Eat Your Rainbows

I am far from being a wildly creative mom, the sort who gets down on her hands and knees and participates in fantastic, inventive projects with her two year olds. But every once in a while I have a flash of brilliant inspiration, which then becomes part of our day to day life.

This was one of those ideas- a way to help kids get their five a day. Make a rainbow on their plate with different colored fruit or vegetables. For example, at lunch the other day my kids were served strips of red pepper, long sticks of orange carrots, strips of yellow peppers, cooked asparagus, and thin strips of beets. Ranch sauce served as clouds for dipping, and goldfish swam below. They didn’t really eat a lot of the beets (and I realize there wasn’t any blue), but they were very excited about the idea and helped to arrange the veggies on their plates. This idea works great with fruit as well. Just about anything white can serve as clouds- the swimming fish are extra!

Red: tomatoes, red peppers, strawberries, plums

Orange: carrots, oranges, squash, peaches

Yellow: banana, yellow squash, yellow pepper, pineapple

Green: Green pepper, broccoli, green beans, avocado, asparagus

Blue: blueberries, blackberries, blueberry or blackberry yogurt

Purple: beets, boysenberries

White: sour cream, ranch dip, cottage cheese

Any other colorful ideas?