How To Up Your Toddlers Daily Fruit & Veg

It’s the eternal struggle of parenthood; how to get your kids to eat enough fruits and vegetables. 

Willow hasn’t been a particularly picky eater. As an infant, she would devour whole avocados, eat cucumber sticks and happily gobble down broccoli. But as she’s gotten older, and is learning to think for herself, she sometimes refuses point blank to eat what we put down in front of her. 

Meal times have become a complicated dance of bargaining and trying to convince her how yummy her food is by eating some myself, which usually backfires as she starts to feed me instead.

She is hard to convince sometimes, so there have been many days she misses out on some aspect of her meal. 

I know lots of kids, especially toddlers, can go through this phase and thought I’d share two fruit smoothie recipes I like to use to sneak more fruit and veggies into Willow on days when her eating is erratic. 

These recipes make roughly one glass, and can easily be split into two servings for little ones. They are such a great snack or drink to accompany breakfast. It’s also a nice way to include toddlers in the kitchen as it’s easy to measure out ingredients and let them tip fruit into the blender. Willow absolutely loves doing this and takes her smoothie making duties very seriously.

pineapple strawberry slushy smoothie recipe
Each smoothie packs an impressive amount of greens & fruit

Pineapple Strawberry Slushy Smoothie

1 cup water

1 cup spinach/kale

1 cup frozen pineapple

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

green pineapple mango smoothie recipe
Our go-to green smoothie receipe is smooth, sweet & delicious

Green Pineapple Mango Smoothie

1 cup water

1 cup spinach/kale

1 cup fresh (or thawed) pineapple

1/2 cup frozen mango

1 tbsp ground flaxseeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

  1. Blend water and greens first until you have a green juice and there are no large chunks of spinach/kale left. 
  2. Add in your fruit, ground flaxseeds, and chia seeds.
  3. Blend and enjoy! 

These recipes are two of our quick and easy go to smoothies, but the fruit combinations are endless. We’ve had days of greens, strawberry and blueberry smoothies, greens, mango, banana and strawberry smoothies…

Whatever you decide to add into your smoothies, I recommend keeping the frozen fruit to 1.5 cups. Any more and it’ll be too thick to blend. However if you’re using some fresh fruit or thawed frozen fruit, then you can play about with the ratios of water to fruit to see how you like it. 

Blending greens with fruits make a delicious smoothie any picky eating toddler will love.
Willow has always enjoyed her regular smoothies, here pictured devouring one at 18 months old

As you can see I’ve used frozen pineapple for one recipe, and fresh for the other. Using frozen pineapple or fresh (or thawed) pineapple will change the texture of the smoothie. If you want a more frozen “slushy” texture, then keep it frozen. Want something a little thinner and more like a thick juice? Then opt for fresh pineapple, or simply pop a bowl of your frozen pineapple in the microwave to thaw it out before adding.

Pineapple is a great fruit to use as it’s so sweet and can make the smoothie taste more like a treat than a healthy glass of spinach for those skeptical toddlers. It also creates a nice thick foundation to add more fruit to, and I like to use it as my main fruit in smoothies.

Whether you have a picky eater, or simply want to up your kids fruit and veg intake, a smoothie is easy to make, affordable, nutritious and delicious!
I often make a double batch so we can all enjoy smoothies together!

I either use spinach or kale (or both!) to give a good serving of greens alongside the fruit. A great tip for keeping greens from wilting, is to pop your fresh clean greens in the freezer! This seriously improved my smoothie game as I was never having to rush to make smoothies before our produce went off, and I always have fresh greens on hand for when those smoothie cravings hit! 

Buying large bags of frozen fruit from Costco is extremely cost effective and last quite a while if you buy a few different fruits and like to mix up your smoothie flavours as we do.

I also use flax and chia seeds in every smoothie our family drinks. If you’re unfamiliar, flax and chia seeds are nothing short of a magical superfood. 

Both are loaded with nutrients and antioxidants, a great source of omega-3 fats, full of fibre, protein, and lower the risk of stroke, heart disease, cancers, and all sorts! They don’t taste of anything, and can be added to just about everything! They’re an effective way of incorporating a nutritional boost for your little ones without any effort. 

