Lunches for Littles: A Healthier Hot Dog

Your a mom.  It's Friday afternoon, you worked all week, you're on deadline, the laundry is flowing out of the laundry room and into the hall, the kids had a half-day and you havn't even started thinking about dinner.  A dinner in which your in-laws will be present for.  So I understand why you would just sit the kids down and feed them a hot dog.  Or macaroni.  Or a burger.  It's easy.  It's cheap.  And it allows you to get to the laundry.  The paperwork.  The dinner prep.

Now, I myself am not a mommy yet.  However, I do see a lot of friends and families presented with the challenge of wanting to feed their littles better but not having the time, resources or recipes to do so.  So I wanted to start a series of posts that help put together meals for toddlers, kids and teens that are still in the traditional food realm, but that cut back on unnecessary sugar, starches, fat and artificial ingredients.

The good news is that GOOD QUALITY food still does exist.  Sometimes it means visiting another market or a farmer's market.  Sometimes it means cooking in the oven over the microwave, but for the most part, kids can still enjoy the food they know and love, while you give them healthier options to do so. Recipe for today below.

A Healthier Hot Dog & Fries:

1 Applegate Farms Natural Turkey Hot Dog - These hot dogs are casein and gluten-free, use no anti-biotics, are humanely raised and have no nitrates, nitrites or nasty preservatives. 

5 Dr. Praeger Sponge Bob Broccoli Bites. These cute little potato and broccoli bites are fun shaped, and delicious for the kids who love fries.  As a healthier version, they are packed with broccoli bits. These are made with egg, so if your little has an allergy, skip these and maybe bake some healthy sweet potato fries. 

A handful of organic green beans. (or any vegetable your little will eat) Greens are very important. 

I served this dish with a side of paleo ketchup, made with xyltiol and apple cider vinegar instead of corn-syrup that is found in store-bought ketchup.  Nature's Hollow makes an amazing ketchup that is sugar free.  If you are going to buy ketchup at a regular store, opt for Simply Heinz which skips the corn-syrup.  90% of corn in the US contains GMO's so best to skip it all together unless it states it's verified non-GMO. 

Remember to keep mealtime fun and allow kids to see food in a positive, healthy light. 

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This is a crucial time in a kid's life, they are growing and it's important they receive the proper fuel.  I've heard the argument many, many times that "what I'm feeding them is no different than when we were growing up and we turned out fine."  

However, it is different than when we, or our parents, or our parents parents were growing up.  GMO's (genetically modified organisms) didn't play as big of a role back then.  Neither did the amount of harsh chemicals and pesticides used in our food supply today.  Additionally, it may seem that we "turned out fine", while in reality cancer, auto-immune issues and diabetes numbers have sky-rocketed and new diseases that didn't exist 10, 20, 40, 60 years ago have come into play.  Problems that weren't around when the 1950's diners served up fresh milk milkshakes and grass fed burgers.