Healthy Meals for Teens

I often hear the complaint from parents that kids won't eat healthy foods. I've never really understood that. Maybe if you give them a choice between a bag of carrots or a bag of potato chips they'll eat the chips and not the carrots. I probably would. But, in my experience, if you give them healthy food that tastes good, they'll eat it. When my children have friends over, they get snacks like veggies and fruit, cheese, crackers, muffins, bean quesidillas, tuna wraps...and there are never any leftovers or any complaints. I don't think it's fair to kids to automatically serve them deep-fried, salty, processed food because we assume they won't eat the healthier stuff. Healthy food can be tasty and kid or teen friendly. Watch the video below and hear what these teens had to say about the healthy meal they were served at my place.



The menu was "Faux Chicken Wings", oven-baked fries and tossed salad. My idea was to make healthier versions of typical teen foods. The meal got a 'two-thumbs up' from all of them and the little bit that did not get eaten wasn't even enough to make a meal for my youngest son.
The 'wings' were made from boneless, skinless chicken thighs and baked in the oven so they were much lower in fat than a restaurant version. And 'fries' were baked, not fried, so they were lower in fat as well. The wings and fries were also much lower in sodium than typical restaurant fried versions or store bought versions of these foods.
You can find the recipe for the "Faux Chicken Wings" on our blog here:
http://diariesofadietitian.blogspot.ca/2013/08/summer-bbqs.html. I used the spicy sauce recipe that is on the blog. For the honey garlic wings, I baked the wings in a mix of honey, chopped garlic and a bit of soy sauce.
You'll find the oven-baked fries on our blog here: http://diariesofadietitian.blogspot.ca/2013/01/hold-fries.html. For the fries I served to the teens, I spiced them up with chili powder and also added grated parmesan cheese.

Send us the recipes for some of the healthy meals that your teens have enjoyed.

                                                                                                                                           Michele, RD