Eating the ‘rainbow’ when it comes to fruit and vegetables is one of the fundamental principles of nutrition, and one of the easiest ways to incorporate wholefoods into the diet of growing toddlers – which is crucial for their development! The first two years of a child’s life are so important in setting up their taste preferences for life and kick starting their nutritional journey.
Offering your child a variety of colourful foods and textures will help pique your child’s interest in different foods and flavours, and encourage them to become more adventurous eaters. Serving a variety of textures will stimulate them intellectually through tactile learning, while also encouraging mouth, jaw and tongue muscle development – assisting with speech development.
Remember – the number one rule is to get creative and be adventurous!
Getting your children involved in the ingredient selection and meal preparation process can really pay off. My children love helping to shop and select different ingredients, and now even prepare simple family meals such as pancakes, salads, and baking (they love baking)!
Here is a fun and colourful idea you can try at home using only a few rainbow ingredients. I prep the ingredients ahead of time, and then get the kids to help create their own variations. This is a great way to get the little ones involved in the kitchen, and in turn, enjoy eating a healthy snack!
Stay tuned for more great tips and tricks as part of my role as a Nature One Dairy Australia –‘Your partner in Parenthood’ Expert Partner
Rainbow Skewers
- 1 x 250g punnet strawberries, hulled, chopped
- 1 x 250g punnet cherry tomatoes
- 1 x 200g punnet blueberries
- 1 x 200g baby bocconcini, drained
- 1 cucumber, chopped to suit age of child’s chewing ability
- 100g snow peas, chopped to suit age of child’s chewing ability
- Toothpicks and skewers
- Fresh herbs (optional)
- Place all ingredients on a large platter, chopped or sliced to suit your child’s age and chewing ability.
- Place ingredients one by one onto a skewer until it is almost full. Set aside the skewer and repeat with the remaining ingredients of choice.
Tips:
Try adding a variety of colourful and seasonal fruits and vegetables; softer bananas and avocados are great for smaller children.
Try adding a little melted and drizzled chocolate for an extra special treat!
About the author
A beautiful visual content creator, Amie is also an Author of two children’s recipe books, Baby Pip Eats & Little Pip Eats, and also holds a B.Sc. in Food Science and Nutrition. Amie has over 15 years of experience as a food technologist for some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies and has also worked as a freelance food stylist and recipe writer for magazines, including the Australian Women’s Weekly, Gourmet Traveller and Good Taste
A career highlight for Amie was having the ability to use her varied talents internationally, working as a Food consultant in the USA with food retailers; WholeFoods, Trader Joes and Giant Eagle. On large scale labelling system implementation in accordance with the FDA and USDA regulation nutrition updates for 2020.
More recently, Amie has been involved in managing multiple small and large corporate food projects with more of an ethical purpose, including; Patagonia Provisions range, Cobram Estate, and a small Indigenous food based social enterprise start up.
Amie continues to use her Instagram feed as a means to inspire families to plate up healthy, economical and simple seasonal fare that everyone can enjoy.
