Ever since our recent Shopping Sense tour, Gracen’s been talking about “eating a rainbow”.  I really had no idea she was even paying attention to the registered dietician during the event, but since she’d never mentioned eating a rainbow until dinnertime after the tour, I’m guessing she was.  It’s amazing to see what little sponges they are, isn’t it?  Now she says things like, “Look, Papa… There’s orangey, purple, and green!  Grae Grae’s eating a rainbow for dinner!”

This afternoon when she requested a snack “including all the colours of the rainbow”, I decided to do something fun.

Fruit lends itself to creating a rainbow so well that I could have easily made the entire thing just from one food group, but I decided to try and include at least a little bit of protein, dairy, and veg too.  I ended up with strawberry chunks, all-natural sharp cheddar cubes, low-sodium chickpeas, edamame beans, fresh blueberries, and banana coins for the clouds (sorry indigo and violet – skipped you this time!)

The chickpeas were scooped up by my hungry little monkey before I had a chance to assemble the rainbow, so they were replaced with chunks of yellow pepper (just as well – she loves those too).  Using a small plate and following its arc made shaping the rainbow really easy.

And you should have seen the eyes on my little rainbow loving girl when I set the plate down in front of her…  She loved it so much that we had a great brainstorming session about all of the foods that could  be used to create a rainbow snack (and she of course had way more ideas than I did).  

Here are some of the options we came up with…

Red:  strawberries . raspberries . red peppers . grape tomatoes . cherries . kidney beans .

Orange: cheddar . oranges . carrots . orange peppers . homemade cheese crackers . cantaloupe . apricots . 

Yellow: yellow peppers . chickpeas . pineapple . mango . swiss cheese . yellow tomatoes . 

Green: edamame beans . green peppers . cucumbers . pickles . broccoli . snap peas . avocado . kiwi . green grapes . 

Blue / Purple: blueberries . blackberries . beets . red grapes . purple peppers . plums . 

White: bananas . mozzarella cheese . tofu cubes . cottage cheese . plain yogurt . white kidney beans . hardboiled eggs

 

You never know… We just may have to repeat this idea on St. Patrick’s Day (or use it for a rainbow party one day!)

♥ 

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