11 Healthy Alternatives To Boring Sandwiches For Your Kids

Food Perfect for Runners–and Kids Too!

Leah Garrad-Cole’s new cookbook, It All Begins With Food: From Baby’s First Foods to Wholesome Family Meals, got us thinking about how runners, like children, tend to gravitate toward foods that are easy to digest. Think bananas, bagels and granola bars. We even regularly consume what is arguably “baby food”–consider those smoothies with pureed fruits and vegetables. Perhaps you have prevented dehydration with Pedialyte?

For mother runners, if you can get you and your family on the same recipe page, life gets easier. To that end, we present a handful of dishes and tips from Garrad-Cole, the founder of the healthy snack company Love Child Organics, with useful information about what’s worked for her family. We’ve also included a list of products you can buy—inspired by what kids like to eat—that will please and fuel all of your loved ones.

Take a look at Garrad-Cole’s kid-friendly and healthy quesadilla recipe, her protein-filled lettuce wrap, the delicious turkey meatball appetizers great for kids’ birthday parties and the stir-fry perfect for any family dinner.

Fresh Squeezes

Stuck in a sandwich-filling rut? Here are some of our family favorites:

• Soft goat cheese and sliced tomato
• Hummus, avocado and alfalfa sprouts
• Shredded chicken mixed with mayonnaise, quartered grass, shredded carrot, finely diced celery and a pinch of curry powder
• Cream cheese or goat cheese and sliced strawberries
• Cream cheese with alfalfa sprouts and cucumber
• Nitrate-free ham, sharp cheddar and apple (yummy grilled, too!)
• Baby shrimp with mayo, dill and capers
• Shredded apples and carrots with almond butter
• Peanut butter and sliced firm pears
• Veggie-loaded taco meat sandwich
• Mashed tinned sardines and yellow mustard (kids often like this–really!)

Related:

The Kid Foods We Love to Eat as Runners