Eating at a restaurant with your special someone is one thing. Eating there with kids is quite another.
You probably have the same complaint I do: more often that not, restaurants offer unhealthy dishes to kids. For instance, a restaurant we went to on Mother’s Day offered pizza, pasta with butter, marinara or olive oil, or macaroni and cheese on their kids’ menu. I kid you not.
Happily, more and more faster food restaurants, such as Qdoba, are offering healthier meal choices for kids. This is a restaurant trend that I hope will continue to grow and develop. Many who started in surprise at what was being served up at public schools, courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, probably already knew about the scant healthy offerings for kids at restaurants.
I know we’ll be shunning the restaurants that don’t offer healthy food choices for our kids, and patronizing those that do have a variety of nutritious offerings for children. Summer vacation time is nearly here. If you’re traveling, the internet makes it easier to map out what restaurants have more nutritious food choices for you and your kids. Eat better, feel better, play better.
What’s your favorite restaurant that offers tasty and nutritious meals for kids?
Photo courtesy jetalone via Wikimedia
Pingback: Tweets that mention Healthy Kids Meals at Restaurants? -- Topsy.com
When we were in WDW we ate a ‘nicer’ restaurant for lunch – one of the kids’ lunch choices was salmon & veggies & brown rice and a dessert. Katie opted for that over the ‘regular’ kid fare and ate most of it. She eats salmon at home but not consistently.
When we eat out for lunch, I usually opt for veggie pizza or Chick-Fil-A – 1 chicken tender, white milk, and fruit, no fries, and I usually give her some of my carrot raisin salad – it’s not too tough to avoid the fries there b/c I don’t like them!
In general, we usually don’t eat out for dinner w/ the girls – usually breakfast, which is easier to do healthier (eggs, fruit), or if we do dinner, either I throw up my hands and let them get ‘kid fare’ and realize that they’ll make up for it at home or offer them some of mine. If we’re running errands @ lunch I try to make pb&j on whole wheat and bring some almonds or carrots so I’m not tempted to do ‘drive-through’. (But, now that we have the new car, I don’t want to eat in it ; ) Will have to plan better!
Jenn,
Walt Disney World has some better options for kids on their menus than most. The difficult thing is when you have dinner at a restaurant with kids; a lot of restaurants fall back on burgers, chicken tenders etc. Why can’t some restaurants offer 1/4 of the portion of some adult meals as meals for kids (the adult meals are generally pretty large).
Chick-Fil-A is a favorite of my kids, though we go there maybe every 6 weeks. I’ve taken to getting fruit instead of fries for them, despite their pleading. They’ve gotten used to it, LOL. I’m not a huge fan of their fries, either.
Oh, yes, I’m a big believer in packing for the road. I don’t get in my vehicle without water in cups (with lids), PB&J for the kids if it’s close to lunchtime, and at least one snack per kid.
Don’t worry. The new car worry will wear off pretty quickly once you hear crying from your kids about how hungry they are. You’ll just have to make time to vacuum up the crumbs in the new car occasionally.