In honor on March being Nutrition Month we are going to help you get healthy by showing you how you can eat a rainbow of fruits and veggies! Using a rainbow as a guide, you can ensure that your children benefit from a wide range of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in their diet.

By breaking produce down into groups of fire-engine red, bright orange, sunshine yellow, emerald green, and  rich blue/purples you can make eating fruits and vegetables fun and easy for your kids!  Even at a very young age, kids can easily grasp the concept of eating a rainbow.

So how do you get your kids to actually eat a rainbow? As parents, we need to get into the habit of serving fruits and veggies at every meal and snack! Start off with ones that they like (if they don’t like any…stay tuned for my next guest post!) then you can slowly try new produce! If you do the typical 3 meals and 2 snacks per day then you have at least 6 opportunities a day to get your kids eating colorful fruits and vegetable! I encourage parents to make this fun and keep it light, no pressure, no battles. If your child starts off by eating one color a day that is a great start…you can build up to a rainbow over time. Healthy bodies are made one bite at a time so celebrate every step towards the rainbow!

Breakfast: Always provide a fruit! Bananas, Apple Slices, Seedless Grapes, Pears Slices. If you eat dairy and your kids like to dip their fruit, yogurt works well! Sometimes I’ll incorporate the fruit into the meal, such as a bowl of yogurt, granola and apple chunks. Or I’ll add a handful of Raisins to a bowl of oatmeal. Or make a yummy fruit smoothie!

Snack: Veggie Time!! Cut up Celery, Carrots, Cucumbers, Bell Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes. Once again, a dip might help encourage your little one, try hummus, or perhaps you have a great homemade dressing, a store bought salad dressing works fine too! We like to serve this on a fun plate or in a muffin tray to make it a little more interesting!

Lunch: Sandwiches are a great place to add veggies! Sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy lettuce, avocado slices all work well in a sandwich. If we’re not having sandwiches we always make sure there is a plate of veggies, based on the colors eaten at snack time, we then offer a color or two that hasn’t been eaten yet.

Snack: Fruit Time!! At this point in the day think about what colors still need to be eaten…then serve a fruit that belongs to the color group that is needed. A little bowl of frozen blueberries is a tasty treat!

Dinner: We always have a vegetable with dinner! Salads, steamed veggies, raw veggie slices all make their way onto our table! We also try to include veggies in our cooking; we add things like zucchini, carrots, tomatoes to spaghetti sauce.

Dessert: Fruit again! We think Strawberry slices and Raspberries make a great way to top off a meal sometimes we’ll have them on top of frozen yogurt! If we re-think what “dessert” is, we can see that it can actually be a fantastic time to get in another serving of fruit!

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!

Looking for something fun to do with your kids? Try cooking together! Sure it can mean a little extra time and clean up when you have little “helpers” but it’s worth it. Of course this isn’t something that needs to happen for every meal, even if you just cook together once a week, it can create cherished memories and traditions that will last a lifetime! Getting your kids involved in preparing meals is a fantastic way to develop healthy eating habits. Kids are far more likely to dig into a new dish if they helped prepare it!

There are lots of things even very young children can do in the kitchen. Toddlers can wash and rip lettuce, preschoolers can measure and stir, and older kids can find recipes and help create meals.

Here are a few ideas that don’t require much “actual cooking” but they are fun recipes for kids!

Rainbow Fruit Sticks

Need a colorful, tasty, healthy item to bring to your next potluck or school event?!? Try these easy to make Rainbow Fruit Sticks!  They are a huge hit at any event with kids of all ages.

All you need is a collection of colorful fruit and some skewers! I like to use: Pineapple, Green Grapes, Cantaloupe, Raspberries, Honeydew Melon and Blackberries to give the skewers a nice rainbow effect!

1. Wash your fruit and let dry a little so that they are easy to work with.
2. Arrange your fruit and skewer them in the same order.
3. Display your Rainbow Fruit Sticks on a platter and get ready for the compliments!

Cinnamon Apple Slices

All you need is an Apple and some Cinnamon

This is an easy snack.  Wash and slice an apple then sprinkle with cinnamon.  Adds a yummy twist to eating apples!

Kids want to have fun…that’s part of what makes them such great people to be around! So when you want to get your kids on board for something, try making a game out of it! Look at your kitchen through the eyes of your little one and suddenly the salad spinner becomes a merry-go-round for lettuce and the sink turns into a car-wash for vegetable vehicles! Use mini cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes in fruits and vegetables. Get them involved and have fun!!

Happy Healthy Eating!
Kia Robertson

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!

This is our final week of our snacks by color series and it happens to be my daughters favorite color…PURPLE!!!!  It can be a challenging color group to eat everyday as there aren’t as many options as the other 4 color groups.

Hannah enjoyed snacking on olives, frozen blueberries and purple carrots!

Some other purple snack ideas:

Eggplant chips
Blackberries
Raisins
Grapes
Cabbage
Prunes
Dried Figs
Purple Pepper

Eating a Rainbow of fruits and veggies is a fun way to shop for and eat produce!  So when it’s time to serve up a meal or snack think of eating as many colors as you can!

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!

When my daughter comes home from school she’s usually ready for a snack, and in our house, that means either fruits or veggies!  We like to make it a little fun buy using mini cookie cutters, toothpicks, cute dishes and most importantly we make it colorful!  We like to think of fruits and vegetables as being part of an edible rainbow so everyday we aim to eat a variety of fruits and veggies that are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue!  The phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables give them their bright color and each color group provides our bodies with unique health benefits which is why we want to eat all the different colors of the rainbow!

Here is a an example of a Rainbow Fruit Snack!

Red: Grapes     Orange: Oranges     Yellow: Bananas     Green: Kiwi     Blue: Frozen Blueberries

Snack time is the ideal opportunity to get your kids eating fruits and veggies!  Have fun creating healthy rainbow snacks for your kids!

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!

Rainbow Fruit Sticks

Need a colourful, tasty, healthy item to bring to your next potluck or school event?!?  Try these easy to make Rainbow Fruit Sticks!  They are a huge hit at any event with kids of all ages.

All you need is a collection of colourful fruit and some skewers! I like to use: Raspberries, Cantaloupe, Pineapple, Honeydew Melon and Blackberries to give the skewers a nice rainbow effect!

1. Wash your fruit and let dry a little so that they are easy to work with.
2. Arrange your fruit and skewer them in the same order.
3. Display your Rainbow Fruit Sticks on a platter and get ready for the compliments!

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!