7 Quick Healthy Meal Ideas So You Don’t Completely Lose It at Meal Time

One of the lamest things about being a parent is the fact that they have to eat everyday. It makes sense and it’s pretty obvious, but when you’re factoring in your decisions to have kids, we often gloss over those things. And we grossly underestimate how much work it is. That makes us sound lazy, but the truth is we want to offer our kids the best — especially when it come to food and nutrition. We also don’t want to live our lives centered around meal time and spending hours each day cooking. No one has time for that, which is why quick healthy meals is ideal.

If you’re on the lookout for health meals that don’t take more than 30 minutes to prep and cook, here are a few favorites. Surely there will be something in here your kid will eat?

1. 7 Layer Taco Dip

For some kids, especially the younger ones, having to sit down and use a knife and fork and be all formal just leads to disagreements and fidgeting. That’s why I love this dipping dinner idea — your kid is getting protein, healthy fat, and good carbs and fiber in this meal. It has cheese and really anything “taco” is perfection with the added bonus of being something kids can eat with their hands — it’s got all the tick marks for parents and kids.

2. Bacon Ranch Chicken Pizza

Another meal that can be eaten with your hands, this pita pizza has it all. There’s bacon, hello. There is ranch, yep I see you, and with this pizza being on a pita, you’re going to be giving your child good carbs, healthy fiber, and whole wheat yumminess.

3. California Rolls

Are you sensing a bit of a theme here? This is another one of those recipes where you can hide vegetables and your kid eats it wit their hands. The bonus to this one is that you can make ahead of time and it’s ready for your kids when they want to sit down and eat. Once you get the hang of rolling the rolls, it’s even faster.

4. Chicken “Crab” Cakes

The best thing about this recipe is you can hide all kinds of vegetables in there. If you use a grater and slice up some carrots and zucchini, your kid would never know. These things take 20 minutes total so you’re not using all your time.

5. 10 Minute Grilled Chicken Protein Pitas

This recipe had me at “10 minutes” because it means that we can get the whole dinner prep done with and move on with probably the million other things we need to be doing. I love that this is super healthy and it sounds so good that really I would eat it, too.

RELATED: 7 Secretly Healthy Foods That Helped Me to Survive Breastfeeding

6. BBQ Chicken Crescent Rolls

This one isn’t the most healthy on the list, but seriously it takes no time and because it’s got BBQ sauce and it’s something you can eat with your hands thanks to the pillowy crescent roll, you won’t have to fight your kids to eat it. And that’s really a good thing because I swear half of dinner time is just spent telling your kid to “just take one more bite.”

7. Parmesan Baked Chicken Nuggets

Chicken nuggets that aren’t frozen because those taste like cardboard, but these you can freeze yourself to make up quick and they taste grown up. Not so grown up that your kids won’t eat them, of course.

Do you have a favorite 30 minute meal? Share with us so we can eat well, too.

(Image:  iStock / DGLimages)