A Quick And Easy Way To Balance Your Dinner Plate

As a busy mom, I’ll be the first to admit that making sure everyone gets a balanced meal three times a day is a challenge. But this fact shocked me: 

Most Americans only meet the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for proper nutrition 2% of the year — 7 days a year.

That is crazy! But not surprisingly, the top reasons for this deficit of healthy meals include expense and time. Eating a balanced meal also seems complicated. 

California Pizza Kitchen Frozen Pizza

California Pizza Kitchen is part of an initiative to help simplify balanced meal planning. Oh yes, I said pizza and a balanced meal in the same sentence. I know pizza has a bad wrap for being junk food, but when pizza is made with quality ingredients, like California Pizza Kitchen it can be part of a balanced meal. The key word is part.

In order to make it a balanced meal, simply pair your favorite California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizza with a fresh salad, grilled veggies or low-fat milk to make dinner time quick, affordable and easy. Not to mention healthy and delicious!

California Pizza Kitchen uses premium ingredients in its pizzas that are fresh frozen to lock in nutrients. So in addition to whole grains and low-fat cheese, frozen pizza from California Pizza Kitchen also provides some fruits and/or veggies (depending on your family’s flavor choice, of course). But in order to get your balanced plate, you need more veggies. That’s where the salad comes in.

The U.S. My Plate Daily Recommendations 

• Grains – 6 oz
• Vegetables – 2 1/2 cups
• Fruits – 2 cups
• Dairy – 3 cups
• Protein – 5 1/2 oz

To help you create balanced meals, California Pizza Kitchen’s website is filled with inspiration for flavor pairings and salad recipes. But a simple salad like mine will do the trick too.

What if your kids don’t eat salad? Don’t worry, mine don’t either. But they do eat tomatoes and peas. So my girls ate tomatoes from the salad along with some frozen peas to balance out their dinner. The key is to kind fruits and vegetables you know your kids will eat. 

Using a frozen entrée with premium ingredients, like a frozen pizza from California Pizza Kitchen, I can save time (and money) on meal prep. Plus when I announce that it is pizza night, I know my kids will happily eat dinner. 

Learn more tips and get recipe planning ideas to keep your family’s meals balanced from Balance Your Plate. I think it is time Americans do better than eating a day’s worth of balanced meals only 2% of the time.  

Now, who wants pizza and a salad for dinner?