Cooking With Kids: Summer Fruit Salad
My favorite season has always been summer… the beautiful sunshine, days spent at the pool, and all the fresh fruit! In the summer I find that by the end of an extra warm day, I don’t have quite as much of an appetite for warm food. A fresh BLT and fruit salad is by far one of my favorite summertime meals. Our four-year-old loves to help in the kitchen so I try to include her in the kitchen when I can. This time, we made a fruit salad together. What I love about this side item is that it doesn’t involve the oven or stove, you can use any combo of fruits, and little hands can complete almost the entire dish independently. I let Charlee pic the ingredients and here’s what she decided on: blueberries, mandarin oranges, grapes, blackberries, and strawberries. Here’s how she put it together (I’ve included links to our tools as well):
Our sweet girl, sneaking bites of fruit!
Gather all the ingredients & wash the fruit. Charlee chose canned mandarin oranges, so I opened and drained that container for her this time (although, she has definitely learned how to use the can opener) while she dumped blueberries and blackberries into her bowl to wash. In a separate bowl she washed the strawberries and grapes (we found that putting all the fruit that she still needed to prep in one bowl helped her to organize her thoughts and focus better on cutting vs. which bowl she needed to select her fruit from).
Chop the grapes. It’s best practice to continue cutting grapes until approximately 5 years old. We found this easy to use grape slicer that quarters the grape in a snap! When I ordered it I was a little worried that it would be difficult for her to squeeze, but the tool is made of a lightweight plastic and it was very easy for her to maneuver on her own.
Slice the strawberries. A few years ago, when we were at the prime age for trying new foods and increasing her exposure to new food groups in the kitchen. During this time, we bought a kid safe knife for Charlee to use (well... Santa dropped it in her stocking). This knife is amazing. We love that it has a blunt edge making it super safe, and at the same time it somehow magically cuts through all kinds of food. A great starter knife for learning safe cutting skills. We got our cutting board as a wedding gift, but you can find similar bamboo boards here.
Combine all fruit in one bowl. We did not add anything additional to our bowl, but you can add some lemon juice or honey as well. Both options turn out (and taste) great.
Serve immediately or refrigerate in covered container.
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