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Today I thought it would be really fun to share different ways I get more protein into my kids diet. My kids are currently ages 3 and 5 and getting them to eat meat can be hard. One week they love hamburgers and the next week they won't touch them. Below are different ways I've found to get my kids to eat protein that are easy to implement at home. These are different ideas for how you can get your toddler to eat more protein (that aren't chicken nuggets or hot dogs). 

1. Chocolate Milk - Honestly, the easiest addition to the diet! I take their milk and add 1 scoop of Just Ingredients Chocolate Protein Powder* in a blender bottle to mix it up. Pour it in a glass and you're good to go! This tastes delicious but also feels like a treat to my kids to get chocolate milk at dinner. 1 scoop of their protein powder has 24 grams of protein in it! Although Just Ingredients protein powder may seem a little more expensive at first glance, the more budget brand I can buy elsewhere requires two scoops to get 22 grams of protein. So I recommend you look at what the scoop vs protein ratio is when you are looking at deciding what protein powder to buy. We LOVE Just Ingredients protein powder in our house because it is made with great ingredients, there are no artificial colors, and they taste delicious. If you purchase from Just Ingredients, be sure to use my Just Ingredients Discount Code DARCY to save on your purchase!! This is one of my favorite tips for protein for toddlers who won't eat. 

2. Add Protein Powder to Yogurt - Not far behind the chocolate milk in terms of another super easy way to add more protein to the diet. My kids love yogurt in the morning. They eat plain Greek yogurt for breakfast in the morning and we add flavor to it through a scoop Just Ingredients Protein Powder*! Our current favorite flavor to add to yogurt is the Strawberries and Cream Protein Powder*. This protein powder has no artificial dyes and is the most beautiful pink color! Snickerdoodle Protein Powder* is another great flavor to mix into yogurt. (Remember to use my Just Ingredients protein powder promo code DARCY to save on your purchase!) We just purchased the peaches and cream flavor from Just Ingredients to add to their yogurt and can't wait to try it with yogurt soon! Add some peanut butter to their yogurt too for an additional protein + fat boost.  Just Ingredients protein powder is great for toddlers because of all of the delicious flavor offerings!  

3. Replacing flour with protein powder - Maybe I should have titled this blog post an ode to protein powder haha. But I find that especially with little kids who will one day eat eggs or chicken and the next day won't touch them, protein powder is a pantry essential to ensure they are getting protein in on days where they are picky. Did you know you can replace flour in a recipe with protein powder? For example, if the recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, I have started doing 1 cup flour and 1 cup protein powder. This is an easy way to get protein in your diet - especially if you love to bake! Just Ingredients has a pumpkin spice protein powder in the fall and I add it to allll my fall recipes that use pumpkin puree. It is a delish way to add more flavor to the recipe and get more protein! We always do this with pancakes for our kiddos too. I mentioned it up above but the Snickerdoodle Protein Powder* is one of my favorites and is great for baking. (p.s. Just Ingredients even has some vegan protein powder* options if you are looking for vegan protein powder.) 

4. Skout Organics Kids Snack Bars - The Skout Organic Kids Snack Bars* are my kids favorite granola bars. I first started by purchasing variety packs* but they now have favorite flavors that I buy for them. They love running to the pantry to pick one out. Their current favorite flavors are Apple, Raspberry Rush, Blackberry Lemonade, and Peanut Butter Banana. I love these granola bars because they are made with clean ingredients, they are not crumbly (honestly the reason I tried them in the first place haha), and they each contain at least 2 grams of protein. 2 grams may not seem like a lot, but toddlers need somewhere between 13-19 grams of protein in a day depending on their age/weight. If I can ensure a small snack in the afternoon contains roughly 10% of that I feel like its pretty good! Their flavors with peanut butter in them all lean closer to 4 grams of protein. I don't have a Skout Organics coupon code, but you can try using WELLNESSFORTHEWIN. 

5. Magic Spoon - This protein packed cereal* is on constant rotation in my house. My kids really love the fruity one and the lemon cake flavor. (We've also tried and liked chocolate*!) I feel good about offering Magic Spoon cereal to my kids for breakfast because it doesn't contain tons of sugar and has protein in it. My kids always eat breakfast best, so I want to make sure I am making the best choice possible for their breakfast food. Sometimes we need something easy like cereal and I love that I can count on Magic Spoon for better options that we all love. If you have a Costco membership check there for deals on Magic Spoon!  (In writing this blog post I discovered they have a cinnamon toast flavor that I need to try ASAP!! If you've tried it let me know what you think.) 

6. Beef Sticks - Beef sticks are a snack must have in our house. We never go without!! These are perfect for an on-the-go snack and I love that they each have 4 grams of protein. We usually rotate between Chomps*and Country Archer* -- basically whichever is on sale at Costco (although you can find both in many other places). The small sticks will be great to send with my son to Kindergarten in the fall for snack time!

Interested in more healthy living tips for your family? My friend Jess and I sat down on an episode of the Little Ones and Messy buns podcast at the beginning of the year and shared some of the ways we prioritize healthy living for our families. Give it a listen here on Apple Podcasts

Do you have any other super easy ways you get your kids to eat more protein? Share your tips for getting protein in your child's diet in the comments below so we can all learn together. If you choose to purchase any Just Ingredients products, remember to use my Just Ingredients promo code DARCY to save on your purchase.