Fruit & Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 celery stalks (the ‘logs’)
• Spreadable filling of your choice – nut butter, cream cheese, etc.
• Raisins (the ‘ants’)

Directions:

• Give your child a vegetable scrubber and bowl of water to wash the celery. Pat it dry with a towel.
• Trim the celery to a child-friendly size (let your child choose the size and cut the celery using a child-safe knife).
• Have your child spread the filling into the centre groove of the celery stalks using a child-safe butter knife.
• Last, have your child put the ants on the log by pressing the raisins in a line along the top of the filling.

Variations:

• Use different varieties of dried fruit or pieces of cereal as the ‘ants’.
• Drizzle with honey for an extra sweet version.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 ripe avocados
• 1 tomato (any variety)
• 1/2 small red onion
• Fresh coriander
• Dried chilli flakes
• 1 lime

Directions:

• Peel the avocado and mash (encourage your child to mash the avocado with their hands or a masher).
• Give your child a vegetable scrubber and bowl of water to wash the tomato.
• Finely chop the tomato and onion and add to the smashed avocado.
• Have your child wash the coriander under running water, pat dry with a towel, then cut with child-safe scissors and add to the mixture.
• Sprinkle the mixture with your desired amount of chilli flakes.
• Cut the lime in half, then let your child squeeze it over the ingredients and mix everything together.

Ingredients:

• 210g whole wheat flour or half whole wheat flour and half white flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 400ml milk
• 3 eggs

Mix and match from the vegetables below (up to 3 cups of grated vegetables):

• Beetroot
• Carrot
• Courgette
• Spinach
• Sweet potato

Directions:

• Have your child measure and mix the dry ingredients.*
• Help your child measure the milk and add to the dry ingredients.
• Show your child how to crack the eggs (and let them have a go!) then mix with a fork before adding to the dry ingredients.
• Let your child choose, wash, and grate the vegetable(s), then add to the pancake mixture. (Keep some of the chosen vegetable(s) un-grated to cook separately and serve on the side.)*
• Help your child prepare (peel, slice, chop, etc.) the side vegetables. Cook the side vegetables as desired (or serve raw).
• Heat and lightly grease a frying pan. Spoon the pancake mixture into the hot frying pan to make the desired size pancakes and let cook 2 to 4 minutes (until the bubbles rise to the surface). Flip and cook a further 2 to 4 minutes before serving with a side of veg.

*If your vegetables are watery, squeeze out the excess liquid before adding the vegetables to the mixture, and add extra flour or use slightly less milk to compensate for the additional vegetable liquid.

Variations:

• Used less flour and more vegetables for a crunchy pancake.
• Use fruit instead of vegetables for a sweeter version of this pancake.

Ingredients:

• Paper and crayons
• Skewers

Include as many of the fruits below as you would like:

• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Tangerine or satsuma
• Banana
• Pineapple
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Green grapes
• Blueberries
• Red and/or purple grapes

Directions:

• With your child, colour a rainbow on a piece of paper and set aside.
• Give your child a colander in which to wash the berries and grapes.
• Show your child how to peel the satsuma and banana with their fingers and pull apart the satsuma segments. Give your child a child-safe peeler with which to peel the kiwi.
• Let you child use a child-safe knife to cut the fruit to a safe size for eating.
• Set a skewer next to the rainbow picture and place pieces of fruit on the skewer to match the order of colours in the rainbow you and your child drew.

Variations:

• Make a rainbow skewer using vegetables.