Eat the rainbow, starting with RED

Getting our kids to eat enough calories during the day, certainly takes a front seat to getting them to eat a variety of different foods.   But variety can be fun for kids!  Colorful fruits and veggies are meant to look appealing to humans and animals. 

Have you heard of EATING THE RAINBOW? Get kids involved by letting them color a rainbow (link to a printable rainbow page).  Then fill in all the foods they can think of that are in each color group.  Each day this week we’ll eat a different color.

TODAY, let’s start with RED:  Strawberries, watermelon, tomatoes, pink grapefruit, guava, raspberries, red apples, red grapes, cherries. Red foods are high in the powerful anti-oxidant, lycopene.  Studies have shown, men with higher levels of lycopene in their fatty tissue, were less likely to have heart disease than men with low levels of lycopene.

Although my kids will eat an entire pint of strawberries without any coercing, apparently they think I like to make their life more complicated than that.  I am ALWAYS in the mood for oatmeal.  So in an effort to have a “strawberries and cream” taste:

• I blended in the blender 6 strawberries and 1 cup of milk and 1 tsp of sugar.
• I used the milk/ strawberry liquid to cook 1 cup of dry instant oatmeal on the stove.
• I added a few slices of strawberries for garnish.

The beauty of this dish wasn’t enough to entice my kids to try it, until I took out a baby spoon left at our house over the weekend.  I called it the “tasting spoon”.  Then I had some eager testers.  They liked it. I LOVED it.  Then they ate cereal.  whatever.

Here are some ideas for different red foods.

• Watermelon slushy
• Strawberry fruit kabob
• Cher-Apple Smoothie
• Making your own Tomato sauce
• Tomato idea: Our favorite Chip dip

What will you give your kids today that is red?  Jolly Ranchers don’t count!