Over the course of my childhood and teen years I was very involved in music. I took piano lessons, sang in choir, and played in the band. I want my kids involved in music but that just hadn’t happened yet.  Somehow through a crazy set of circumstances my 9 year old son has joined a choir, the band, and started piano lessons all within a few weeks time. My daughter started piano lessons as well. I am loving it, but our schedule went from busy to kind of insane. Due to the times and locations of some of these activities eating out is the best and most plausible option on some nights. Most of the restaurants that we have tried out don’t necessarily have the best for you kids options on the kids menu. When I heard that Smashburger was looking for some bloggers to come and try out their new better-for-you kids options, I practically begged to be included in the opportunity. So thank you to Smashburger to hosting our family for a dinner and sponsoring this post. It has been a game changer.

The new kids meal options include Grilled Chicken Strips and Musselman’s Unsweetened Squeezable Apple Sauce. For the beverage you can choose between Organic HONEST Kids® Juice, Horizon Milk®, or a fountain drink. My kids are very used to squeezable apple sauce so I knew I wouldn’t have any problems there and they like juice. The Organic HONEST Kids Juice is sweetened only with fruit juice, has ½ the sugar of leading kids juice drinks and 100% of the daily dose of Vitamin C. They did notice that it tasted different than their usual apple juice, but they were happy to drink it.  My biggest concern was the grilled chicken. I make grilled chicken for them all the time at home, but at restaurants they are used to the usual breaded chicken fare. The grilled chicken at Smashburger is 100% white meat chicken with none of that filler business.

Would they put up a fight, or turn up their nose? I wish I had filmed my daughter’s reaction, she loudly proclaimed “This is Ah-mazing!” when she took her first bite of chicken. I also wish she showed that much enthusiasm for my grilled chicken, but that is neither here nor there I suppose. Both of my kids are every last bite, happily. In fact, my daughter asked me to cut up the piece of lettuce that the chicken was served on so she could eat it like a salad. You can choose between barbecue sauce or ranch dressing as a side to your chicken strips. She choose ranch, but only used it on the lettuce. My kids aren’t really into sauces and dips for the most part.

Just look at those happy kids? I loved that the food was great, service was fast, and it was better for you than other fast food options out there. We will be going back to Smashburger again for those “need yummy dinner, in a hurry” nights. Smashburger really works for us because there I have one location 1/2 mile from my house and another one 1/2 mile from school. We have a 20-25 commute between school and home so it’s super convenient to have the choice of multiple locations.

 

Mom and Dad have to eat too, right? I got the Cobb salad with grilled chicken. It was a huge salad! I think next time I would skip the fried egg on top and just stick with the grilled chicken. It was my favorite part of the salad for sure.

I just have to mention one more thing that I love about Smashburger. The Smashburger website is super allergy friendly. You can input the ingredients you need to avoid and it will show you all your options. My daughter’s most severe allergy at this point is sesame. You can imagine that going to a burger restaurant can be a challenge when so many use sesame seed buns. Smashburger does not use buns with sesame seeds. It’s a little thing, but a huge blessing for this momma!

Okay, I want to hear from you. What are your tips for smashing mom guilt? Tell me about it in the comments!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Smashburger.