Organize Your Life: Add Brain-Boosting Recipes to Your Repertoire

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Source: Organize Your Life: Add Brain-Boosting Recipes to Your Repertoire

Brain food! Everyone knows that good nutrition is essential to just about everything regarding tots' development - mental and physical. Feeding lil ones a balanced diet is a good rule of thumb, but there are certain foods that have proven positive benefits for healthy brain development. Unfortunately, telling kids that something is "good for them" isn't the appetite stimulant parents would hope for, and anyone who's ever tried to get a decent amount of green vegetables down the gullet of a stubborn toddler knows that healthy eating can be a challenge. Click through for breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes chock full of brain-boosting ingredients so delicious the kids won't even have a moment to protest between bites.

  • Breakfast: Avocado Breakfast Burrito: Thanks to all their healthy monounsaturated fat, which contributes to healthy blood flow, avocados have earned their reputation as a superfood. This avocado breakfast burrito recipe also calls for red peppers, a great source of antioxidants, specifically vitamin C.

  • Breakfast: Vegetable Frittata: They don't call it the incredible egg for nothing. A good source of protein, eggs also contain choline, which boosts memory and concentration. A veggie-packed vegetable frittata is a good way to give lil ones a square meal in one simple slice.

  • Breakfast: Yogurt and Fruit Parfaits: Made with fresh raspberries, Rachael Ray's yogurt and fruit parfaits are a delicious snack, packed with vitamin C from the raspberries, and vitamin B - essential for the growth of brain tissue, enzymes, and neurotransmitters - from the yogurt.

  • Breakfast: Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins: These blueberry oatmeal muffins are so tasty that tots will never suspect they're chowing down on the delicious benefits of antioxidants and whole grains.



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  • Breakfast: Hot Cereal with Apple Butter and Walnuts: This hot cereal with apple butter and walnuts combines the heart-healthy benefits of walnuts with the energy-boosting benefits of complex carbohydrates.

  • Lunch: Pressed Mozzarella and Tomato Sandwich: The lowly grilled cheese sandwich gets a healthy boost of lycopene in this pressed mozzarella and tomato version from Martha Stewart.

  • Lunch: Chicken Salad Pitas: Made with mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, and celery, these chicken salad pitas get a unexpected bright boost of vitamin C.

  • Lunch: Sausage, Kale, and Lentil Soup: A great option for lunch or dinner, this sausage, kale, and lentil soup is loaded with lentils, which provide the body with glucose, which is then converted to energy.

  • Lunch: Turkey Avocado Wrap: Made using a whole wheat wrap, this turkey avocado wrap is a perfectly balanced meal all rolled up in kid-friendly packaging.

  • Lunch: Tuna and Hummus Sandwiches: Though they're slightly more labor intensive than your run-of-the-mill tuna sandwich, these tuna and hummus sandwiches from Ina Garten contain the right combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates to keep energy levels steady. This is a great option when feeding children and adults.

  • Lunch: Green Pizza: Pizza, the classic kiddie favorite goes green with this healthy green pizza recipe, topped with all those leafy veggies kids just love to hate.



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  • Dinner: Pistachio-Crusted Salmon: Wild salmon is at the top of everyone's superfoods list because it's an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which are essential for brain growth and function. Kids will love the colorful crunch of this pistachio-crusted version.

  • Dinner: Turkey Spinach Burgers: The mighty burger gets a healthful twist in these turkey spinach burgers. The lean turkey is a good source of the amino acid tyrosine, which is related to the production of specific neurotransmitters, which aid alertness and energy. Spinach is an amazing nonmeat source of iron.

  • Dinner: You Gotta Love Spaghetti and Meatballs: You gotta love spaghetti and meatballs! This recipe from Emeril Lagasse calls for lean beef: one of the best absorbed sources of iron. Beef also contains zinc, a known memory booster.

  • Dinner: Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers: Almonds are not only rich in protein, but they also contain magnesium, a mineral that plays a vital role in converting sugar into energy. Sneak all that goodness into tots' unsuspecting mouths by adding them to one of kids' favorite foods in this recipe for almond-crusted chicken fingers.



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