We are huge fans of Innocent Smoothies, I love them, the kids love them and even Daddy has been known to have the odd one or two. We heard that there was going to be an Innocent Fruit and Veg Fest at their very prestigious Fruit Towers and decided to head on down to London to find out what all the fun was about.
Princess and I were up really early, in fact about an hour earlier than we needed to be as 3 year olds get very excited about heading of for an adventure with Mummy on a train. There was no fear of being late for the 7.10am from Nottingham to London St Pancras, and I know all the businessmen were delighted that a small person was going to be joining them on there work commute.
Princess got stuck right into her Cbeebies Magazine right after her jam sandwich breakfast, and we did activities all the way to London. It was a real treat to get this time with her, without the 1 year old trying to get involved with proceedings.
Filled with lots of questions, like ‘Is London new Mummy?’ Princess was feeling really enthusiastic about her pending adventure. We jumped on the tube and headed to Ladbroke Grove where we were soon to arrive at Fruit Towers.
I must admit I never quite know how Princess is going to be at these events. Sometimes she can be shy and overwhelmed and other times she gets stuck right in. I needn’t have worried though, as this was one of those times when she just wanted to explore and play. Fruit Towers has what I can only describe as a great vibe. It’s relaxed, friendly and a great space to bring a load of kids together to have a lot of healthy fun.
There were people on hand to help with some vegetable printing. Painting is always such a big hit isn’t it? She also made faces with peppers, cucumbers, carrots and lots more fun colourful veg. Princess made alien faces, and this was a really popular table with all the kids.
It was lovely to watch her have so much fun, with something as simple as fruit and veg. Kids learn so much through play, and when it comes to food it’s not just about how it tastes, it’s about the texture, how it smells and the bright colours too. It was a lovely way of getting them to enjoy all the healthy things children need in their diet in a different way.
Now, the biggest hit of all wasn’t the painting, or the face making but in fact it was the coconut shy. The kids kept this activity busy all morning, and poor Kevin was forever picking up coconuts for these children just to knock them down again. Give children a target, and something to throw at it and it will keep them busy for hours.
Not only did we have a lot of fun at Innocent HQ, but we also got some great tips on how to encourage children to be healthy and eat more fruit and vegetables. I’m always thinking about what my children are eating, and whether they are getting their quota of 5 portions a day. I don’t think we manage it every single day, but the point is it’s something we are always conscious of trying to improve. Here’s some of the advice we’ll be trying out to help us hit the mark more often.
Tips To Encourage Children To Eat More Fruit And Vegetables
- Include some fruit or veg at every meal, and offer it at snack time too.
- Use ‘in season’ fruit and veg as these are often cheaper.
- Make sure your children see you eating fruit and veg too, this is something we aren’t great at to be honest. I’m not great with fruit, and Daddy isn’t a huge fan of vegetables either!
- Make fruit and vegetables fun by making them into faces on pizzas or making them into scenes.
- Get your kids involved in the weekly shop, if they pick a few things they are more likely to try them. You never know, you might end up trying something new too.
- Grow some fruit and veg of your own, kids get really excited about eating something they’ve helped grow themselves.
- Add loads of vegetables to things like pastas sauce, curry or stews. This will make them taste great.
There’s also Innocent’s new fruit and veg smoothies too, to get a quick healthy hit. There’s strawberries, apples and beetroot or zingy pineapples, apples and carrots to choose from, both utterly delicious in Princess’s book! Here’s some thoughts on the new fruit & veg smoothies for kids straight from Fruit Towers:
Things you might like to know about our new fruit & veg smoothies for kids
- They are a naturally delicious way to get a portion of fruit and veg into your little ones
- Each smoothie contains one of their 5-a-day
- With a wide variety of ingredients such as beetroot, carrots, apples and pumpkin, they’re a great way to enjoy lots of different fruits and veg
- Crammed full of 100% pure crushed fruit and veg
- We’re the only kids fruit & veg smoothies on the market and available from all good supermarkets
- Perfect for lunchboxes
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Give them plenty of choice so they will eat the ones they like,never force a child to eat something they don’t like,there are lots of alternatives.
I usually make both fruit and veg smoothies also can be cut up small and added to various dishes and they don’t notice them .
Make soups and smoothies. It’s a good way to get them to eat fruit and veg they wouldn’t normally eat. One of my son’s doesn’t like berries on their own but loves them in a smoothie. All of my children will eat just about any veg when it’s blended into soup!
Disguise vegetables in their food.
My children loved fruit but with some veg I have had to try all sorts of options to make it appealing. Letting them make their own veggie pizzas was a hit and crudites with dip! Getting kids involved with their cooking has been a big hit with most parents I know too.
xx
Hide vegetables in pasta sauses
Don’t make fuss about it. “Oh, look it’s a vegetable!” start them early and continue as a part of a healthy diet. If they don’t like the texture, mash, squash or cut in funny shapes. Let your children be involved in picking the fruit and veggies at a shop.
Don’t make a big deal about them. We don’t go, “Make sure you eat your chips” so I don’t go on about “Make sure you eat your veggies” – if you downplay them they don’t see them as anything different.
I hide and disguise it !
Cut the fruit or vegetables into fun shapes to make them look more appealing.
Make the fruit look like a funny face on the plate x
I chop it up in bitesize pieces with yoghurt or custard x
make it into a game by arranging into fun shapes
dont hide it make them fun, let them try
offer them at every meal, and make them fun
cut them into amusing shapes
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hide them in other foods x
I adore innocent smoothies, I didn’t know they made vegetable ones as well.
