Low Calorie Meals for Kids

Calorie consumption is important when trying to make sure kids are healthy. Too many calories will create a weight problem for kids and not enough nutrients will be harmful to a child's health. When creating low-calorie meals for kids, build menus around flavorful dishes. Kids are not typically worried about the healthy part of their meals, so sometimes parents have to make changes to be sure children get everything they need to grow.

Entrees

• Kids like flavorful meals, but it is also important that a meal provides all the necessary nutrients without the extra calories. You can substitute cooking ingredients with lower-fat, lower-calorie options. Some common substitutions are replacing evaporated whole milk with evaporated fat-free milk. Low-fat yogurt can replace sour cream, and chicken or turkey can replace ground beef. An example of a low-calorie meal can include an entree like baked meatballs with spinach. Use turkey and spinach to form the meatballs and bake them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Use salsa to add a sauce to the meatballs, giving you a low-calorie entree that kids will enjoy.

Sides

• Kids love macaroni and cheese by itself or with a meal. So creating a low-calorie meal with mac and cheese is almost a must when providing meals for kids. To lower the calories in a macaroni and cheese dish, substitute the cheese for a fat-free variety of the same type of cheese. You can substitute whole milk with low-fat milk, and enriched pasta with wheat pasta. Cook the pasta until tender, add the milk, eggs and cheese into a baking pan and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. For other sides, healthy substitutions or additions to side items would be garlic for taste instead of a gravy, and herbs instead of increasing the salt.

Vegetables

• For kids who don't like vegetables, you may need to spice up that portion of the meal, but not so much that it adds too many calories. Olive oil is a good alternative to butter when flavoring vegetables. Garlic and herbs are also good company for vegetables in a recipe. Stuffing vegetables inside meat is another creative way to make sure kids eat their vegetables. When flavoring vegetables with meat, turkey is a lower-calorie option for flavoring than pork or beef.

Desserts

• There are low-calorie options for ice cream as well as other kid favorites. Look for reduced fat, yogurt or sorbet selections in the grocery store freezer section. The closest low-calorie option to traditional ice cream is frozen yogurt and reduced-fat ice cream. For other types of desserts, substitute artificial sweetener for sugar for a lower-calorie option, and substitute wheat flour for enriched white flour to help reduce calories.