Fruit Sticks
www.buycookeat.com.au
Recipe By Monique Neville
Buy Cook Eat ©2023
Fruit Sticks
Description
These fun and delicious fruit sticks are made by threading a range of different coloured chopped fruits onto a paper straw. This recipe was developed for a Healthy Lunch Box Food & Nutrition Cooking Session at an Early Learning Centre (ELC). We used some fruit with its skin on (Apples and Pear) and some fruit peeled (Banana, Mandarin and Orange). This is a great activity for kids to join in. Also, if they help make the fruit sticks, they are more likely to try eating them and may try a fruit they usually wouldn’t eat. This activity is a great way to use up fruit that may be a bit bruised from travelling in a lunch box, being in the bottom of a bag or just sitting in the fruit bowl for a while.
While making these fruit sticks, to limit the fruit going brown, we gave the cut fruit a bath in a bowl of lemon water. We used a metal straw to punch holes in the cut harder fruit, like apples and pear, which the children enjoyed helping with.
For children where fruit skin isn’t a choking hazard it’s worth encouraging them to have fruit such as apples and pears with the skin on as much as possible as this is full of insoluble fibre that helps with digestion as well as being a great source of nutrients and antioxidants. We talked about the importance of eating the rainbow which means trying to eat as many different coloured fruit and vegetables as possible.
Variety of fruit and vegetables is important as each colour has different nutrients and antioxidants. It can take many times of offering a new food before children will actually eat it. It is important to be persistent with offering new foods but also important to work within what it appropriate for each individual child and keep the experience positive and calm. The paper straws were from the supermarket but you could also use paddle pop sticks if you have them or something similar. Make sure children are seated and supervised while eating the fruit sticks, especially younger children.
Preparation and cooking time
Around 20 min prep and 0 min cooking time
Equipment
Three Bowls
Slotted spoon
Knife for chopping
Small plate or board for chopping
Paper straws
Scissors
Metal straws and straw cleaner
Number of servings and serving size
12 Serves, Approx 98g each
List of ingredients
2 Large Bananas - Yellow
125g Raspberries - Red
1-2 Mandarins - Orange
1 Green Pear (e.g. Packham) - Green
1 Red apple (e.g. Jazz, Pink Lady, Fuji, Royal Gala, Kanzi, Modi, Rocket, Delicious, Envy) - Red
1 Navel Orange - Orange
1 Green apple (e.g. Granny Smith, Golden Delicious) – Green
Step-by-step Method
Add water and lemon juice to three bowls
Chop red apple into cubes, make hole with metal straw, add to bowl
Chop green apple into cubes, make hole with metal straw, add to bowl
Chop green pear into cubes, make hole with metal straw, add to bowl
Yellow - Chop Banana into slices and thread onto straw
Red - Thread Raspberries onto straw
Orange - Thread Mandarin onto straw
Green - Thread pear that has soaked onto straw
Yellow – Add another banana slice to straw
Red - Thread red apple that has soaked onto straw
Orange – Cut off peel and Chop Orange into chunks and thread onto straw
Green – Thread green apple that has soaked onto straw
Encourage children to eat fruit from the side, rather than the top of the straw
NOTES:
Cut paper straw to fit into lunch box if needed. You could make smaller fruit sticks with only 4 fruit on half a straw. You will need a straw cleaner to clean out fruit bits from metal straw as it will stop working when the fruit clogs it up
• Nutrition Information:
Nutrient Information Panel
Serving Size is One Fruit Stick (1/12 of recipe) 98g
Instructions repeated below Step-By-Step with photos:
Coming Soon!
by Monique Neville
Buy Cook Eat (C) 2023
www.buycookeat.com.au
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