Thoughts on Encouraging a Colorful Diet

Like most kids, my children would live on carbs and cheese.  Cereal and milk for breakfast, grilled cheese for lunch and cheese pizza for dinner.  Occasionally they throw in a quesadilla or some mac and cheese to mix it up.

Nothing ruins family dinner faster than a knock down drag out fight with your kiddos over vegetables or whatever food being currently refused.  Between my husband and I working alternating shifts and our kids’ activities we only manage to sit down all together two or three times a week, so I really wanted family dinner to be a semi-peaceful and enjoyable experience for everyone.

This is a chart I used with my twins when they were preschool aged to encourage them to try foods that were different colors.  At that age, rather than talking about food groups, I found it was more helpful to talk about foods by colors.  They got excited to fill up their rainbows and were more willing to try new foods.  We’d talk about how cool it was that peppers came in four different colors or that carrots could be purple and orange.

You can download this chart for free to use in your classroom or home! Click here and print as many as you need! I’ve also included a coloring sheet to use so that you can brainstorm with your kids/students some of the different rainbow colors that foods represent.

I also became a huge fan disguising vegetables.  There is some debate in the pediatric nutrition world about whether you should do this because then kids may be less willing to just eat vegetables straight.  I say: pick your battles. 

This is our favorite smoothie recipe. My kids still drink it daily. We call it the rainbow smoothie in our house and they still like the fact that it includes all the colors of the rainbow.

This is our go-to recipe:

• 2 bananas

• 1 cup strawberries

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1 cup orange juice

• 1 large avocado

• 2 cups greens (I use spinach, I used to use kale but they caught on!)

• 1 cup coconut milk

• 2 tablespoons chia seed (optional)

• 40 drops probiotic (These are my favorite type)

I fill the rest of the blender up with water and blend.  These are the best cups I’ve found.  You can use regular cups of course but after I cleaned up a few sticky smoothie messes I went back to these!  I cut the valves out so they’re easier to drink through. We don’t have to navigate any allergies in our home but if you do, this recipe is gluten and dairy free.

Now that the weather is getting warm again, my kids also love this smoothie frozen into popsicles. Same nutrition: different form!

I love our stainless steal molds because they hold up so much better than the plastic ones. For environmental and health reasons, if there is an easy plastic-free alternative I am all for it!

My kids still eat plenty of carbs and cheese.  Throwing in a smoothie to wash down the pasta eases my mom guilt! Here’s to meals and snacks that are as easy, healthy and battle-free as possible!