Whether you have a picky eater, or simply want to up your kids fruit and veg intake, these two smoothie recipes are easy to make, affordable, nutritious and delicious! Comment below and let me know what your favourite fruit smoothie combinations are! 

Roseanne is the blogger behind the honest and inspirational personal blog Roseanne Writes. Native to Scotland and now calling Canada home, Rosanne helps mothers navigate motherhood while remaining true to themselves. You learn more about Roseanne and follow her personal blog here.

Summer Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

When summer rolls around and berries are finally in season, this Summer Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe is my go to dessert.

Raise your hand if you have a specific food that when you smell it, it immediately brings you back to your childhood days.

Smells trigger memories for me…turkey on Thanksgiving, pasta sauce simmering, but my most favourite is the smell of strawberry rhubarb crisp  It screams summer to me. So light, so fresh, and oh so delicious. It takes me back to my carefree (before having kids)…summer days.

But wait …it’s healthy too!!  My love language is definitely food, eating it yes, but more than that, preparing it for my family.

So when summer rolls around and berries are finally in season, this Summer Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe is my go to dessert.  I even requested my mom plant rhubarb in her garden this past summer and it grew like crazy!!

Lets bake.

Summer Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Filling:

6 stalks of rhubarb, cut into ½ thick pieces

2 cups of strawberries, hulled and sliced

¼ cup of sugar (optional, I actually cut out the sugar because the sweetness of the strawberries is enough)

Topping:

1 cup of all purpose flour

½ cup of rolled oats

⅓ cup of sugar (again optional, i deleted the sugar here too)

⅓ cup of firmly packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of butter, melted

Instructions:

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and use a 9 x13 baking dish (if the baking dish is smaller that’s ok, it will be a thicker slice of heaven)

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together using a fork.  Then slowly add in the melted butter creating a crumb like mixture.

Spread the crumb mixture over the berries

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until you see the berries bubbling.  Bake it a bit longer if you like the crisp even crispier.

Best served warm with vanilla bean ice cream

Another yummy way to enjoy this is with vanilla Greek yogurt.  My kids have been eating it cold for breakfast with yogurt all summer long

A delicious fresh strawberry crisp is the perfect summer dessert.

Enjoy!!!

Tip ** buy the rhubarb in bulk and freeze it in batches of 6 stalks, that way it’s ready to go for this recipe

Lori is a thirty something year old mom of four, living in the little town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Her passions include her family, fashion, and food. She loves preparing simple and delicious recipes that both kids and adults will enjoy.

Chocolate Walnut Energy Bites

Chocolate walnut energy bites - Amidst the ChaosSpecial guest post by Christine Martin from Amidst the Chaos

If there’s one thing that my family enjoys, it’s snacking! I can’t seem to keep the cupboards stocked full enough with snacks for my growing children. They come home from school ravenous and could graze at the table for an hour plus, if I let them.

I try to be really cautious of what kind of snacks I buy them, as I want them to be eating as healthy as possible. So fruits and veggies are always readily available in our home, but let’s face it, kids grow tired of eating their greens and every now and then, I like to give them a yummy (but still healthy) treat!

These chocolate walnut energy bites are the perfect after school snack! Packed with all kinds of yummy, just two of these bites will help perk a kid up and keep them going until dinner time. And did I mention, these are totally clean! So you can give your kid this snack and have no guilt about feeding them anything refined or unhealthy.

Very similar to a Lara bar, there are only FOUR ingredients in these: cocoa, walnuts, unsweetened coconut and pitted dates. Note, please make sure you get packed and pitted dates.Chocolate walnut energy bites ingredients - Amidst the Chaos
Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
3/4 cup dates (packed & pitted)
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut (finely shredded)
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Add all four ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until crumbly.
2. Take about a tablespoon size and roll into a ball, in between the palms of your hands.
3. Let set in refrigerator for about 30 minutes before eating.

This recipe will make roughly 25 balls and should be stored in the refrigerator.Chocolate walnut energy bites 2 - Amidst the ChaosThese Chocolate Walnut Energy Bites are so yummy and healthy, I guarantee that they don’t even last a week in your home!

Enjoy!

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You can find Christine’s blog, Amidst the Chaos here. You can also find Christine on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and You Tube!