Healthy Meal Makeovers

French toast: Make it with fiber-rich whole-grain bread rather than white, and mix the egg with low-fat or fat-free milk (a calcium boost). Instead of butter, spray the pan with healthy canola or olive-oil cooking spray. Top off the toast with sliced fruit, fruit preserves, or apple butter. To pump up the protein and calcium in this breakfast, make a French toast “sandwich” by cutting the piece of bread in half, then slipping a slice of reduced-fat cheese between the pieces as they cook.

Pancakes: Choose a whole-grain or buckwheat mix. Or if you’re starting from scratch, replace a portion of the regular white flour in the recipe with wheat or oat flour. Add fruit or vegetables (like pureed pumpkin or sweet potato) to the batter. Top the pancakes with a spritz of low-fat whipped cream or fruit preserves and sliced fruit.

Cereals: Reduce the sugar in your kid’s breakfast bowl by offering up Rice Krispies, Kix, or Cheerios (all low in sugar and fat and high in fiber) in place of chocolate or fruit-flavored puffs/Krispies/Pebbles…or any cereal, for that matter, with the word “cookie” in its title. If your toddler refuses the cereal of your choice, help her transition to healthy cereal by mixing in a little of her favorite sugary cereal.

Pizza: Ladle tomato sauce onto a whole-grain bagel/ bread, and sprinkle with reduced-fat mozzarella cheese. You can doctor the sauce by stirring in some vegetable purees for extra nutrients. Give it some zing by topping with slivered pineapple pieces.

Chicken nuggets: Swap regular chicken nuggets for soy chicken nuggets. Dunk them in low-fat honey mustard sauce and your kid may not even taste the difference. Or make your own version by dusting chicken pieces with whole-wheat bread crumbs, then bake them, don’t fry. Ready made nuggets are convenient but you don't know how good these processed foods are considering the preservatives they use to keep them on the shelf for a longer life. Home made is always better, healthier and has more chicken in them.

Paratha: Fill them with cheese. Also adding the home qeema and aloo bhaji in between the paratha may be more exciting as it adds flavour to the paratha. For very fussy eaters you can also grate carrots and they will not even notice the change in flavour.

Milk shake: Blend a smoothie with low-fat yogurt and assorted fresh or frozen fruits. What if your child’s a chocolate lover? Blend low-fat chocolate ice cream or frozen yogurt, reduced-fat milk, and a bit of chocolate powder (which adds some calcium) with a little ice. During mango season use a fresh sweet mango to half a glass of milk, add sugar and simply whizz it. Same can be done with bananas all year round.