In our ongoing taste adventures, my daughter Hannah and I found a curious looking fruit the other day that we just had to take home and investigate!

The label said it was a prickly pear but when I picked it up I didn’t think it was very prickly. We got home and started washing it…and THAT is when we learned the hard way why it’s called a prickly pear! Our fingers felt like we had slivers up and down them but we couldn’t actually see them!!!  Not our idea of fun but we had to laugh!!  We decided to just ignore the slivers and give the fruit a taste.  Neither of us liked it very much! To be honest I don’t know that we gave it a fair chance because we were slightly annoyed that it gave us so many slivers! The texture was really odd and there wasn’t much flavor.  Not worth the pain in our opinion!

However if you do give a try be sure to wear thick gloves when handling them and give them a good scrub!  Slice both ends of the prickly pear off. Discard them then make one long vertical slice down the body of the prickly pear and peel back the skin.  You’ll be left with the edible prickly pear…you can just chop it up and eat it…seeds and all!

If you’ve tried prickly pear and enjoyed it I’d love to hear from you…maybe I just picked the wrong one…or maybe if I didn’t end up plucking clear slivers out of our hands for a couple of days after eating it I would have given it a more fair chance to win me over

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!

In our continuing quest to try new fruits and veggies we picked up a gorgeous orange fruit that we had no clue as to what it was…even the produce guy was confused because he told us it was a persimmons but I’m pretty sure it isn’t.  We spent some time on Google trying to find it but didn’t have any luck.  So we decided to just cut it open and give it a try!  It was hard and almost crunchy to cut through!

We were really surprised to see the inside!!!!!

It looked a bit like the Kiwano fruit we tried last week so we ate them the same way!  We grabbed some with our fingertips and enjoyed the flesh around the seeds.  It tasted AMAZING…very fruity like a mix of citrus with sweet strawberry!!!  It was messy and a lot of work but it was so worth it!

If you know what this fruit is leave a comment and let us know what we ate

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!

We came across a very interesting looking fruit the other day and we rarely pass up trying something new especially when it looks like this…

So we bought one and immediately cut it open as soon as we got home!  It was exciting to see what the inside would look like…considering the way the outside looks we figured it must be pretty good!  We were not disappointed…

The Kiwano also known as the Horned Melon has a very interesting flavor that is like a combination between a cucumber and a banana!  The texture is a bit slippery and jelly like!  The seeds are edible which makes it easier to eat because these guys are full of seeds!!!

We had a lot of fun exploring this fruit together…stay tuned for what we try next week!

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!

Imagine a place where you could buy the freshest produce, learn how it was grown, support your community and provide your children with a fun and educational shopping experience.  Look no further than your local Farmers Market!

Farmers markets have a magical quality that brings families and communities together; farm fresh produce, knowledgeable farmers, and a relaxed outdoor feeling are just some of the benefits you’ll enjoy!

Here are 4 reasons to take your family to the farmers market:

1. Aside from growing your own produce, you won’t find it any fresher than at a farmers market! The colorful produce is grown locally and picked when perfectly ripened and full of nutrients.  This means it will look, smell and taste fantastic…experiencing produce at its best is great when you are introducing them to your children!  No one likes soggy old produce!

2. You have an opportunity to talk to the people that grow your food!  Farmers are a fantastic source of information and some have a favorite recipe or two to share!  Your children can come up with a few questions for them such as: “what vegetable grows the fastest” or “how do you know when carrots are ready to be picked”? Connecting your children with the foods they eat and the people who grow it is an important step in teaching them how to make smart food choices for themselves.

3. You are making an earth friendly choice when purchasing produce grown in your area. Buying local produce reduces transportation pollution and costs.  Choosing to buy locally grown produce is healthier for you and the planet!  It’s also a great way to support the hard working farmers in your area.  Talk about a win-win situation for all!

4. It’s a wonderful hands-on learning adventure for your children.  Give them a bag and start them on a scavenger hunt to find a rainbow of colorful fruits and veggies! They’ll have fun tracking down a red fruit, an orange vegetable and so on! Let them help you select and purchase the produce.  The more you involve your children in selecting, preparing and cooking produce the more comfortable and willing they’ll be to eat it!

My family looks forward to our weekly trips to the farmers market where we see familiar friendly faces, sample new produce and come home with bags full of beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables!

Happy Healthy Eating,
Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom and the creator of the Today I Ate A Rainbow kit; a tool that helps parents establish healthy habits by setting the goal of eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day. Kia is passionate about creating tools that help parents raise healthy kids!

Making a smoothie with your kids is fun and a great way to get fruits and veggies into their diet!  One of our favorites is a tropical smoothie that gets its fabulous green from the baby spinach we put in it!  This smoothie is quick and easy with one cup of every ingredient!  We made this smoothie in our latest In The Rainbow Kitchen video In the Rainbow Kitchen