"I like veggies, corn is my favorite!"

So I spent a week at Science camp with my sixth grader and her classmates, it was awesome to learn, worship and play with those kids! Not so awesome at mealtime! I will never understand dehydrated eggs (gag) or Tang (puke) or a whole meal pulled out a deep fryer, so the salad bar became my best friend! Too bad the didn't serve salad for breakfast! Anyway, in discussing the food with the kids I find they don't really know the definition of a vegetable, or a fruit for that matter. Britannica Encyclopedia says that a vegetable is the fresh, edible portion of a herbaceous plant (roots, stems, flower, or fruit). So nothing off a tree, right? A root would be a potato or turnip, stem would be like asparagus, flower would be lettuces and artichoke, and fruit would be the squash family. The definition of fruit is kinda gross sounding, the ripened ovaries of a plant enclosing the seeds. Thus corn is a fruit, not a veggie! Surprising fruits, bean pods, acorn and almonds! Tomatoes are fruit! Seeds on the inside people! All this means is that you need to make sure the sweet fruits are not taking over the place on your plate reserved for veggies! 5 servings of fruit a day and 5 servings of veggies would be awesome! One way to help younger children with getting a variety is to take a blank peice of paper and draw the outline of a rainbow on it, remember ROY G BIV! Have them color in a square of each color everytime they eat one of the coordinating colored friuts or veggies (better yet, make one for veggies and one for fruit) and then they know they have had enough banana's this week and maybe red grapes would be a better choice for an after school snack. Or if tuesday is a day when the oranges were just right and they had two big jiucy ones, thursday would be a great day for pears! Watching that variety gets in there is important! We started buying 6 of 4 or 5 different friuts so that we would each get one a day instead of all apples or bananas (we still eat more of those than anything else! Also, go with the flow of the seasons, notice how God orchestrated it all and planned watermelon to be ripe in the summer when you need the extra water and oranges in the winter when you need the vit C. Spinach is also a great source of Vit D (great in the winter when there is less sun) and squash has so many different colors right now, you can do soooo many things! My kids beg for roasted butternut squash! Go colorfull with your plate and mix sweet, red and yellow potoatoes! So Fun! Don't think you are lying to them if you sneak it in. Children are born with more taste buds so some of the stronger more unique flavors may be plain less palatable, don't get mad, get sneaky. Pureed eggplant tastes great with out eating a sponge, my favorite way!Mix it in your tomato sauces and it makes it more "meaty" Deceptively delicious was an eye opener for me! I loved that she mixed spinach in her blueberries for oatmeal bars and you never knew! It's by Jessica Seinfeld and it's got great ideas! I felt like an idiot when I saw her put sloppy Joes in hot dog buns, so smart! And the recipe for sloppy joes is a family fav! Anyway, have fun with fruits and veggies and take some time to tell your kids the difference and learn an appreciation for all the colors of the rainbow!