Rainbow of a Snack

The month of March is a busy one for recognizing the importance of health.  It holds such holidays as National Health Month, National Dental Month, World Kidney Day, Brain Awareness Week, and the list keeps going.  This makes March a great month to raise awareness of these issues and the benefits of eating healthy.

After school is a perfect time to encourage kids to eat healthy.  Instead of turning on the TV and plopping down with a bag of chips, let kids build fruit sculptures.  Ask kids to gather fruits or vegetables to represent the different colors of the rainbow.  Help the kids clean and prepare them then put each kind of fruit in a separate bowl.  Place silpats or plates, toothpicks, and a ball of Dduk dough (colored with beet juice) on each mat.  Now, ask the kids to use the Dduk, toothpicks, fruits and vegetables to build a sculpture.  Who  can build the most colorful sculpture? The tallest? The strongest? The possibilities are endless. Want to double their fun?  Join them!  Nothing is more exciting than seeing the creations, or mistakes, that parents make while playing with the kids. My angels shaped the dough (which they ate before I ever microwaved it) and used fruits to decorate their edible sculptures, eating as many fruits while working as they used in the sculpture itself!  But, the fun didn't end here.... everyone saved their sculptures to eat at breakfast.  You got it!  Afternoon fun for the kids and, with a little dry cereal on the side, tomorrow's breakfast is in the bag!

So, while kids dream of rainbows and search for green leprechauns, encourage them to eat healthy. Roll out some dough and pile on a rainbow of fun to help your angels recognize the importance of eating good, staying healthy, while having fun. Maintaining a balanced diet that includes all the colors of a rainbow helps kids find the true pot of gold - good health!