Fruit "snacks" or in other words, a fruit bowl centerpiece

This picture is from Rocks in my Dryer...

She talked about how the kids actually eat fruit if it's used as a centerpiece. I absolutely agree. We order most of our food through Azure Standard cause we save so much money there. As part of that, I look through the produce and order whatever is cheapest. You can order small but since we order once a month I usually get 10 or 20 lbs of a fruit. Hey, where else can you get 20 lbs of snack food for $14?

When bananas go on sale you're talking 39 cents a lb. Packaged fruit snacks are $5/lb for comparison.

Some goes in my cold storage, some goes in the fridge, and some goes in the fruit bowl. We keep the fruit bowl full as we need and it always disappears quickly.

The great thing about it is that the kids know they can always have fruit and they don't ask me for snacks. This saves tons of money and sugar AND baking time! My kids do well with apples, pears, mangoes, and bananas. The other fruit that's high in salycylates we limit a little more.

Fried apples

mmmmmmmmmmm, I had to put this recipe here for this cold day.

Fried Apples

We're eating these right now for dessert just plain but they'd also be good with milk or approved ice cream on top...maybe that caramel sauce that's posted below.
On top of hootenannies (hmm, I didn't post those yet) or as a side dish for dinner.
In the south I hear they're served with pork meals.

cut up apples (I used 4, tart and firm are best)
fry in 2 TBSP butter (I put the lid on till they were mostly done)
add your choice of 2 TBSP real honey, real maple syrup, cinnamon or other pie spices, or white sugar.

let cook a couple more minutes to thicken.

Eat em up!

My kid won't eat xxxxxx

Here's a question from knk...

Hi,

We are just starting my son on Feingold due to hyperactivity. I am waiting for my materials now and have been reading Dr. Feingolds book.

My concern for my son is that he eats NO vegetable (unless I sneak them in with something) and only eats fruits that are restricted in the first level (apples,grapes,peaches). I am wondering what am I going to give him besides meat and cheese for meals !! Plus I am concerned his lack of fiber in his diet (poor kid will never be able to go to the bathroom).

Any advice?

Thanks

Sounds like he's nice and addicted, a repeat of my son pre-Feingold. It may be challenging at first but it will get better as he gets over his addictions. There are a few websites that have recipes for sneaking pureed veggies in food. You may want to check those out if you cook. Other than that I would honestly say to just go with the program and next month try a few new foods.

I found that a lot of people just stick with bananas as a fruit since they're familiar with them but here are some other options. Try fresh, frozen in a smoothie, or dried. They may not like one way of preparation but love the other

Pears, pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, lime, banana, melons, kiwi, coconut, dates, figs, mango, papaya

When we started the program I tried lots of different non-sal fruits and came home with Kiwi. Andrew loved them and kept saying that he wanted more of the hairy skin balls!

We shop at Azure Standard and they have really inexpensive dried pineapple and papaya that my kids love. They're perfectly satisfied to have a piece as dessert.
Also, for the fiber issue if he'll try dried figs those are great (my kids didn't like them because of the seeds but they love them in cookies, Barbara's Bakery makes a great fig cookie) or try golden flax seed blended up in any baked goods or a smoothie.

Sometimes for kids and veggies all you need is a good dip. You can make a yummy dip with a cup of approved sour cream (Daisy regular is not on the list but we buy it all the time with no reaction), 1 t onion powder, and 1 t salt.

One of Andrew's favorite lunches now is salad. We whole milk that dip down into a dressing and he'll eat 3 plates full of salad. His body just craves greens. He just had to get over the addiction of the other foods in order to enjoy the good stuff.

If they still won't do veggies bake some great cookies and add pureed pumpkin and flax seed.

Oh, and one more tip...red plus green makes purple smoothies. And, ice covers up textures. My kids wouldn't drink anything green before we started so I learned to add red. I would blend spinach or wheat grass powder in with any sort of frozen 100% red juice. If you're doing stage 1 you can use beet root powder found in any health food store. Also, if you have fiber in your smoothie a cup of ice will help cover up the texture.
hmmmmmmm let me think of a good sample recipe...

whole milk or approved milk subsitute
a pear, skin and all
a 1/2 can of pineapple or fresh pineapple
a handful of fresh coconut (freeze the rest for later and taste the coconut milk first to make sure it's not bitter)
a cupfull of ice
2 T of sugar or honey
1 t or more of wheatgrass powder
1/2 t of beetroot powder

There you go, call it a purple cow. Go easy on the green taste, heavy on the sugar at first and once they like it then you can start to add more green, less sugar.

Now that we're "clean" they love real juice with carrots, spinach, and beets run through my juicer. It's one of their favorite breakfasts and it turns out pretty purple.

Any Kind of Smoothie

fresh, frozen, or canned fruit (listing just fruit and/or sugar)
whole milk and/or whole plain yogurt
white sugar or honey
water
ice cubes
1/4 c. whole golden flax seeds (optional)
1 c. rolled oats (optional)

Blend what you want till it's smooth. You'll get the hang of how much frozen stuff you can handle with your blender. We use whatever fruit is the least expensive. I love to add the golden flax seeds to add some good oils, protein, and roughage to my smoothie. It seems to keep up going longer during the day.
If I have a strongly flavored fruit I'll add the rolled oats. If not sometimes they tend to taste funny. I can't really describe it but it's definitely a different taste.