Episode 58: Eating Out with Kids – Making Healthier Choices on the Go

Episode 58: Eating Out with Kids – Making Healthier Choices on the Go

I’m launching my 5 Days to Healthier Kids Challenge—a free, practical guide to improving your child’s nutrition in just a week. Join me and get daily insights, expert tips, and amazing giveaways.

Eating out with kids can feel like a battle when the only choices on the menu are nuggets and chips. As parents, we want convenience, but we also want to nourish our kids with healthier options. The good news? Some restaurants are starting to rethink their kids’ menus. In this episode, I dive into the changes happening in the dining scene and share my top tips for navigating mealtimes when eating out.Follow me on Instagram and Facebook

Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.074)
Rethinking Kids’ Menus — Healthier Choices When Dining Out (00:29.548)
How to Help Kids Eat Healthier When Dining Out (02:52.6)
Easy Tips to Boost Nutrition When Eating Out With Kids (05:12.126)
Smart Menu Hacks — Healthier Choices for Kids at Restaurants (07:32.552)
Dining Out With Kids – Sugar Swaps, Smart Drinks & How to Improve the Kids’ Menu (09:56.724)
Simple Fixes for Kids’ Menus – More Color, Less Fried, and Options Kids Deserve (12:15.01)
Rethinking Kids’ Menus – Small Changes, Big Wins for Family Dining (14:30.25)
5 Days to Healthier Kids – Simple Daily Wins to Transform Your Child’s Nutrition (16:51.348)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Tune in to hear:

Why kids’ menus need an overhaul – The common frustrations parents face when dining out.
Simple swaps for a more balanced meal – Easy tweaks to improve your child’s nutrition without sacrificing enjoyment.
Creative ordering hacks – How to mix, match, and share meals to offer better options.
What to ask for at restaurants – How to advocate for healthier choices on the menu.
The sugar trap – Managing sugary drinks and desserts without the mealtime meltdowns.

It’s all about small, realistic changes that make a big difference. Plus, I’m launching my 5 Days to Healthier Kids Challenge—a free, practical guide to improving your child’s nutrition in just a week. Join me and get daily insights, expert tips, and amazing giveaways. Sign up here: https://karina-savage.mykajabi.com/5-days-to-healthier-kids-challenge

Healthy kids’ meal ideas: https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

Let’s make eating out easier, healthier, and more enjoyable for the whole family.

https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

Introduction (00:00.352)
You're listening to the Easy Feed podcast episode number 58, Eating Out With Kids. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed podcast.

Rethinking Kids’ Menus — Healthier Choices When Dining Out (00:29.548)
Welcome back. hope you're really well. Today I want to talk about eating out with kids because when we eat out with kids, often we're faced with that same old menu of nuggets and chips. mean, yes, there's probably spaghetti bolognese or a pizza, but often it's those same old meals. And often our kids just go to the fried fish and chips or the nuggets and chips. And it's kind of frustrating, I think, because you don't always want them to be eating that when...

going out. mean, often we have the choice of better options, but the kids don't seem to have as much variety. And even though it might not bother them, it kind of parents sometimes. And I was interviewed about this recently for the Daily Telegraph and the various papers around Australia. And the article was around this topic and how there's some restaurants now coming out saying, no, we're actually going to put some decent food on our kids' menu and give our

Children a healthier option because kids will often like, you know, some variety, especially when they're out because I mean, some kids like nuggets and chips, of course, and many kids are happy with the nuggets and chips don't get me wrong. And so, you know, look, I never hear a child going, my gosh, this kid's menu is so boring. Let's be honest. It's the parents going, well, it would be great if there was some extra color in this menu. The kids are happy with it. They're honestly happy with it because who doesn't love a hot chip, right? Hot chips are one of my favorite things as well.

But at the end of the day, would be great if there was some healthier options for our children when we eat out, because my daughter's getting to the age where she's kind of like, I don't really like anything on the menu. So then we're looking at the adult menu and trying to come up with a good option because she's sick of the margarita pizza and she doesn't eat meat, so spaghetti bolognese doesn't work. And she's bored with the plain pasta option and she doesn't want the nuggets and chips, well, she won't eat the nuggets anyway, but.

It's just the same old, same old. I think it's time that children's menus had a reform. That's what I was interviewed about because there are some great restaurants now around Sydney and I'm sure this is Australia wide that are changing things. They are change makers and they're saying we're going to put some decent healthy food into our kids menus as well, which is brilliant. Because in our busy lives, dining out is a common reality and we want to be able to still lean on those.

