Green Grown Meals

💙Ways to Get Your Kids Eating Blueberries💙
Happy Friday! Blueberries are a nutrition power house for kids. They are packed with fiber, antioxidants, Vitamin C, K and manganese. Because of their amazing antioxidant abilities, they can help the body fight against cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol and improve brain functioning.
Here are some ways to get your kids eating blueberries whether they already love them or are learning to like them:
💙play with your food and make something fun like this adorable blueberry cat (📷)
💙try out my BLUE blueberry muffins (see post from last week)
💙add them to a smoothie for a beautiful blue/purple color (check out Blueberry Spinach Smoothie)
💙eat them plain (the best this time of year!)
💙use them for a counting game (playing with food is a great way to expose kids to a new food)
💙add them to a sheet pan pancake
💙make blueberry fruitshi (see post from a few weeks ago)
💙use them to make fruit skewers
💙freeze them for a refreshing snack (caution with children under 3)
What’s your favorite way to serve blueberries to kids?

🤩❤️Beans, beans🤩❤️
Yup! These yummy muffins are made with beans. I’m so excited to be part of the challenge with ways to get kids enjoying beans like these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Black Bean Mini Muffins and Sesame Free Hummus.
Today, pediatrician & mom is offering up more of her very practical and reassuring advice. She’s talking about the many health benefits of beans.
Below are a few recipes to get your kids eating beans. And, no, I don’t believe in hiding beans. I like to incorporate them and have my kids see what is going into the recipes.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Black Bean Mini Muffins
(Free from dairy, egg, peanut, tree nut & sesame)
Makes 16-17 mini muffins
Canola oil spray
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1/2 very ripe banana
3 pitted dates
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/3 c honey
1/4 c cocoa powder
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c + 1 tbsp unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 c dairy free mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350. Line mini muffin pan with liners and spray with canola oil. Drain beans in colander and rinse several times. Pat dry with paper towel. Add beans and all ingredients except chocolate chips to nutribullet or high powered blender making sure to add coconut milk last. Blend until smooth. Fold in mini chocolate chips. Portion into muffin tins. Add a few chips on top if desired. Bake about 12-14 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack. (Note: these muffins are denser than other muffins)
Sesame Free Hummus
1 c garbanzo beans, drained
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Pepper
Process all ingredients in food processor until smooth.
For more fun with beans check out these accounts:
- a pediatrician focused on lifestyle medicine & plant-based nutrition.
- a fantastic feeding therapist⁣
- a nyc RD⁣ & toddler mom who shares recipes for the whole fam
⁣.food.exposure.dietitian - an RD focused on helping introduce new foods.

💦Hydrating Fruit Pops💦

It definitely started to feel like summer here in NY. With less options for swimming this summer, what better way to cool off than an ice pop?
We love making ones like these that are made with coconut water which has many MORE replenishing ELECTROLYTES than sports drinks. These from 📷 are so easy to make. Grab the recipe here:

https://www.superhealthykids.com/recipes/whole-fruit-popsicles/
My kids and I often make them in ice cube trays too. Use any kind of fruit (my kids also like to add veggies). You can then drop them in a cold glass of water or water bottle for a refreshing splash of flavor.
For regular physical activity for kids, water also works perfectly for hydration. Electrolytes are great for hydration but not necessary except when kids are really dehydrated (and/or sick), temperatures are excessive or they are doing prolonged high intensity exercise.

