Healthy Recipes Your Kids Can (Safely) Make Themselves

With a little bit of planning and the help of a rotisserie chicken, your kids can make their own dinner. As long as your kids can reach the tortillas, shredded cheese, and containers of pre-cut vegetables (like lettuce or tomato) they'll be able to assemble their own soft tacos. To make chicken tacos, pull the meat from a rotisserie chicken (once it's cool enough to handle) and leave it with the other taco fixings.

Let your kids make their own lunch; they can spread hummus onto a tortilla with a spoon and then add pre-cut vegetables like carrots or cucumber before rolling up their super-healthy and fun-to-make meal

Breakfast is a breeze thanks to overnight oats. Give your kids a measuring scoop and have them add one scoop of rolled oats (don't use quick-cooking oats) to a resalable jar. Then, have them fill the scoop with milk (or a non-dairy alternative like almond milk) and add it to the jar as well. Their favorite toppings go in next (peanut butter, honey, sliced bananas, etc.) then the jar is sealed and stored in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning your oatmeal will be ready to eat — no cooking required!

What could be easier than spreading flavored cream cheese, hummus, or goat cheese on a slice of bread and topping it with lunchmeat or fresh vegetables? Make it even more fun by leaving plastic, child-safe cookie cutters out; your kids can make fun shapes out of the bread, lunch meat, or sliced vegetables before assembling their sandwiches.

Next time you're making pasta for dinner, boil a little extra pasta and chop a few extra vegetables. Pack everything up in resalable containers and store them in the refrigerator. Then, when your kids are hungry, they can mix pasta and vegetables in a bowl with a small amount of Italian salad dressing for a quick, no-cook pasta salad.

Whole-wheat pita and ricotta cheese make an excellent substitute for pizza dough, tomato sauce, and melted mozzarella in this kid-friendly "pizza" recipe; your kids can top their pizzas with fruits or veggies and then eat them or ask for an adults help warming the pizza in an oven or toaster oven.

Most kids aren't big salad-eaters, but if you encourage your children to use a variety of pre-cut vegetables (kids can tear lettuce by hand if you want to include it on their plate) and pre-cooked whole grains to create a picture on their plate, you'll find that they'll be more open to trying a plate full of produce.