How to Help Kids Eat Healthier When Dining Out (02:52.6)
places to give our kids at least something healthy and sure, you're going to want the hot chips. Everyone's going to want hot chips. If we can put some color alongside that, that would be amazing. And what about some grilled meat rather than crumbs and battered deep fried? Like why can't we go for grilled? So I'm all in support of restaurants that are making these changes. I remember going on a family holiday up to Byron Bay a couple of years ago and there was this restaurant recommended to me. It was a breakfast place and it was.

brilliant, like the breakfast option for kids. You got this smorgasbord, basically a little platter of a little bit of yoga and granola and a little bit of fruit and a little bit of toast and a little bit of everything. This is perfect. And like, why can't dinner plates be like this? Let's be honest. Kids often like a deconstructed, bitsy platter style dinner. So why can't restaurants do this for dinner? It would be so good. I want to chat today about.

how we can advocate for healthier dinners when we're eating out with kids and little tweaks that we can make. We can't obviously change the menu at the restaurant without, you know, writing a letter to the manager and who's got time for that? Anyway, this podcast is about Kung Duas parents to help our children eat a little better when we are going out to the pub. At the moment, the options are nuggets and chips.

Fried fish and chips, margarita, maybe spaghetti bolognese or plain pasta. It's pretty much here at our local pub. So what do we do? And then there's a kid's meal. So they get a juice or a sugary drink, and then they get the yo, the dessert, is usually ice cream or a cup of lollies. So there's, that's really the kids dining out experience. They have a sugary drink, they have fried food, fried protein, fried.

chips generally, and then they wash it all down with ice cream or lollies. So I'm now going to share five tips, my five top tips for how right now until, you know, the menu changes at the restaurant, how we can improve our children's nutrition when eating out. And look, at the end of the day, we don't go out for dinner to eat a bowl of salad. We go out because we are meeting friends. We don't want to cook.

Easy Tips to Boost Nutrition When Eating Out With Kids (05:12.126)
And yeah, of course we want some yummy hot chips as well. These strategies are to completely transform to rabbit food, but I'm saying, well, look, here's some healthy tweaks that we can make to improve the nutrition of your child's evening meal when eating out. Especially if you're going out a couple of times a week. If you're going out to a Thai restaurant or a good Italian restaurant where you're going to get a good bowl of pasta and Thai...

chicken, satay and veggies. That's different. This is more about when you're going out to a pub where it's literally just all fried foods. So let's dive into it. Tip number one is try to upgrade the sides. So where possible, I'm sure the restaurant has chopped vegetables somewhere or has vegetables somewhere that they can chop up. A side of salad or carrot, cucumber, whatever you can order. Maybe even a side of broccoli.

Try to add in a side of something that's crunchy or the plant food to the fried stuff. For example, if your child has nuggets and chips, try and add something to that on the side. So they're getting some sort of colour or at least you're offering the colour because at the end of the day, it's just reinforcing the fact that we do want colour in our kids' life. Even if they're not going to eat it then and there, at least knowing it's there, at least seeing that this is what we do. This is how we eat.

If it's not there, no big deal. It's like one meal in a fortnight or whatever, but if you can and they'll eat it, then great. Some places will do chopped cucumber or chopped veggies. If you ask them, perhaps the more people that ask them, the more that they'll consider putting it on the menu. How good would it be if for an extra three bucks, you could add a bowl of chopped veggies or cucumber or carrot on the side of your chicken nuggets and chips? Like seriously, how hard is that? Not at all.

How good is that? Amazing. And then it makes you feel better as a parent too, when you're eating out and they're getting yet another bowl of fried stuff. So if possible, add something next to the fried food. Just ask them. And if everyone listening to this podcast episode went to their local pub and asked, then hopefully Pestapow eventually includes something like that on the menu. That would be amazing. So simple, but so helpful for us as parents. Number two, my tip.

Smart Menu Hacks — Healthier Choices for Kids at Restaurants (07:32.552)
is trying to ask for grilled over fried. So if we can have a piece of grilled chicken instead of chicken nuggets, if we can have a piece of grilled fish instead of fried fish or battered fish, will be fried, amazing. Again, healthier, lowering fat, lowering all the extra breadcrumbs and additives and all the junk that's on the outside of the nuggets or the fish. mean, with nuggets, you're stuck with it like that. It's not like they're going to

take the crumbs off the nuggets, you know, the nuggets are the nuggets and they would have bought them in big bulk packets. But if there's chicken, schnitzel, I think you tend to find chicken schnitzel on the menu. Hamburgers, guess the patties grilled anyway, but with fish especially asking for it to be grilled. If possible, if your child is not going to eat it grilled, then don't get it grilled. But if possible, and if there's an option to grill the protein instead of it being deep fried, then go for it. Give it a go.

