Feeding hungry teens | Top 10
Insert emoji of person juggling - I have two teenage boys (plus a tween daughter) who ravage our kitchen on a regular basis. As a full-time working parent of three school aged children, feeding them nutritious food, with a balance of macro nutrients, but maintaining a budget is a constantly moving goal.
It’s not a nutrition hack but for your overall health, I predominately use glass containers to store food in the fridge. You can regularly get them half price at the supermarket or Spotlight.
Some of our favourite snacks include:
Frozen berries &/or mango with organic natural yoghurt
Mountain Bread Wraps - with literally anything! Sometimes you just have to fill them up - cheese, avocado, lettuce, protein of choice; or even some peanut butter
Leftover apple crumble (normally served with organic natural yoghurt)
Smoothies - almost always made with almond milk, frozen fruit (banana / mango / berries), chia seeds, faba bean protein powder (no added sweeteners - made of 100% faba bean) & depending on the day, a dash of honey &/or vanilla. Bonus points if you can sneak in some zucchini to lower overall fructose content.
Fresh fruit - whatever is in season. Wash as required as soon as you get home from the shop & leave it somewhere accessible for lazy teens to grab.
Veggies - I can’t emphasise this enough - cut them up & store in the fridge in transparent containers. My kids will eat containers full of sliced cucumbers, carrots, snow peas, celery & capsicum but would never bother to eat them unless they’re cut & ready to shove in their mouths. I’m not saying this with a halo above my head…
Leftover meals - our top ones are pesto pasta, curry with rice & all 3 of them love anything meat based. Split them into smaller containers so they can heat up a portion appropriate size. I buy frozen veggies & put them through all meals. No wastage & having to scoop a wilted zucchini from the bottom of your fridge.
Dairy-free ice pops - favourites are Juicies - in particular the Mixed Berry flavour, which are made of pressed fruit juice, Proud & Punch or Smooze (Guava is the best) coconut milk based ice pops.
Organic corn chips & hummus. No explanation required.
BIY (Bake it yourself) - controversial maybe but I almost always have something home baked for the kids. Why? I can control what goes in it. No preservatives. No additives. Minimal sugar. I’d much rather they reach for this than a store bought item with 20+ ingredients. We rotate between Banana Bread, Oat Cookies, Black Velvet (bonus points here for the beetroot) & vanilla cake.
BONUS - Weet Bix/Wheat Biscuits or equivalent - oooooo, controversial BUT for a cereal that contains less than 3% sugar, if they throw on some milk, honey & sliced banana it’s going to be a much better option than a high sugar option.
