Do you eat your fruit and veggies? Do your kids?
We love fruits and veggies at our house. Awhile back I wrote about Community Support Agriculture (CSAs) and how our membership in one keeps us eating our fruit and veggies in my post titled, Fresh Veggies on a Budget.
We have made fruit and veggies a centric part of our kids diets from the beginning of their solid food eating days. As a result, we don’t have to hide fruits and veggies in food but include them in our regular meals. They are gobbled up as a result. We try to include a vegetable with dinner. My middle child loves peas and broccoli and corn and well just about any vegetable you give her. She isn’t even two and I often give her seconds of the vegetable! My oldest has her moods about what she wants to eat any way so we work with her on getting her to take a few bites of whatever we have.
As for fruits, my kids love fruits (as do I!) We generally have fruit in a big bowl on the dining room table. The kids can now crawl up on the benches and get fruit out at their choosing. Yes, at 3 and almost 2 they actually do this when they want a snack. Last night, my daughter wanted an apple and there were none in the house. Sadly for the first time in what seems like forever the fruit bowl was empty. She was going nuts for an apple. Thankfully, my husband dug a bag of freeze dried apples out of the pantry for her and that made her happy. I think she is going to be in pure heaven tomorrow when her preschool class goes apple picking. I foresee an apple tummy ache in her future! LOL
So my tips on keeping your family eating healthy, included those little ones:
Don’t make fruit and vegetables any different than any other food.
Offer fruit and vegetables often.
Go outside the box and try different fruit and vegetables.
My budget saving tip:
Fresh fruit makes an awesome dessert. Yes, dessert. Cut it up and serve it plain Jane. Spruce it up into a cobbler or something else. Find the best in season fruit and add a dessert to your dinner tonight!
Oh I loved this post about as much as I love fruit!! I have been offering fruit to my kids since they were babies…now at 8,7,4 and 2 — they eat it a lot!! All you have to do if offer the kinds of foods you want them to eat when they are young!!