perhaps your child does prefer that. So I think we've got to have the confidence to ask and say, can we please have this instead? Or if you see a chicken dish on the adult menu, can I have that chicken instead of the nuggets? It pays to ask and you never know. You never know if you don't ask. Tip number three is to mix and match. If you're really stuck with the menu and you're like, my gosh, my child is not going to eat any of these options. Then perhaps consider ordering off the adult menu and

Just order a mixture of the entrees. So you could order the bread, you could order if they're like olives, you could order bruschetta, you could order little arancini balls, you could order dumplings. Basically you could build your own healthy plate. Now the only problem here is it's probably going to be more expensive, but you could do the bread and some broccoli or some veggies and maybe chicken satay skewers. Really depends on what's on the menu. Consider.

mixing and matching and building your own plate that way. And that way you get a better combination of protein, veggies and carbs. And we can always put a bowl of hot chips into the order to satisfy that craving. because yeah, it could be a healthier way to go about it. Tip number four is consider sharing an adult meal. So if you've got two children and there's a really good, healthy adult meal that you know they would actually really like.

Dining Out With Kids – Sugar Swaps, Smart Drinks & How to Improve the Kids’ Menu (09:56.724)
Order that and just split it up for two plates, share an adult meal. And again, as I said, you can always put a bowl of chips with that if they really want the chips as well. But sharing an adult meal could actually significantly improve the nutrition. The kids get to eat a decent meal. It's no more expensive because you're splitting the adult meal. They can order the lean proteins and veggies. They can get, you know, maybe a delicious pasta dish. You know, it's, it's a

It really opens up more options, especially for children that have a more refined palate. Now tip number five really relates to the sugar that they're washing all the food down with. The kids menus often come with a free drink, whether it's lemonade or Coke or Fanta or juice. Obviously water is going to be the best option there, but if they really want a drink, then I would encourage orange juice because orange juice is going to be the healthiest option out of

All of them, orange juice doesn't have as much sugar as apple juice. And then of course, it's going to be much better for them than something like a soft drink. So look, if they really want soft drink, then I would actually ask them to dilute it. If they're going to really scream at you for that, then just get heaps of ice put in it. So there's always tactics you can deploy to reduce the sugar content or concentration.

They're definitely diluting, putting it with soda water, putting lots of ice in there, are ways to reduce the sugar content of soft drinks. Otherwise going for a fresh OJ, but also, well not a fresh OJ, it's not going to be fresh OJ in the pub, who am I kidding? But it's about trying to reduce the impact. It's going for a small cup size rather than a large cup size. All of these little things count because at the end of the day, it's about the volume of the sugar or the volume as well of the battered, fried, greasy food.

Now, if you were a restaurant owner, if you owned a pub and you're listening to this podcast, then I would suggest, and again, you can lobby, can ask your local pub to do some of these things. Number one, ask them to please serve chopped raw veggies like carrot sticks, cucumber, cherry tomatoes on the side of a kid's meal. When they prepare adults meals, they have a side salad, right? So you have the little bit of lettuce and the cherry tomato cut in half and a bit of cucumber and a bit of shaved carrot in those long thin shreds.

Simple Fixes for Kids’ Menus – More Color, Less Fried, and Options Kids Deserve (12:15.01)
But why can't they do that for kids? So please just give a little kid's bowl of veggies on the side. So that's number one. A lot of kids would happily eat these. Number two, add a serving of fruit, like an orange wedge or a few apple slices. Kids would probably love this even more than the chopped veggies. So that's another thing that pubs could do to improve the nutrition of their kids' meals. Number three, offer grilled proteins instead of all the fried stuff. So grilled fish.

Mini steaks. Adults get the steaks. Why can't kids have a little mini steak or grilled chicken tenders or kebabs rather than the nuggets and the fried stuff? What about wholemeal pitas with hummus or a simple pasta with a side of veggies? Often they'll do plain pasta, but no veggies or anything with that. Even boiled eggs would be great. Simple, basic food we often give our kids at home. Just don't even, you know, don't even make an appearance at a pub.

so easily could. If you know a pub owner or you're in good terms with them and you go often to places like hotels or pubs, you can ask them to do these things and do it because it's going to really make a difference for every child that goes there and also the parents because at the end of the day, it's us parents that want our kids to eat better. It's more of us going, my gosh, I want to eat up because I don't want to cook, but then I don't want my child just to eat.

rubbish. If it's a consistent thing, then we want our kids to be eating more colour when we go out. These changes would make a big difference and help towards that. Even if it's literally one piece of carrot and a piece of cucumber that they eat with their fried stuff, it's still going to make us feel better, right? And again, having healthier food options when we eat out reinforces and normalises healthy eating. It's not just fried protein and carbs.