Smmothies are fantastic aswell as blending veggies in sauce!
getting the children to help prepare the fruit and vegetables
Offer it to them from a young age and cut it up into smaller pieces.
chop them into small sizes
My family love stir frys x
Get them involved in growing fruit and veg – I’ve managed to get my children to eat cabbage and sprouts by doing this!
Cut them into different shapes to make more appealing
Let them eat it with you!
Have been quite lucky with my two, always loved fruit & veg, we just make it part of the daily routine with a combination of 100% pure juices and whole fruit!
Chop into small pieces and serve as finger food from an early age
Never try to hide them in food! I hated that when I was little. When we give out fruit in my classroom, the children are more likely to have a try if I have some first and rave about how tasty it is.
Conceal them in dishes like pasta sauces
I try to get the girls in the kitchen with me cooking, we add veg and fruit to our baking and make up smoothies in the morning and just get creative?
In the case of my son disguise them, and then disguise them some more, if he even gets a hint of a lump the tongue comes out and thats it, plate of food ignored.. very frustrating.
I never have a problem with fruit, but with veg I sometimes hide it in other foods/make it into sauces or cover it with sauce.
My girls have luckily always liked fruit but had definite favourites o I have tried to ensure they were always in a fruit bowl or packed lunches. Veg is an integral part of all meals, either in salads, pasta bakes, smoothies or in a bowl covered in cream. I go for the seasonal which is usually also the cheapest
Keep offering them with different dips and in different meals eg. spag bol and they will get used to the taste and start enjoying them….. hopefully
make smoothies.
Lead by example, make it fun, and don’t force them to eat the types they don’t like as long as they are eating several others.
we just always have lots available so they can pick what they want
we used to have an allotment and my boys loved the whole process.
Have fun! I let my kids play with their food! They help me make it, they taste it, they are involved with it from beginning to plate! We have even started to grow our own carrots in our little garden, hopefully next year we’ll start on the peas! I just think the less pressure you put on kids, the more likely they are to try different things! xxx
Lead by example, eat together and kids will copy you!
Make eating them fun cut into shapes make faces out of them on plate and make juices
Arrange them into interesting patterns
My son is fussy and won’t eat fruit and veg unless I disguise in meals and smoothies
i eat them and tell the kids there really yummy so that makes them want to try them
find interesting ways to present them, make it colourful and full of shapes – get creative! 🙂
No veggies = no pudding!
Blitz them into a sauce
Just give them which they like, I hated most as a kid now I will eat most of them (within reason)
Chop them into very small pieces
Smoothies are a big hit in our house. I have a good one that blends really fine so it’s smooth and not chunky. I do us all a smoothie everyday – mainly fruit but you can also sneak in veg such as spinach, carrot and even kale and you don’t notice it in among the fruit.
I get my kiddies to help with dinner and then get them to try some raw food, then cooked. x
Blend them into a stew
if you can, try and grow them yourselves, and let the children pick them and help prep.
let them grow there own
We eat fruit and veg as part of our meals, and when I’m at home with the kids, we have morning “fruit time” where fruit is the only option
We have never made a big thing of eating fruit and veg, just encouraged the same as all food. We do tend to graze with fruit and veg and eat a lot raw.
We have our own vegetable patch just for the kids, they love eating the things they’ve grown themselves!
cut lots up and let my little one pick at them, i am lucky my little one loves fruit and veg
encourage them to try
Start them from as early an age as possible
Always have a fruit bowl full on the side and tell them they can eat as much as they like :0)
Smoothies and disguising them in pasta sauces
Call them by special names, we call brocolli trees
i think make food fun, and dont make too much of a big deal about it x
Start early, but remember we all have different tastes – so give them a choice.
Make eating fruit and veg fun by cutting them up to look attractive.
Have them help prepare the food
make mealtimes a game – you are a giant, do what giants can do. make them think of the veg as items that giants could eat – like broccoli=trees, carrot cars etc.
I tell my son that Spiderman (his fave) eats all his vegetables to make him big and strong and that normally does the trick!
we make fruit kebabs my son loves them x x
First of all I would say introduce a variety of fruit and veg, flavours, colours, texture at an early age (from when they are eating baby food). Food can be cut into really small chunks – e.g. small chunks of onion, carrot, mushrooms and peas mixed in a cottage pie so they are not even noticeable.
don’t make abig dealout of it. give them the ones they like, and don’t force the ther ones onto them.
Make sure they are always available, particularly the ones they like.
Make sure there’s some in mostly everything they eat, disguised or not!
Let your children be involved in the meals, let them chop and wash the vegetables and make up fun names for them. My children are always excited to try the things they have made so this works really well
we dont really have any problems with fruit or veg, all 5 of mine love both. we grow our own veg and find they enjoy it more knowing theyve grown it themselves
The only thing that has really ever worked for me is bribery lol But seriously, my daughter told us the other day that she wants to be a vegetarian because she doesn’t want to eat dead animals. I had to explain to her that vegetarianism involves eating vegetables all the time and she changed her mind.
Add to sauces
let them choose what they want to try
Sneak it into meals like lasagne even if it means purée ing it
cutting them into fun shapes
I try to get my daughter hands on. Picking out the veg, helping me cook etc x
Cut them into funny faces and shapes or put into a wrap
Take them to Pick Your Own farms and ask them what they like the look of and then prep and cook them together
The kids help me prepare salads and veg, and then they are excited about eating what they have prepared
Fabulous
Fabulous Smoothies