Heather Little-White, PhD, Food & Nutrition Consultant

At a time of rising food prices, you may be daunted at the thought of preparing tasty, healthy meals on a limited budget. However, as responsible parents, you will have to be creative and make interesting combination of foods to please children and other members of the family.

When you are on a tight budget, it is easy to get into a routine of using the same foods every week. There is hope for frustrated mothers and fathers who have to prepare meals for their children when the food budget is limited.

There are several strategies you can use to make mealtime experience more exciting, healthy and filling.

Plan and organise: Set aside regular blocks of time for planning meals, making your grocery list and shopping. In planning menus, include healthy snack ideas along with main course items. Plan for different weekdays and weekends bearing in mind special events such as birthdays and anniversaries. With creativity, you can literally prepare gourmet-style meals on a budget. Beverages, for example, are better made with mangoes, otaheti apples, pineapples and oranges that are plentiful in this season.

Cut down

Limit the intake of junk food: The costs of these meals and snacks add up, so resort to home-made pizzas, burgers and hot dogs, items that children love. It is fun to engage children in making pizzas at home on a Friday evening, inviting a few of your children's friends over to your house. In this way, you get to know your children's friends and you can learn what they do for entertainment.

Limit salty and sugary foods: Do not feed your children on salty and sugary foods when they are young. As they grow, it will be difficult to change their taste buds to less salty and sugary foods. Chips, cookies, candies and sugary snacks should be replaced by fruits, vegetables. And grains.

Avoid preparing many foods that are high in saturated fats: While fats provide energy, excess intake of saturated fats leads to lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Encourage children to drink water more than sugary beverages: This flushes the toxins from the system and reduces children's cravings for sugary and salty foods. Besides, water is filling and may result in children eating less food.

To avoid weight gain, keep portions small. Children today have started to gain weight at a very early age and we are seeing an increase in childhood diabetes and obesity as a result of the processed foods and snacks which are 'empty calories'. When portions are kept small from very young, children will grow learning to appreciate small portions of food.

Get creative

Add 'variety' to meal planning: A variety of meals will provide range of nutrients to meet the needs of growing children. Proteins, minerals, vitamins, fats and carbohydrates are obtained from number of food items creatively prepared for the family.

Family meals are comforting and provide an excellent medium for 'talk time' with parents and children. When children take part in family mealtimes, they are more likely to eat fruits, vegetables and grains and are less likely to snack on unhealthy foods.

This is an easy filling meal, ideal for using leftover chicken from your Sunday roast. Children love it with toast.