When we're eating out with friends, kids are relaxed, they should eat well. If everyone's got some plant foods and colour at the table, eating, you know, everything and chatting and then fantastic seeing their parents eat these healthy foods. mean, that's great. Monkey see, monkey do, but the kids also need the opportunity to eat those colourful foods as well. So look, I think you get my gist and I think it's important to consider what changes could happen at your local.

Rethinking Kids’ Menus – Small Changes, Big Wins for Family Dining (14:30.25)
eatery, whether it's a pub or a restaurant and you can order Thai mixed vegetables or Indian dals. There's plenty of veggie options in some cuisines, but in others, like a typical Australian pub, I feel like the kids menus especially need a big overhaul. And if you're one of the pubs that has really transformed their kids menu, then please yell out to me and I'll give you a big shout out and we'll do something together because that's fantastic. I think it's really proactive.

And I think it's really important and what we should be thinking about in the future. And I know that I'll have those people that are like, Karina, it's once a fortnight, who cares? You know, just let them go out and enjoy their food. And that's fair enough, but I think it's important to have options. And for those parents that want their children to have, you know, that bowl of veggies next to it, I think we should be able to have the option. And if you're the parent that goes, don't care if they just eat nuggets and chips and that's fine. I respect everybody's.

views and decisions on how they want to raise their kids. Sometimes I'm like, whatever, just eat what you want. But then there's other times, especially if you're relying on that every week, twice a week, you want to be able to have the option to add in some extra nutrition. And that's where I think it's just good to have the option. It's good to mix it up. It's good to refresh menus every now and again. So why don't you just have one option below the nuggets and chips? Why don't you have one option that's like kids platter, where you have like hummus and dip, chopped veggies.

still have your chips on there, maybe a bit of grilled chicken. That's it. Why don't you just have that as an option? Even if it was a tiny bit more expensive, I still think you'd get takers for something like that. And I think that's a really great option. So perhaps suggest that to your local eatery, your local pub. And if you're one of the ones that just is happy that if your child's eat nuggets and chips, then who cares? Then don't say anything, just go out and enjoy it. But for those parents that

do want to advocate for their kids to have something colorful when they go out, perhaps just have a chat to them and say, look, hey, can we just get a bowl of like chopped cucumber or carrot? Whatever they put in the adult salad, just put a little one in a kid's one. And you know, the more parents that do that, hopefully we can start seeing some change. While we're talking about kids eating healthier, I want to take this opportunity to let you know that in just under a week, we will be commencing our Five Days to Healthier Kids Challenge with me.

5 Days to Healthier Kids – Simple Daily Wins to Transform Your Child’s Nutrition (16:51.348)
Every day you're going to learn quick wins to improve your child's eating habits and nutrition very quickly. Within that week, each day you're going to make fantastic changes towards your kids' nutrition. It's really important. We're going to be covering, day one, we're going to be talking about gut health, microbiome, immunity. Day two, we're going to be talking about fussy eating and how to get kids eating more variety.

Day three, we're to be talking about food additives and how to avoid nasty food additives that impact kids' behaviour. Day four, we're going to be talking about sugar. And day five, we're going to be talking about creating mindful eaters for life. Super important to set our kids up for lifelong health. Got some amazing giveaways to give throughout the week from a variety of sponsors. We've got Lepre, Carmans, we've got Noody Rudy Lunchbox. We've got Baby by Beach.

We've got heaps of great sponsors, Harris Farm, and I'm going to be giving them out to participants of the challenge. So we'll pop the link to register for my Five Days to Healthier Kids Challenge in the show notes. So please click on that link and register before we go live on Monday, the 10th of March.

And look, if you listen to this afterwards and it's the 11th or 12th of March and you still want to get on board and register, you absolutely can because you'll be able to watch those videos on playback from those first few days until the end of the challenge. We will be wrapping it up on the 17th of March. So join us. Hope you can join us. It's going to be lots of fun. Okay. I'll wrap it up there. Let me know what's on offer in your local restaurant when you go out for dinner. Let me know if you get offered bowls of

veggies, or if you've got any great local pubs that do offer really good kids menus, because it's always good to share this information and get the message out so that people have really good options to go to with the kids. Obviously proximity to home plays a big role and you always want to go for what's close and convenient. But if you find out about a pub that is close by and the great option, even better. Let me know if you've got any stellar options near you. Send me a message on Instagram. me by my website nourrishwithKarina.com. I'm always happy to hear from you. It's always great to hear from you. I wish you a beautiful week and we'll chat soon. Bye for now.