It doesn't taste good

If you have any small children, you know that trying to get them to eat their vegetables can be like pulling teeth. My sister has two young children: one will eat meat and cheese while the other prefers solely a candy diet, but will sometimes break down and eat a few items on her dinner plate.

So how do you get kids, or even yourself, to eat healthy?

Snacks! Children get about 1/4 of their nutrition a day from snacks and instead of giving them sugar and fat filled treats, try making some delicious, yet nutritious fun snacks. Family Fun.com has a lot of great treat ideas, a couple of my favorites are:


ARCTIC ORANGES

4 oranges
4 cups orange juice
4 cherries

Cut the tops off the oranges in a zigzag pattern. Hollow out the insides, remove the seeds and combine in a blender with the juice. Set the rinds in a muffin tin and fill with the mixture. Drop a cherry inside each orange. Freeze for 2 to 3 hours. Soften the treats for 5 minutes, then serve. Makes 4.

BAGGY BUGS

Place a graham cracker in a plastic baggy, seal it shut and crush the crackers into a fine sand using a large spoon.

Add a few raisins to the bag and have the kids dig for bugs in the sand. Experiment with other tasty critters--dried cranberry "ladybugs," carob chip "ants" and fruit snack "worms."