Protein and kids seem to have a love/hate relationship. Some kids love it and some kids hate it. Well, hate might be too strong a word. Some kids like it only if it looks like a chicken nugget or a fish stick.
The carnivores are pretty easy to please. They usually will eat at least a few bites of whatever protein you're serving without too much coaxing. The nuggetvores can be a little trickier. Of course, you could just bread and fry all your meat in small pieces, but that doesn't feel like much of a parenting victory, so other methods must be employed.
You could rely on other proteins — cheese, yogurt, beans, tofu, etc. — and, if you're a family of vegetarians, that works great. I applaud any family that works to get their kids to eat less meat and more veggies. If you fall into this category, there's no need to read any further.
If you eat meat and seafood, though, it's not unrealistic to expect your kids to eat it, too, at least some of the time. So what do you do if they won't?
From a young child's perspective, it's easy to understand why meat might be unappealing. The texture can be an issue. It's often dry and dense and takes a good deal of chewing to get down. That kind of effort can feel overwhelming to a small child. So keeping the bites of meat small, or even serving crumbled ground meat, can help tempt a toddler into giving it a try.
Giving the kids something to dip the meat into can also be enticing. Dipping anything seems like fun, and it can make the protein go down a bit easier. Try your favorite low-fat salad dressing, tartar or barbecue sauce or the old standby, ketchup. Remember, once your child begins to be more open-minded about eating meat or seafood, you can back off some of the dips.
While seafood isn't usually as dense as steak or chicken, it's often overcooked and dry. In addition, it can often have a strong flavor, making it an even harder sell to kids. Sometimes masking the flavor a bit with a sauce or marinade can make it more palatable to young eaters.
Of course, breading the protein brings it right into the nuggetvore's wheelhouse, but frying it isn't the most healthful alternative. This recipe for Panko-Crusted Salmon With Herbed Yogurt Sauce solves that problem. In fact, it solves a few problems.
