Now that we’ve gotten half way through the school year it can sometimes be challenging to come up with creative lunch ideas. I find it helpful to mix up the lunch gear, bags and foods I use in order to keep things interesting.

In this lunch we’ve put together some California rolls, veggies, grapes and a side bag with rice crackers. I find that kids really enjoy the bento style when it comes to their lunches because it’s visually appealing, it keeps foods from touching and it just makes it more fun!  There are all kinds of great lunch gear these days…I love using re-useable cloth bags instead of clear plastic bags…especially ones with fruit and veggie graphics!!

We also always do our best to include at least two colors of produce into every lunch we prepare as we’re always striving to eat a rainbow of colorful fruit and veggies everyday!

Happy Healthy Eating
Kia

Kia Robertson is a mom, children’s book author 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!

This weekend we made some delicious borsht! I’m half Ukrainian so I enjoy a good bowl of borscht  I’m also half Spanish so I also enjoy a hot handmade tortilla too! But this weekend was all about the borscht! This takes a lot of veggies which means lots of washing, peeling and cutting…the perfect job for my daughter Hannah.

We love making stews and soups at this time of year as it really helps to keep you feeling warm and cozy! Being able to use a bunch of colorful veggies makes it all the more better!

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 ongoing quest to be food adventurers we decided to try Longans.  They are a cousin to the more popular Lychee. Their light brown skin encloses a delicious translucent, juicy soft flesh that is similar to a peeled grape.  They have a large black inedible seed in the middle so you just eat the flesh around the seed.  It has a very nice sweet taste that we all enjoyed!

If you’re going to give these a try, buy longans that are still attached to the branches if possible. The fruit should be plump and having a slightly pliable shell. You can store longans in a breathable container or bag in the fridge for around 5-7 days.

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!

As parents we “know” that our children should be eating a minimum of 5 servings a day of fruits and vegetables however getting them to actually eat their fruits and veggies is a different story!

Here are some suggestions that might help get your kids eating their fruits and vegetables, thanks to our friends from Chooserly.com for helping us adding some points:

1. Keep Fruits and Vegetables in Sight: Stock your fridge full of washed and ready to eat fruits and veggies.  Having them cut up in slices makes it even easier for your kids to reach in and grab a quick healthy snack.

2. Remove the Competition: If you provide only healthy options they will get eaten!  Leave the junk food for an occasional treat!

3. Prepare Meals Together: Bring kids into the kitchen starting at a young age. Toddlers can wash and rip lettuce, preschoolers can measure and stir, and older kids can find recipes and help create meals. Children are far more likely to dig into a new dish if they helped prepare it!

4. Take them Grocery Shopping: When you have the time, take your children grocery shopping with you and let them pick out a fruit or vegetable. Challenge them put a rainbow in the shopping cart!

5. Serve a Fruit or Vegetable with Every Meal: Every day and every meal, fruits and veggies should be on the menu. Eating this way makes it easy to get the minimum 5 servings of produce a day!

6. Keep it Simple: Veggies taste best when you don’t do too much to them.  Eating them raw seems to be a favorite with kids.  Add some yummy dip and your done!

7. Be a good Role Model: If you expect your child to eat vegetables, you need to be eating them, too!

8. Eat the Same Meals: Make one meal for the family. Don’t start the habit of serving different menus for everyone as you’ll end up with a house full of picky eaters and a lot of extra work in the kitchen!!

9.  Keep trying: Kids need to be exposed to, and ideally taste, a new food as many as 10 to 15 times before they’ll accept it.  Just getting them to take one bite is a victory!

10. Make it Fun: Kids are fun people and they love playing games. Keep that in mind  and  make healthy eating a fun challenge rather than a battle.

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!

With Christmas around the corner, it’s time to start planning ways to incorporate fruits and veggies into your festive meals! We all tend to indulge at this time of year so it’s always a great idea to balance that out by eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Around here eating and serving fruits and veggies has to be fun! This broccoli tree with tomato decorations and a star made out of a yam makes a delicious and healthy centerpiece!

Put out some dip and watch the tree disappear

To make these trees you need a styrofoam cone shape…we used one the was 98mm (3-7/8 in) x 301mm (11-7/8in) and trimmed a lot off of the bottom in fact I would suggest cutting the cone half way down so that it doesn’t take up too much broccoli! We used 6 large heads of broccoli for our tree.

I recommend using extra long tooth pics so that you can trim them down for the top of the tree and then use the full size on the bottom…this helps to make the tree extend out at the bottom! You could easily sprinkle in some cauliflower in there to make it look like some snow on the tree. I cut our star out of a piece of yam…but feel free to use anything that you have on hand!

We hope this Holiday Season is full of love and laughter for you! Wishing you Health and Happiness in the new year!!!!

 
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!