About Me

My name is Elysia and I’m a Registered Dietitian and the Founder of Haute & Healthy Living, a website focused on offering easy and healthy recipes for busy families. After running Haute & Healthy Living for a few years, I quickly realized how much readers loved the kid-friendly recipes, and I realized how much I enjoyed creating them and testing them out on my two little guys! 

So that’s when the idea for starting up ‘Healthy Kids Recipes’ was born.

About Healthy Kids Recipes

I have a huge passion for raising healthy, happy and adventurous eaters and I’d love to help you do the same! My goal for Healthy Kids Recipes is to share a variety of fun, delicious and nutrient-dense recipes to help get your kids (and the rest of the family!) excited about eating a wide variety of foods that pack a nutritional punch. 

Although these recipes have been developed with kids in mind, that doesn’t mean the rest of the family can’t enjoy them too. In fact, I recommend it! The more kids see you modelling healthy behaviours, the more likely they’ll want to follow suit!

Along with recipes, I also provide tips and tricks, feeding strategies, product recommendations, and meal and snack ideas to help your little ones grow to be food lovers.

My Feeding Philosophy 

I’m a strong believer in setting a positive example and being a good role model for your kids. After all, if they see you eating a wide variety of foods, then they’ll be more likely to do the same! I’m also a big fan of family mealtimes (wherever possible) and scheduled meals and snacks throughout the day. Because no one wants to deal with a HANGRY kid, am I right?

Now, this might sound all fine and dandy, but I get it. Feeding kids is not an easy job. I’ve done a ton of trial and error with my own kids (who definitely go through phases with their eating) and I’ve learned that the key to getting kids to try new foods is to:

1. Keep it fresh and exciting
2. Get them involved in the planning and preparation of meals and snacks
3. And inject a little enthusiasm and creativity into how you serve up different foods

And most importantly, don’t give up. As discouraging as it can be when your kids gag on the broccoli or only go as far as to lick their chicken, at the end of the day, the key is exposure. The more kids are exposed to a food, especially when served up in different ways, the more likely they are to try it.

If all else fails, remember that your job as a parent is to choose what, when and where your kids eat and your kids are in charge of deciding if and how much of the served food they will eat. If you’re serving up balanced meals and snacks throughout the day, then you’re doing your job. So give yourself a pat on the back! 

My Qualifications and Experience

As for my background, I’m a Registered Dietitian with a Masters in Applied Nutrition. I worked as a Supermarket Dietitian for over 8 years, and gained lots of experience running food and nutrition tours, school nutrition workshops and cooking classes for kids.

Getting kids excited about food and nutrition was hands down my favourite part of the job! 

In addition to my work as a Retail Dietitian, I’ve also been featured in a number of publications including Forbes, Today’s Parent, Insider, Women’s Health, Health Magazine, Fox News, Eat This, Real Simple, among many more.

Most importantly though, I’m a mom to two little boys, Max and Leo, who definitely keep me on my toes. Believe me, no amount of education ever prepared me for the real-life challenges of feeding children.

As a result of having my own kids, I’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of feeding kids, and I hope to share some of those tips and strategies with you as well!

The Taste Testing Team

All of the recipes posted on the site are first tested out by my team of taste testers.

Taste Tester #1

This is Leo, my right-hand man and sous chef. His favourite things to make are overnight oats, smoothies, and he devours this Mexican Fiestada Pizza.

Taste Tester #2

This is Max, my mini sous chef. He gets super excited about noodles, strawberries, pancakes, and energy balls and adores these 3-Ingredient Banana Oatmeal Bars.