Question: Now that the kids are back in school, the family is so much busier. Do you have ideas for some quick, fresh, healthy meals I can put on the table?

Wolfgang Puck  answers …
Involve your children in food. My wife and I get our kids involved in the food they eat, but not at the stove yet, because Oliver is 5 and Alexander is only 3, but in shopping and simple preparation. It’s a good idea to take your children to the supermarket or, even better, to the farmers’ market to shop for produce. Don’t go with them into the sections of the market full of sweets and pastries and canned stuff, just fresh foods. Back home, have them do safe, age-appropriate things. Oliver and Alexander love to peel carrots or cucumbers or remove the ends from green beans. They feel like they’re helping, which they are, and it makes them more likely to eat the food.

Breakfast basics. I really believe the old saying that, especially for kids, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s easy for a parent to get up 10 minutes earlier to make a healthy breakfast that sends the children off to school feeling alert and well fed. My children love oatmeal with banana, and a glass of fresh orange juice. On weekends, I make them pancakes once in a while, but I try not to give them too much sugar.

The lunchbox. I know a lot of kids prefer simple white bread for their sandwiches. But I think it’s a good idea to start getting your children used to sandwiches made with whole-wheat bread. Just a little bit of mayo, but not too much, will make the sandwich taste more appealing. Go for a healthy filling like some sliced turkey or water-packed tuna or sliced hard-boiled eggs, and maybe some sliced vegetables. For treats, I give my kids some grapes or any kinds of fruit that hold up well and aren’t too messy to eat. Sometimes I make them a little fruit salad with melons, put it in a little sealed container, and include a plastic spoon.

But you don’t always have to give them sandwiches for lunch. Oliver and Alexander love rice, so I sometimes make a rice salad with raisins or dried cranberries or chopped apples and pears, and some chicken or turkey, or a couscous salad the same way. You can pack that easily in a sealable container for the lunchbox.

Dinner. Especially at dinner, I think it’s important that kids and parents eat the same thing. That’s easy with beautiful fresh produce. We’ll steam over a little lightly salted water the vegetables we know the boys love, such as broccoli, carrots, asparagus, and green beans. When the vegetables are just tender, we drizzle a little good extra-virgin olive oil on top. That’s delicious! I know both boys like boiled beets, which I’ll slice and serve with a little balsamic vinaigrette. And in summer and fall, they love steamed sweet white corn as much as my wife and I do. If you get it fresh from the farmers’ market, it’s so delicious we don’t need to put anything on it, not even a dab of butter, before we eat it.

For the protein, we try to make it simple, fun, and delicious for everyone. The boys love chicken, so we tend to eat that quite often, and cutting the boneless, skinless meat into little pieces and grilling them on skewers with a touch of salt makes them fun to eat. They like lamb chops, too – and the bones make fun handles! I know that, especially for Oliver, I can’t go wrong with plain roasted or grilled salmon.

And yes, we eat pizzas with the boys. How could we not? Their favorites are plain cheese, though they also love my Spago pizzas with white truffles or smoked salmon.

Pasta is a favorite, too, and they would eat mac-and-cheese every day if I let them. But I try to make the pastas healthier, serving them penne, spaghetti, or linguine with just a little olive oil and Parmesan cheese. When they crave hamburger, I’ll turn lean beef into a Bolognese sauce with lots of canned tomatoes. They love that.

Don’t forget snack time. We always have fresh fruit around the house for the boys to snack on. Some of their favorite snacks at home are fresh fruit smoothies that I make for them with strawberries, raspberries, papaya or mango, along with fresh orange juice or apple juice. Sometimes, if they don’t finish what’s in the blender, I’ll put the leftovers into a metal pan in the freezer, and every half hour or so scrape up the crystals until it forms a granita. The boys love that for dessert, and they don’t even know it’s good for them!