What’s inside my Mediterranean Style Meals that even Kids Love

Not all of us have the time in our schedules to jump on the next plane to Italy, Spain, Greece or France to find fresh new inspiration and motivation while indulging in a truly authentic Mediterranean life style diet.  So I simply did a little research on my own and then incorporated this diet into my daily meal plans to live my best life. 

Here is how I incorporated the Mediterranean Diet into my lifestyle after I  discovered that this is a diet that not only promotes heart health and weight loss but also prevents stroke and diabetes (Type 2). 

I took a look at the kind of ingredients that this diet includes such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish, seafood, herbs and spices, and extra virgin olive oil, and made my meals my own. 

I simply personalized my meals to incorporate a few of these ingredients at breakfast, lunch, and dinner but still gave it my own touch. Here are some examples. 

At Breakfast, I included whole grain cereals or oatmeal with a touch of cinnamon or honey topped with  blueberries or strawberries. I simply topped it all off with Greek yogurt toppings which was great for the kids too but if they wanted to add a touch of marshmallows on top I did not say no because I knew this was their way of  making it their own. 

At lunchtime , I had a healthy veggie salad with all my favorite vegetables – tomatoes, lettuce, cumcumbers, avocados, red onions, red wine vinegar, feta cheese with just a touch of extra virgin olive oil. I made sure I packed this for the kids’s lunch too with their choice of whole grain crackers or baked zucchini chips on the side. If anyone in my family ever required gluten-free options, I would simply prepare other options like gluten-free or grain-free crackers on the side. 

By dinnertime, for the kids, I like to prepare a veggie style mac & cheese alongside the vegetable lasagna I make for the whole family. Why? Because you simply can’t go wrong with Mac & Cheese when it comes to the kids and it’s just a little compromise to combine some of the same veggies in my vegetable lasagna in the Mac & Cheese too.

My vegetable lasagna is made with a love for health. It incorporates ingredients such as zucchini, portabello mushrooms, onions, sweet red peppers, whole wheat noodles and ricotta cheese and my favorite white Alfredo sauce. Since I like to prep the night before all I generally have to do is pop it into the oven as soon as I walk in the door after a long day. 

And as I said, my kids often enjoy my vegetable lasagna but if they are ever picky, my back up plan is always to have a Mediterranean style dish of Mac & Cheese with some of the same veggies like zucchinni mixed in. There is just something about Mac & Cheese that’s always a winner for my kids. 

#RunwayOfDreams, #MediterraneanDiet,   #HealthyLifestyle, #Nutrition, #MealPlans

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