Valentine’s Day for the Kids! It’s Not Always About the Sweets, Mom!

Valentine’s Day is a very fun holiday, especially for kids as they prepare all of their valentine’s to hand out to their classmates at school. And tasty treats are always a big part of Valentine’s Day for both the young and old but do you really want your child eating all of that sugar? It seems that with Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, there isn’t a holiday that doesn’t involve consuming massive quantities of the stuff. Here are some tasty and healthy alternatives to all of that chocolate!

Valentine's Day Breakfast

A special breakfast can be a great way to start Valentine’s Day. You can make pancakes a lot more fun simply by adding red food colouring to the batter while you’re mixing it. Once they are finished cooking, you can cut them into heart shapes to make them even more festive. Okay, so there is some sugar in pancakes. But if you want to make them a little bit healthier, you can make whole wheat pancakes. They’re just as tasty!

Valentine's Day Snacks

Snacking is another big part of Valentine’s Day. This doesn’t mean though that you’re kids have to feast on cookies and chocolate all day. Fruit trays and dip are always a big hit with kids. The fruit is sweet and kids will love the dip because they love playing with their food! To make a healthy fruit dip, mix raspberry jam with vanilla yogurt.

Valentine's Day Dinner

And for dinner you can have a wonderful pink pasta. For a great pink pasta, follow this recipe:

• 2 cups rotini pasta, uncooked
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups chopped red peppers
• ¼ cup Italian salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon chilli powder
• ½ cup salsa
• ½ cup sour cream
• ½ cup grated cheddar cheese

1.) Cook pasta.

2.) While pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for about six minutes. Add peppers, chilli powder, and dressing. Cook for three minutes longer, or until the chicken has cooked completely. Stir in the salsa and sour cream.

3.) Drain pasta and mix with chicken mixture. Sprinkle with the cheese and serve.

This is a great recipe for Valentine’s Day because you don’t need to add anything artificial to it to make it pink and red. Plus, it’s delicious too!

So you’ve gotten through the entire day relatively sugar-free. You can probably get away with giving you’re kids a little bit of sugar. It is, after all, Valentine’s Day. For dessert, serve some heart-shaped cookies with red or pink icing. You can also make some cupcakes and decorate those with red or pink frosting. To make any frosting or icing red, simply add some red food colouring.

It’s easy to give your kids chocolate and sugar on Valentine’s Day. But it’s also easy to serve them snacks and meals that are healthy while keeping with the Valentine’s Day theme. You’ll feel better at the end of the day, and so will they!