Healthy Cooking And Eating As A Family

Cooking together in our family is important to me. I want for my girls to have fun in the kitchen but also learn about preparing meals that are healthy and nutritious. These healthy habits will hopefully last a lifetime!

Growing up, we also ate very healthily: a protein, a vegetable, a whole grain, and a glass of milk. Maybe even some sliced fruit on the table! We weren't big dessert eaters unless it was a special occasion. (But I still have a wildly crazy sweet tooth and I love dessert!) My mom did an awesome job of instilling healthy eating habits in us as children and definitely let us help her out in the kitchen.

On these warm summer nights, one way that our family has been reconnecting before another busy week begins is to enjoy a "picnic dinner" on Sunday evenings on our screened porch. We pull Camille's high chair out of its normal place in the kitchen so that we can all sit together at our red picnic table. On a typical night, we would have a menu that may look like this:

+ Grilled chicken drizzled with balsamic glaze
+ Roasted okra with cumin and olive oil
+ UNCLE BEN’S® wild rice with oranges and walnuts, served cold (recipe HERE)
+ Fresh fruit salad with pineapple, sliced pear, shredded coconut, and mint leaves

My husband handles the grilling, I handle the roasting indoors, and Camille "helps" (looks on!) as I put together the wild rice and fruit salad. Sometimes I get her to help -- I'll gather the ingredients and then let her add them into the main bowl.

This wild rice salad recipe goes together so easily. Another fun idea is to portion it out in mini mason jars for picnics!

The UNCLE BEN’S® Brand is passionate about encouraging parents and kids to cook together, because families that eat and cook together have children who make healthier meal choices. Because of this, the UNCLE BEN’S®Brand is hosting the fifth annual Ben’s Beginners™ Cooking Contest to encourage children to get interested in cooking. Ben’s Beginners™ provides a platform for parents to connect with their children one meal at a time, and makes cooking an enjoyable activity for every member of the family. To help families get meals to the dinner table quickly, the UNCLE BEN’S® READY RICE® offers a wide variety of white, whole grain brown, specialty and flavored rice products that cook in just 90 seconds.

To enter the Ben’s Beginners™ Cooking Contest, parents with children in Kindergarten through eighth grade can submit photos of their families preparing a rice-based together. More information about Ben’s Beginners™ is located at unclebens.com. People interested in UNCLE BEN’S® READY RICE® can find it widely available at most grocery stores nationwide.

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This post is sponsored by The UNCLE BEN’S® Brand. Although I received compensation in exchange for this post, all opinions are my own.

What do you enjoy cooking with your kids?