating food from every color of the rainbow.

Healthy Kids Plate

The Healthy Kids plate emphasizes the recommendation that half our plates be fruits and vegetables and it’s divided to ensure proper portions of each food group–and for those picky eaters who hate their food touching. It’s dishwasher safe, BPA Free, Lead Free and 100% Melamine. The plate not only teaches children how to eat more healthfully, but it also reminds Mom’s and Dad’s to give their kids more fruits and vegetables.

Healthy Kids Dinner Set

This set emphasizes the same benefits as the plate alone, but in addition, includes a Bowl measuring one full cup–this means you can fill it with one cup of veggies and know your kids are meeting recommendations for vegetable consumption. It also includes a one cup glass to encourage drinking water!

I know that as the mom here at the two kids household, I’m always looking for creative ways to reinforce healthy eating habits. These fun tools will help you and your kids get an early start at learning how to have a healthy diet. We hope you like them as much as Alex, Sophia and I do.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Alex, Sophia and Kelly

In case you didn’t know, March is National Nutrition Month. And, since I’ve proclaimed 2010 the year the 2 Kids household will improve the nutritional quality of the food we eat, I’m kind of excited about it. For this year’s theme , the American Dietetic Association has chosen to emphasize, ‘Nutrition from the Ground Up,’ reminding us all that improving our diets doesn’t have to be complicated, it’s just a matter of starting to focus on the basics, building a foundation of health.

To help celebrate this month and continue to build our own ‘foundation of health,’ we’ve decided to expand our vegetable horizons. Each Monday in March, I’ll be sharing Alex and Soph’s opinions on some veggie recipes I’ve dug-up from around the inter-webs (and a couple will be my own creations). March 1st will be a Broccoli-fest, followed by Peas, then Carrots, and closing out the month will be Green Beans. All of the recipes will be kid-cooking friendly too, so the whole family can get in on the preparation and eating of these veggie-ful creations.

If you’re interested in more information on National Nutrition Month, head on over the ADA’s website.