Sometimes changes to our family routine come with a bang. I’ll announce to the kids what the change will be and then I enforce the change until it becomes habit. Other times change happens without my planning it at all. I’ve noticed one of these second changes lately. The kids have been eating healthier. This is primarily because I stopped buying crackers or chips and started buying fruit instead. The disappearance of crackers and chips from our diets is the fault of the ants. There is a nest of ants that cruises the floor of our dining area. Anytime they found crumbs, the ants would come out in force. Then I would spend a mealtime exhorting the kids to stop paying attention to the ants and eat. My kids are incapable of eating crackers or chips without strewing crumbs everywhere. I’m not likely to remember to sweep after every snack. The best solution was to just stop supplying the crumby food.
Unfortunately the exit of crackers and chips left us with a snack vacuum. I needed something to hand the kids when they were hungry between meals. Enter the fruit. It started with apples and bananas. Then Patch mentioned that he’d eaten plums at preschool and liked them. So I brought home plums. I bought nectarines too since they were sitting right next to the plums in the store. Both were eaten and enjoyed. On my next trip to the store I cruised around the produce section to see what caught my eye. Grapes came home and so did limes because Gleek had expressed a desire to eat one. (That was amusing. She claimed to like them because they tasted just like her favorite lime-flavor chips, but she did not eat very much.) I started serving fruit with every lunch. It made lunches easy. Sandwiches alone were boring, but if there was a new kind of fruit to try, that was interesting. Then one day I’d forgotten to stock up fruit. I put out celery with ranch dressing, and they ate it.
Treats have not disappeared entirely. We still have treatish food for bedtime snacks, but even there we’re doing more bagels and fewer cookies. I think we’re going to be trying lots of different kinds of fruits this summer. Today I bought kiwi fruit. I know lots of people who love them, but I’ve never been able to get past that brown fuzzy skin. Tomorrow’s lunch will have kiwi. I don’t know whether I can make this change permanent, but I have hopes that the trend will last. It isn’t any harder to reach into the fridge for fruit than it is to reach in the cupboard for a fruit roll up. Granted, fruit will go bad if I leave it around for too long, but if we’re eating fruit daily, that won’t happen. All I know is that for now I’m enjoying this exploration into the world of fruit eating.
Old bananas very easily become banana bread. Apples, plums, apricots, peaches, pears, strawberries, blueberries, and probably raspberries (but I haven’t done it) when softer than the kids want to eat will go very nicely in to pancakes. Also if you notice these fruits going bad before the kids eat them you can freeze them. Grapes are actually good frozen. Especially in deep summer. But if you don’t want to do that then you can put them in the oven at 200F overnight for raisins.
To get away from the crumbles, we tend to dip chips. Hummus and Tostitos Scoops is good. Cottage cheese and Frito Scoops is good.
Dried fruits can satisfy the sweet tooth, too. Our family likes raisins (of course), mangoes, apples, and apricots.
I’m partial to tried dates, but they’re expensive.
Er…DRIED dates.
TRIED dates are foul.
Kiwis are wonderful! You can peel them. 🙂 Also, mixing fruits can give you interesting taste explosions: Grapes and strawberries, for instance, are PERFECT when chewed together.
Turn fruit that’s going bad to jam
My family has a recipe for making microwave jam – it takes about 20 minutes, looks amazing (since the color stays), and tastes great. You also know it doesn’t have anything but fruit and sugar.
Additionally, unlike regular jams, you only have to stir once, you don’t have to watch it since it doesn’t burn.
If you would be interested, let me know, and I’ll find the index card that has it, and copy it off (the recipe is very specific).
Uri David Akavia
(you should have my email from Schlock merch orders)
I don’t like the fuzzy skin of kiwis either, but if you slice them in half you can scoop out the inside of a ripe one with a spoon.
Re: Turn fruit that’s going bad to jam
I would be interested to know. I’ll try to ping you by email later today, or you can just post the recipe via the comments here.
Re: Turn fruit that’s going bad to jam
Saw your comment.
Will email/post here later (so you don’t have to ping me).
Re: Turn fruit that’s going bad to jam
The general rule is
2 cups of sliced/diced and cleaned (pits removed, etc.) fruit
3/2 cups of sugar
1 or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of margarine
Place it in a large microwave proof bowl (it bubbles and can overflow), cover with saran wrap. High power for 6 minutes or until it boils.
Stir, remove wrap, and place uncovered on High for the time specified below, stopping to stir once or twice in the middle.
(This is based on a microwave that’s about 750W – if you have a stronger or weaker microwave, you might need to adapt the times a bit. To check if jam is done enough, take a teaspoon out, and streak it on a plate (or the top of a jar), and place it in the freezer until it has cooled enough to touch. If you can pass your finger through the streak of jam, and the hole doesn’t fill out, it is done)
Specific time (and additions)
Apple 5-7 minutes (can add 1 teaspoon cinnamon/cinnamon stick)
Apricot 10-12 min
Apricot (3/2 cups) and pineapple (1/2 cup) 13-15 min
rasp/blackberry 13-15 min
strawberry 15-20 min
blueberry 9-11 min, add lemon peel (and cinnamon)
cherry 9-11 min
Figs (3/2) and orange (1/2) 13-15 min (cinnamon, ginger and cloves go well with this)
Peaches/Nectarines 13-15 min
Peach (3/4), Plum (3/4), Orange (1/2) 13-15
Plum 9-11
Plum (3/2) and orange (1/2) 9-11 min, with orange zest and ginger
Candied orange peel – boil whole oranges twice, throwing away the water each time. Chop the orange in small pieces – get 2 cups total.
8 minutes covered to boil this time, 16 minutes uncovered.
Now, the purists would tell you it is necessary to pour the jam, when it just comes out into sterilized jars, sealing immediately.
I’m telling you not to do this unless you really appreciate second degree burns.
Use clean jars (which you can sterilize in the microwave if you really want to), and transfer the jam to the jar when it is hot enough to be relatively liquid, but cool enough to handle. Close the jars, and you only need to refrigerate once it is open (assuming it isn’t very liquid jam).
If your kids like it, it won’t last long enough to grow mold.
Don’t try to keep it forever out of the fridge (because it will grow mold eventually) – I think that the sugar content isn’t high enough to preserve it for a long time, and neither are the jars sterilized.
Have lots of fun.
Uri David Akavia
Re: Turn fruit that’s going bad to jam
One more comment – I think the easiest jams to start with are strawberry and Nectarines.