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!

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!

Getting kids to eat their fruits and veggies takes a combination of a lot of things! I think if you create a culture in your home where fruits and vegetables are fun and enjoyable it helps to reinforce the idea that produce is our friend! Play time is a great time to include fruits and veggies! In my opinion play is practice for life! Through play, kids can learn to appreciate fruits and vegetables and connect the fact that they are part of making healthy choices for themselves!

So when Hannah found some plasticine the other day, we had a great time making our favorite fruits and veggies! I think that any chance we get as parents to incorporate fruits and vegetables we should take it…even if it’s just during play time and no actual food is involved.

Play time is also learning time so it’s a great opportunity to bring fruits and vegetables into the mix!

Happy Healthy Playing
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!

Welcome to Day #23 of our

“31 days of {Green!} Giveaways“

Today’s question: How do you “think outside the candy box”

*Attention Facebook fans: Please answer as a comment on our blog, not our Facebook page in order to be entered to win!*

Today is day #23 of our month-long, trick-or-treating party for parents!

Just knock on our door (AKA blog) each day, answer the daily question (in lieu of shouting, “Trick or treat!” – although you are totally welcome to write that as well) and you’ll be entered to win some absolutely fabulous, ever-so-eco-friendly prizes.

Today’s prize package is worth $35!

1 set of three Preserve Jr. Toothbrushes, $10 each Continental US only.

The Today I Ate A Rainbow kit gets your kids asking for fruits & veggies!  Kit contains: An interactive chart that uses colorful magnets to track daily consumption of a rainbow of fruits & veggies, a color coded shopping list and a children’s book called The Rainbow Bunch. $25  Open to Canada and the US.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Add your e-mail address to the comment login, below. (We cannot notify you if we don’t have your e-mail address!)

2. Add a comment (one per e-mail address) with your answer to the question above.

3. Comment must post before 11:59pm PST – TONIGHT

Be sure to review our giveaway rules here. Please note shipping limitations.

Be sure to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook & Twitter for daily reminders & updates for the 31 Days of {Green} Giveaways promotion.

Good luck & have FUN!

(& See you tomorrow )

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

At our daughter’s school each class has a Halloween party.  They pick four families to bring a “treat” and four families to bring something healthy!  Last year our family was asked to bring in a healthy treat for our daughter’s class party so we found this great and easy to make Vegetable Skeleton. I wasn’t sure how popular it would be up next to all the sweet treats but I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the day to see that the tray was pretty much empty…just 3 mushrooms left AND there were still plenty of cakes and cookies left uneaten!!!

Here is the picture my husband took of our veggie skeleton!

This is all it takes to make a veggie skeleton:

• Head of cabbage or iceberg lettuce
• Zucchini slices (rounds)
• Bell Pepper slices (cross-cut)
• Celery stalks
• Sugar snap peas
• Carrots (peeled)
• Broccoli florets
• Cauliflower florets
• Cherry/Grape Tomatoes
• Healthy dressing of your choice!
• Olive slices

Directions:

Step 1. Line half of small bowl with lettuce for the skeleton’s hair; fill with dressing. Place at one end of large tray or baking sheet for the skeleton’s head.

Step 2. Arrange vegetables on tray to resemble skeleton’s body

* We added the fake spiders for a little extra fun

Halloween parties can have a balance of sweets and health…by spending a little extra time you can make veggies just as fun as any junk food!

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!