🧺National Picnic Day🧺

I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted from making lunch & cleaning up the mess after. I was so happy to learn from my friend Malina .mom.healthy.kids that today is National Picnic Day.
Kids can help make lunch (a lunchbox or bento box works perfectly for a picnic) and there is no mess in the house! Let kids of all ages help — even toddlers can be given a job like putting crackers into a container. There are so many benefits both in how they eat and learning responsibility in letting kids help with meal prep.
Here are some ideas for packing a healthy kid’s lunch with a few suggestions in each group. Pack one (or many) from each category:
🥒Vegetables
Pepper strips
Baby carrots
Broccoli florets
Cherry tomatoes
🍉Fruits
Grapes/grape halves
Cherries
Watermelon cubes
dried fruit
🥚Protein
Cheese cubes
Turkey slices or roll-ups
Hard-boiled or deviled eggs (check out the yummy recipe )
🥨Something crunchy
or
rice cakes
tortilla chips
Pretzels
🥑Dips (mini sizes of these work really well like those from )
Hummus
Guacamole
Tzatiki
🍡Something refreshing
Frozen bananas
Frozen grapes
Frozen fruit pops like which won’t melt too quickly
yogurt tubes (put in the freezer for a few hours)
Let your kids eat what they want. Packing a variety of healthy choices gives them lots of options. It’s ok if your child makes a meal out of cucumbers and blueberries - kids do that sometimes. Your job as the parent is to give the options, but kids pick which of the foods they will eat. Letting them choose helps with raising a healthy eater.

🍓🥝FRUIT PIZZA🍓🥝
A fun twist on my favorite food and one of many things we’ll be making in my summer Zoom kids cooking classes. It’s also an easy food association for kids - meaning if your kids like cheese pizza, calling this fruit pizza helps them associate it with a food they already like and more open to trying it.
Fruit pizza is such a delicious, 🌈colorful dessert for kids and I love that it packs in so much fruit in a fun way (📷).
Message me for more details about classes. (We’ll have lots of ways to alter recipes for ).
🌈

🙋🏻‍♀️Double tap if you have ever said this 🙋🏼‍♀️
This saying has drastically changed eating in my family. Kids are naturally skeptical of new foods. When one child says “EW” or I don’t like that, it can prevent a sibling from even trying it.
So, the rule in my house is that you don’t have to eat something you don’t like. But, you can’t ruin that food for someone else (a sibling or a grown-up!). It’s actually sort of empowered my kids. They enjoy when they like a food and one of their siblings doesn’t. It’s also made them much more likely to eat something because someone else can’t say it’s gross.
It works even if your child doesn’t have siblings or siblings that are old enough to talk. You can tell your child that it ruins that food for you (mommy or daddy). You’ll be amazed how much more likely your child is to try something if they can’t YUCK the food (even if not on the first time). Try it out and let me know how it goes.

🧑🏽‍🍳KIDS COOKING CLASS🧑‍🍳
Join me making CHOCOLATE DIPPED FRUIT POPS live on Instagram Wednesday 6/10 at 3:30EST.
Ingredients/tools:
-1 ripe banana (store in refrigerator before class)
-1 wedge watermelon (store in refrigerator)
-1 Granny Smith (or other firm Apple stored in refrigerator)
-1 1/2 c chocolate chips
-2 tbsp coconut oil
-popsicle sticks
-sheet pan, cutting board, parchment paper, kids knife, bowls, spoon, spatula (find links for my favorite cooking tools on my website www.citrition.com/cooking-tools)
-sprinkles
-optional toppings: mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, shredded coconut, chia seeds
Don’t worry if you don’t have everything. You can make all the types of fruit pops or only one. For the toppings, you only need 1, but can use as many as you like.
This activity is good for kids ages 4+ with adult supervision.
Message me for options/substitutions for

🖤🖤 This week has been filled with so many emotions for me.💚💚
Watching the outpouring of love and support, the need to stand up for what we believe and to make sure all are treated equally has been overwhelming. Alongside that, hearing personal stories about racism, discrimination and hatred is devastating.
I have spent a lot of time this week trying to learn from others about how best to talk to my kids. My kids range from 4-11 and I want to teach them in age appropriate ways how to be good, just, accepting people. I want to help raise a better generation. I will continue to listen and learn. While I may know a lot about feeding kids, I am continuously learning how to raise individuals of whom I feel proud.
This platter (📷) about sums it up for me - 🌈of fruits + veggies + love = happy, healthy children.

🖤🖤🖤 . Modeling behavior whether about what you eat, what you say about your body or what you say about others goes a long way. Our kids are watching and listening. We can each make a difference