We’ve Got Ideas!

One of the best things about summer is the bountiful summer fruits that are both delicious and nutritious for our kids! If your family is like ours, we love to stock up on fresh fruits and have them on hand for quick, refreshing snacks, as ingredients for light summer cooking and of course, as healthy desserts. However, sometimes we over-buy and just can’t use it up fast enough. But instead of letting it go bad and tossing it out, we try to find creative ways to use it up first, like these delicious frozen treat ideas.

Not only are frozen fruit snacks a fun way to use up extra fruit, but they’re packed with nutrients. Fresh and freshly frozen fruit are excellent sources of important vitamins kids need, like vitamins C, K, E and B-complex. Many fruits are also high in fiber which aids in digestion and helps keep kids regular. Not to mention important minerals like calcium, potassium, iron and magnesium.

Here are some easy ideas for things to do with frozen fruit besides smoothies that kids can help make:

This fun and super simple recipe for Frozen Yogurt Bites from I Heart Naptime can be made in a snap with ingredients you probably already have on hand, fruit and yogurt! Just add your kid’s favorite yogurt to a bowl and add diced fruit. Create any combination you wish! Try coconut yogurt with banana, berry yogurt with fresh raspberries, vanilla yogurt with kiwi; get creative! Make these easy and nutritious little bites in an ice cube tray or try silicone molds in fun shapes like those adorable stars. Or, add toothpicks to create mini popsicles.

If you need to use up fresh bananas and they’re not too overripe, give this nutty chocolate-dipped snack a try. Frozen Chocolate Monkey Treats from Taste of Home is a simple 3-ingredient recipe that kids will love to help make. Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate will make you all feel like you’re at the fair! Kids can get creative with toppings. Try classic chopped nuts, sprinkles, toasted coconut, crushed graham crackers or even crushed pretzels!

For a pure fruit snack that kids will love and is also suitable for special diets, gluten-free, dairy-free Triple Fruit Freeze from Taste of Home is the ticket! This is a great recipe for using up multiple fruits or leftover fruit salad. This recipe calls for kiwi, grapes and blueberries but we imagine you could whip up all kinds of interesting combinations with fruit on hand. Get tropical with pineapple, mango and banana or go all berry with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. The Triple Fruit Freeze is especially nutritious with its diverse ingredients providing lots of vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

If you suspect you’re not going to make it through that bunch of bananas or bag of peaches in time, the best thing you can do is wash, slice and freeze fruit before it goes bad. Once prepared, you can use fruit to create an ever-changing variety of healthy treats your kids will love. Of course, If we do ever end up with rotten fruit, we make sure to compost it and return those good nutrients back to the earth!