It’s your friendly neighborhood registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist back at it again with some nutritious and delicious recipes and meal prep tips to help make the end of your summer sensational!
It’s hard to believe that the kiddos are already going back to school and the weather will be changing before we know it.
Never fear, your virtual RD is here to make sure there will be no Sunday Scaries on my watch. Follow the tips below to start the school year off right!
My biggest tip would have to be meal-prepping! I don’t mean meal prep in the sense that you’re making 10 different meals on Sunday and using all of your precious free time up in the kitchen, but essentially creating a quick specific meal for a few days at a time and preparing individual ingredients, so that you can quickly mix and match items for a weekday meal.
I’m a huge believer in starting the day right, and one of the ways to do that is by having breakfast in the morning. Studies have shown that there may be an increase in academic performance between children who regularly eat breakfast and those who don’t.
To make sure those brains are staying fueled and to help make the school week stress-free, check out my “perfect your plate” breakfast meal ideas below that you can make together with your child. These nutritious recipes will keep you (and your child) satiated and satisfied.
WAFFLE “TOSTADA”
This is a fun and different way to eat waffles! It cuts down on the added sugar usually present in syrup and provides protein from the seeds, yogurt and nut butter; fiber from the seeds, berries and waffles; and fun by making this a finger food. Play around with ingredients to make it your own!
Download the Recipe for An Easy-to-Make Waffle “Tostada” (PDF)
BREAKFAST BANANA SPLIT
Who doesn’t love a banana split?! Make it a breakfast meal by swapping the ice cream for yogurt, and chocolate sauce and whipped cream for fruit and granola. Make it a group activity!
Download the Recipe for A Breakfast Banana Split (PDF)
KID FRIENDLY BREAKFAST PROTEIN BOX
We all know and love protein boxes, but making them yourself at home can be a family friendly activity (and not to mention save you money in the long run!).
Protein boxes can be a great way to help your child “play with their food,” which has been shown to potentially aid in increasing food variety and making it easier to introduce new foods. Your child can build their own box with different types of fruits, proteins (such as boiled eggs, egg bites, sausage links, nuts, etc.), spreads (yogurt or a chocolate nut butter/nut butter alternative), and a carbohydrate option, like mini pancakes or graham crackers, to keep things exciting.
Even though it looks different than the traditional “perfecting your plate” method, it still has all of the basic components of proteins, fibers, fats and carbohydrates to help make sure they’re starting the day off with some quality brain fuel.
Download the Recipe for a Kid Friendly Breakfast Protein Box (PDF)
All of these would be great ways to aid your child living with diabetes in mastering their carb counting skills and you can use the Glooko mobile app to help you do that!
MAKE LIVING WITH DIABETES EASIER WITH THE GLOOKO FOOD TRACKER
Through Glooko’s food tracker feature, you and your child can look for the individual items together or use the voice capture feature to add them all at once. This can also be an opportunity to log all of your child’s meals for the day so that the total carbohydrates are easily available and a great way to make lunch time dosing a little easier.
I recently had the unique opportunity to attend the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists’ ADCES22 and the privilege of giving a presentation to the attendees about the wonderful features of our digital health company’s food tracker and its voice capture feature. Along with its ease of use, the food tracker has more than 500,000 food items and can help to empower people living with diabetes to be more involved in their care (which as a provider and someone living with T1D herself I am all for!). It was truly a pleasure to interact with other trailblazers and innovators in the diabetes field for the weekend during the amazing sessions.
So there you have it, try out those recipes and let us know what you think!
Don’t forget to tag @Glooko or myself (@BalancedWithBridgetWood) on Instagram, and use the hashtags, #BetterTogether and #BalancedWithBridgetWood, in all of your creations!
Your Friend in Food,
Bridget Wood, RD, LD, CDCES
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