Fun Ways with Fruit (Activities for Kids Involving Fruits)
Getting enough fruit into your children’s daily routine can be a challenge as many young kids are picky eaters. Children know what they like and stick to it. Having said that, fruits are an important food to incorporate into your child’s diet for a number of reasons.
Firstly, they provide fibre, which helps keeps things moving regularly in their intestinal tract and makes for healthy bowel movements. Secondly, fruits also contain high doses of vitamins and minerals, which are essential for the development and growth of your child. Lastly, fruits contain a variety of antioxidants! All of the different colours found in fruits are different antioxidants. Each of these colours found in the fruits provide a variety of antioxidants, which have different properties and functions in the body. This is why you’re always encouraged to eat the rainbow!
With all that said, one of our nutritionists at Nature’s Emporium, Sabrina Cellupica, has put together some fun ways with fruit to help encourage new ways to eat fruits in a more exciting and creative way!
Chocolate Dipped Waffle Cones
When you think ice cream cones, they don’t exactly scream healthy. However filling them with your kids favourite fruits – or fruits they haven’t tried before, makes them fun and appealing since it looks like ice cream.They can even help out in preparing them, which always entices kids to try something new when they have made it with their own hands!
Servings 12
Ingredients
- 12 Paneriso Waffle Ice Cream Cones
- ½ tbsp Nature’s Emporium Coconut Oil
- ½ cup Camino Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Waffle Toppings
- 2-3 tbsp slivered almonds chopped and toasted
- 2-3 tbsp Organic Traditions Shredded Coconut
- 2-3 tbsp Let’s Do Organic Sprinkles
Fruit Toppings
- ½ cup organic grapes
- ½ cup organic pineapple diced
- ½ cup organic kiwi diced
- ½ cup organic blueberries
- ⅓ cup organic raspberries
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler until smooth.
- Prepare three small bowls with the almonds, shredded coconut and sprinkles.
- Start by dipping each of the waffle cones into the chocolate, approximately ½ inch and let the excess chocolate drip off.
- While chocolate is still somewhat soft, dip it into one of the toppings and repeat for all 12 cones.
- Prepare your fruit mixture by adding all the fruit together in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Once chocolate is cooled and hardened, fill each of the cones with the fruit mixture. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
- Add a scoop of ice cream before topping with your fruit mixture for a fun dessert idea!
Frozen Yogurt Oatmeal ‘Bug’ Cups
These snacks make for a fun activity and delicious treat!Instead of giving frozen yogurt that is often full of sugar, these bug cups are made using real yogurt. Yogurt typically contains less sugar than it’s frozen counterpart. However, being frozen makes it taste a lot like the real deal. Adding some fruit to create the bugs on top, is an easy and great way to get kids to enjoy fruit and yogurt at the same time!If your kids don’t like yogurt, try mixing in some cocoa powder and tell them it’s chocolate pudding! No kid can resist pudding!
Servings 16 cups
Ingredients
Granola Base
- 1 flax egg mix and set aside for 5-10 min
- 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats
- 2/5 cup Bob’s Red Mill Oat Flour
- ¼ cup Organic Traditions Shredded Coconut
- 1 tsp Nature’s Emporium Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Simply Organic Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Nature’s Emporium Maple Syrup
- 1 tbsp Nature’s Emporium Coconut Oil melted
Yogurt Filling
- 2 cups Liberte Mediterranee Vanilla Yogurt or you can use a non-dairy yogurt to make this dairy-free
- 2-3 tbsp Nature’s Emporium Chia Seeds
Butterfly Topping
- 16 Elan Whole Almonds
- 1 organic kiwi thinly sliced and cut in half
- 2 organic strawberries thinly sliced and cut in half
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a bowl, add together all the granola ingredients: oats, oat flour, coconut, cinnamon, vanilla extract, maple syrup, coconut oil and flax egg and mix until well combined. It should have a sticky consistency.
- Roll the dough into 16 small balls and firmly press down to coat the bottom of the silicon muffin cups.
- Bake the granola bases for 10 minutes or until golden brown, set aside to cool.
- In a small bowl, add yogurt and chia seeds and mix well.
- Spoon the yogurt mixture evenly into the silicone cups on top of the granola bases.
- Top each yogurt cup with an almond for the body, kiwi or strawberry slices for the wings and the antenna (see picture above) or be creative and create your own designs!
- Freeze for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- When serving, ensure you remove them from the freezer for approximately 10-15 minutes to slightly thaw so you can safely bite into them. Enjoy!
Notes
- For chocolate flavoured cups, add ¼ cup Camino Cocoa Powder or more depending on how chocolatey you like it!
Sunbutter & Chia Jam Fruit Tacos
A less traditional take on a classic! We’ve replaced peanut butter for sunflower seed butter for something new to try and made our own homemade chia jam for this recipe.Making your own jam helps to control the sweetness level and also allows for natural sources of sweetener to be used.Chia also provides healthy fibre and omega-3 that tend to lack in our diets. Have your kids help you assemble these but piling on the fruits of their choosing.Make sure you have options that are outside of their normal routine to help encourage a new fruit to be consumed! We promise this will become a household favourite that you’ll end up making all the time!
Servings 6
Ingredients
Crepes
- ¾ cup Purest Pancake & Crepe Mix
- 1 organic egg separated
- 1 ½ tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread melted
- ¾ cup Silk Coconut Milk or milk of your choice
Chia Seed Jam
- 2 cups organic strawberries diced
- 2 tbsp Nature’s Empoirum Maple Syrup
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed organic lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Nature’s Emporium Chia Seeds
Taco Filling
- 5 tbsp Sunbutter Sunflower Seed Butter
- 5 tbsp Chia Seed Jam
- 1 ½ cups organic blackberries
- 1 ½ cups organic raspberries
- 1 organic banana diced
- 2 tbsp Organic Traditions Shredded Coconut
Instructions
Chia Jam
- Heat strawberries in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Bring to a boil, approximately 5-8 minutes, stirring constantly. Then, remove from heat.
- Add maple syrup, lemon juice and chia seeds and mix thoroughly.
- Set the mixture aside allowing it to cool and thicken into a jam-like consistency.
Crepes
- In a mixing bowl, add pancake & crepe mix.
- In another bowl, beat the egg yolks, coconut milk and the melted Earth Balance together.
- Make a well in the middle of the pancake mix and add the mixed wet ingredients. Stir until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy, and soft peaks appear.
- Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a spatula.
- Preheat grilling surface to medium/high heat and lightly grease with Earth Balance or Oil.
- Pour the batter onto the hot grilling surface, using ⅓ cup or ½ cup batter per pancake/crepe.
- Cook until bubbles appear throughout the pancake/crepe and flip with a large spatula when edges start to set up.
- Cook until golden.
Rest of Recipe
- Once the pancakes/crepes have cooled slightly, spread a thin layer of Sunbutter on top of each, followed by a thin layer of the Chia Seed Jam.
- FIll each of your tacos with blackberries, raspberries, diced bananas and shredded coconut (or any of your favourite fruit toppings).
- Fold into a taco shape and enjoy!
Notes
- You can store the chia seed jam inan airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
That’s it folks – a few fun fruit-filled food activities that are bound to be a hit in your house!
Sometimes it’s as simple as thinking outside the box that will encourage your kids to try something new, especially if it looks like something they usually enjoy eating. You can trick them into thinking it’s something else.
What’s your favourite way of sneaking new fruits into your kids’ routine? Share in the comments below!