How I Fuel Five Kids Daily

This is a sponsored post on behalf of The National Milk Life Campaign’s Back-to-School program and an insight into how I fuel five kids!

Last month I posted 4 Surprising Things About Milk. If you haven’t read that, it’s a must-read! This month, I’m sharing how I fuel five kids (four of them boys).

First off, my food philosophy for myself and my family is simple: overall we eat healthy and whole foods and everything else in moderation. I don’t outlaw any types of foods, because we are a healthy-eating and active family. We are a different family (you can obviously tell by looking at us) but some of those differences are unseen at first glance. Several of my children are gaining inches and pounds more rapidly then your average child, simply because they lacked many nutritional elements in the first five years of their life. This means I need to pay a little extra attention to our food and make sure they are getting enough “fuel,” for their growing bodies!

Next, I’m going to walk you through a typical day of our family meals.

How I Fuel Five Kids

Breakfast: My kids’ favorite thing to have for breakfast is hot chocolate and bread or oatmeal. To add more nutrients and protein, we use milk instead of water in both the hot chocolate and oatmeal. The kids will sometimes grab an apple or banana since we are usually stocked up on fruit.

Lunch: I usually pack lunch from home. If you follow my Instagram feed, you will occasionally see these lunchbox ideas. This is a typical lunch I pack: ham on mini bagel, grapes and kiwis, cucumbers and carrots, freeze dried fruit, energy bites and a gummy ring. The kids have the option of white, chocolate or strawberry milk cartons at school. I’ll let you take a guess on which one they usually choose ;)

Milk is not easily replaced in a diet and has 8 grams of protein per 8 ounces. Having milk in the beginning and mid-day helps tide them over at school until they come home.

After school snack: Sometimes my kids will come home and have a bowl of cereal (with milk!) or a packaged snack in the pantry. Sometimes I make snacks like these energy bites:

Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Protein Bites: 

2 bananas, smashed
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 serving of protein powder
1.5 cups oats
sprinkle of cinnamon
drizzle of honey

 

Dinner: We live in Iowa, so comfort food is typical around here. I “healthify” traditional meatloaf and mashed potatoes by swapping for turkey and adding cauliflower into the mashed potatoes.

How do you include milk throughout the day to make healthy snacks or meals? Respond in the comments below and I will choose two winners to receive a gift card worth the amount of a two month’s supply of milk!