As a parent, you might know all about how tough it is to prepare meals for your picky eater. Maybe if you have multiple children, that means more than one youngster who only eats a limited menu. However, there are plenty of adults who limit their food choices as well.

Pizza

It seems like for most families, pizza is the one thing on which many members can agree. You might start the day by giving your kids each a big glass of orange juice, and you’ll feel good about that since each cup supplies over 100% of their daily Vitamin C intake. That’s great for immunity.

If you give them pizza for dinner three nights in a row, though, you may feel like that negates the nutrition you gave them at breakfast or lunch. You can make pizza at home instead of ordering it from Pizza Hut or Papa John’s.

When you do, you can make your own pizza dough, which can be a family project. You might make it on the weekend and freeze it if you’re super busy during the week.

This way, you can use fat-free mozzarella cheese, which lowers the saturated fat quite a bit. You can also get turkey pepperoni from the store. That has less total and saturated fat content than traditional beef pepperoni.

You can easily make pizzas that have half-and-half toppings, so you can accommodate those family members who like veggies. You can even make a pizza with different toppings in thirds if no one can agree on which ones they want. Pressed for time? There's no shame when a parent needs to order pizza instead of making it at home.

Burgers

Burgers are the other All-American standby that so many families enjoy. Beef burgers from McDonald’s or Wendy’s aren’t too healthy, though, and raising cows for meat also hurts the planet.

You can buy frozen turkey or chicken burgers from the grocery store instead. You’ll save money that way, and they are much lower in total and saturated fat content.

Instead of buns, you can get whole-wheat or fiber wraps. These wraps contain the fiber that you’ll want as an adult, instead of the buns you get from the average burger place, which either has very little fiber or none at all.

You can cook the frozen burgers very easily on a Forman Grill. If you have a family of 4-6 people, the whole cooking process will not take longer than 20 minutes or so.

Chili

Most family members also like chili, and it’s a smart choice because you can hide some nutrients in there. You can make turkey chili using ground turkey, low-fat chicken sausage, olive oil, kidney beans and light red beans, garlic powder, cumin, tomato paste, tomato puree, and a little water.

You can add those ingredients to a pot and simmer them for about an hour, and you’ll come away with a mixture that’s high in fiber from the beans and iron from the two meat sources. Because you also used turkey and chicken as the meat ingredients, it’s quite low in fat.

You can make a mild version, and then if you like yours spicy, you can add some hot sauce to it for the more adventurous family member. You can make a pot on the weekend and have it ready in the fridge. Then, all you have to do is simply microwave it and dish it up when dinnertime comes around, and work has exhausted you.

Tacos

Tacos are another option that most families enjoy. You can get low-fat, whole-wheat taco shells that are healthier than anything you’ll get at Taco Bell. You can buy some fat-free cheddar cheese and use either imitation, soy-based beef crumbles, or else ground turkey.

You can easily duplicate most of the fast-food items that your kids love. If you teach them to cook while you prepare their meals, they will become self-reliant as they eat healthier. It’s never too early in a child's life to begin instilling these sensible eating habits.