Making Fruit Fun For Kids | Life Love and Hiccups: Making Fruit Fun For Kids
Life Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and HiccupsLife Love and Hiccups

Thursday 13 February 2014

Making Fruit Fun For Kids

Pin It

This post is brought to you by Coles

Fortunately for me my squids are fruit pigs. And by pigs I mean they literally cannot get enough of the stuff and the evidence to this is the frequent sightings of me in my local Coles stocking up on their faves and shouting at them to "Stop pinching the flipping fruit before we pay for it". They don't get that you can't just help yourself to the grapes and cherries that are on display ... sorry Mr Coles... I probably shouldn't admit that in public should I? :)

Anyways, it wasn't always a love story between all 3 of my boys and fruit. My youngest was a picky little bugger and was a complete nightmare when it came to introducing new fruits. He was stuck on the basic apples, oranges and bananas. To get around this we were forever having to turn his plate into some kind of artistic master piece to convince him to chow down on something new.

We also resorted to naming fruit after his favourite superheroes and cartoon characters and so Batman Bananas, Astro Boy Power Pops (blueberries)  and Yoshi's Mega bombs (apples) were frequently on the menu as a way of getting his daily fruit requirements into him.

Did you know that kids age 4-11 should have 1-2 serves of fruit per day, and our teens and preteens age 12-18 need 3- 4 serves?

These days (thanks heavens) I no longer need to come up wacky superhero fruit names each day, but my younger two still like me to get a little creative with the way I present their fruit to them and I like to embarrass the older one by putting them in his lunch at school... cause I am totally evil like that.

Here's a few of the ways my boys love me to dress up their daily fruit. Oh and trust me, each of these only take a few minutes to put together... really, I kid you not.

The apple cups are actually a lot easier than they look and I promise you will earn yourself some major brownie points with the kids when you serve these up. Simply cut an apple in half, scoop out the core and centre with a melon scoop and then fill with chopped up berries, grapes and pomegranate. You can add a little dollop of  frozen yoghurt if you want to go the whole hog.


There is nothing difficult about these little babies and they are the perfect treat for little hands. Just thread banana slices and strawberries onto a skewer and surround them with grapes, blueberries and any other berries you can get your hands on. We call them islands because they kind of - sort of look like little islands floating in a sea of berries... I said kind of OK.

Melon balls, strawberries and grapes spiked onto some straws and paddle pop sticks. Quick and easy lemon squeezy... or something like that.






Truth be told I had never made these watermelon slices before today. I had seen a number of versions on Pinterest and I've been busting to try. Just use a love heart cookie cutter to cut out the heart shape in the watermelon and fill it with another heart shape you have cut out from your rock melon or honey dew and you are good to go with these quick and easy lovey dovey melon slices.

Perfect for a Valentine's Day treats and bonus points for the the fact that these make for a totally cringe worthy addition to my boy's lunchboxes. For the win people FOR THE WIN!

These Pineapple treats are absolutely divine when frozen and are the perfect alternative to your usual icy pops. A Pineapple ring with a melon ball dropped into the centre and some blueberries for eyes. Pop them in the freezer for an hour or two and watch the kids devour them.





I know that the warmer months are usually all about the gorgeous summer fruits, but as far as I'm concerned you can't go past tomatoes and cheese on toast for a quick after school snack or cheats night dinner. The trick is to use both tasty cheese on the bottom and Parmesan cheese grated on top to make it taste like a toasty pizza treat and they will scoff the lot and come begging for more.

There's no denying that fruit is such a quick and easy after school treat and dessert and a fabulous way of getting the essential vitamins natural fibre into your kids all year long. To ensure that you get the best quality, best nutrients and the best price, make sure you choose produce that is in season and even better - on special.

As a parent of fruit pigs I am very happy to hear that Coles are dedicated to helping us Mums and Dads by making their fresh produce more affordable. Big tick Coles!

Did you also know that around 96% of Coles fresh fruit and veggies are grown in Australia? Yep, they have an 'Australia first' sourcing policy which means they will only ever import fresh produce if it's not in season or available locally. Another big tick Coles!

If you would like to find out more about their sourcing policy you can view their sourcing chart online here.

There are literally gazillions of fruit and veggie combos that you can come up with to make fruit fun for the kids, but if you need a little inspiration check out the video below or visit the Coles blog here for loads more ideas.



SO let's have a little fun shall we? Get creating and share your fresh fruit faces images for a chance to win a $25 Coles fresh Produce Gift Card. 
Tag your pics with #fruitfaces and share them on Twitter, instagram or on the Coles Facebook page

Are you guys fruit eaters in your household?