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Health & Fitness

9 Kid-Friendly Recipes by Star Kid-Chefs

In a world of soda and fast-food, how do we motivate kids to eat healthily?  We can put all the great suggestions from professionals into action:

• we can have nutritious food available 
• we can teach (translation: nag) them about what to eat 
• we can be good role models 
• we can improve on their favorites 
• we can make healthy food fun 
• we can take them to the supermarket 
• we can let them help us cook 

Michelle Obama, in partnership with Epicurious, devised an ingenious plan to get kids to eat healthier! Hold a contest and offer a fabulous prize! Kids from all 50 states and US territories were invited to create an original recipe for a healthy, nutritious and affordable lunchtime meal. The prize? Two seats to the Kids’ “State Dinner” hosted by Michelle Obama (and other VIPs), round-trip tickets to Washington D.C. and hotel accommodations. For 8-12 year-olds and their parents, I think this is a wonderful incentive to get the creative juices flowing. 

I’m sharing this story with you because I’d like to unpeel another layer of it that’s fascinating to me. There’s a significant reason this story spoke to me! There were 54 junior chefs, representing their states and territories, whose recipes won, which translated into 54 creative, inspiring recipes. As I perused all of the recipes, which can be found in a printable “cookbook” on the “Let’s Move” website, I happily noticed an emerging trend…. 

Out of 54 recipes, 22 of them were meatless:

9 of the recipes were vegan and 13 were vegetarian!

That would mean that 40% of the delicious, nutritious & affordable recipes dreamed up by 8-12 year olds from all over the country were meatless masterpieces! What could be more inspirational for parents and the older generations of this country who feel the need to put meat in every meal. These kids are the leaders and the future of a movement that is only just beginning!

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At Vegan American Princess, we are proud of the all kids who participated in this contest to promoting healthy eating, but we’reespecially proud of the vegan recipes because of the passion and creativity displayed. They proved meatless is truly a great choice to make, on every level. Being showcased on Vegan American Princess may not beat shaking hands with the President Obama and the First Lady, but we’d like to show tribute to them just the same! And I’d like to share these vegan recipes with you so that you can recreate them with your kids and for yourselves, because they look delicious, packed full of nutrients and simple to whip up!

To get cracking on these 9 plant-based recipes created by the country's youngest prize-winning chefs, go to:

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Ellen Francis
Vegan American Princess
Voted #2 in Skinny Scoop's Top 25 Vegan Blogs of 2013

Website: veganamericanprincess.com
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