Silent Sunday...

How to get your children to eat their greens... make a song and dance about it!!

 Getting Children to eat their '5 a day' is no easy task, but it is one that's on most mothers minds at mealtimes! I am quite lucky that both my son Benjamin, who is four and my daughter Elizabeth, who has just turned one really enjoy eating a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, but I do know that's it's not so easy for everyone! I have friends that go to great lengths to 'hide' vegetables in their children's meals! But why should we be trying to trick our children into eating healthily? Surely we want them to grow up choosing to eat well?

Recent research commissioned by organic baby food manufacturers Ella's Kitchen, reveals that toddlers who use all their senses to 'play' with vegetables outside of mealtimes are more likely to eat them than those who don't. The study found that toddlers who experienced new vegetables through sight, smell. sound and touch before actually tasting were much more willing to eat them! This rings true in my experience, as being a vegetarian, I cook with a wide variety of vegetables and we have organic veg boxes delivered on a regular basis, as well as growing some in the garden, which Benjamin loves helping with! I do like to think that this has contributed towards his healthy eating habits!

The research mentioned above recommends using all the senses to introduce fruit and vegetables to your children. Some great ideas for this are getting out in the garden and growing a small vegetable patch together, cooking and preparing food together, playing with 'toy' fruit and vegetables (there are some adorable wooden sets available these days) and telling stories and singing about different types of fruit and veg!

To give Mummies a helping hand the lovely folks at Ella's Kitchen have teamed up with Celeb Mum Rachel Stevens to record 5 'tasty tunes' set to the melody of popular nursery rhymes! These include In the fruit bowl, on the tree, Yummy, yummy, yum! Eat to make you Feel good, Veggie Hokey Cokey and Fruit and veg are great to eat! Each song has been specially written to get tiny taste buds excited about munching and crunching on healthy fruit and veg and all five of these are free to Download from Ellaskitchen.co.uk!

We have been listening to these this week and think they're great! Ben has now learnt most of the words and sings along while Elizabeth has started bopping away when they come on, which is so cute! Our personal favourite is the 'Veggie Hokey Cokey' which is rather catchy (I caught myself singing it to myself on the bus the other day!) Ben has been teaching Elizabeth the actions too!

I think this is a lovely idea, and will will continue to listen and bop away to them! Hopefully they will help Elizabeth develop the same healthy attitude to fruit and veg that Benjamin has.

Don't forget that if you're not already signed up as a 'friend' of Ella's Kitchen by signing up here not only are you able to download these fab songs but you can also get a free weaning guide, a voucher for 50p off New Nibbly Fingers, plus the chance to get a fab free TerraCycle lunchbag!

So why not have a listen and and a dance with your little ones to Yummy, Yummy, Yum! or the Veggie Hokey Cokey and let me know what you think?

Fit Antibacterial Vegetable wash - 100% natural!

You will probably know by now if you are a regular reader that as a family we try to eat organic when possible. We have yummy weekly fruit and vegetable boxes delivered and I love cooking with fresh seasonal vegetables! I always thoroughly wash our fruit and veg and usually just use water (sometimes a vegetable brush to scrub those carrots or spuds that come covered in soil!) however last week I was sent an interesting new product to try!

Fit Antibacterial Fruit and Vegetable wash is 100% Natural, and removes 98% more pesticides, waxes, people-handling residues, and other contaminants than washing with water alone!

To be honest I had always thought water was sufficient especially on organic produce, however I came across this on their website which made me think again!

Organic produce can have higher levels of bacteria due to the use of natural fertilizers and the restrictions on how processors can clean the produce to adhere to current European Organic standards. Many of our customers use Fit on their organic produce when they purchase it to extend the shelf life as the high level of bacteria can accelerate normal deterioration.

So I thought why not try it?

I have now been using this spray to wash my fruit and vegetables for over a week and have to say I have actually noticed a difference! The colours of the vegetables are brighter after washing with this and seem tastier too! It completely took away that 'soily' taste that you can get with carrots and spuds!

At first I was concerned that a product that was able to do this may be full of chemicals. How else could it clean so throughly? But no, Fit Fruit & Vegetable Wash is 100% Natural and uses only food approved natural ingredients which include organic grapefruit juice! It is also certified and recommended by the UK Vegetarian Association.

My second concern was that it may leave an aftertaste that could put my son off eating fresh fruit, However we soon found that Fit rinses away completely, leaving clean fruit and veg with no aftertaste or smell! So my son still devours the fruit bowl at any opportunity!

Fit spray is really easy to use! You simply spray, rub and rinse! With fruit I cleaned with fit before putting in the fruit bowl so Ben could still help himself when he wanted to. With Vegetables I sprayed them while preparing for cooking.

It does state on the packaging that it is recommended to eat produce within two days of cleaning as it removes any preservatives, but we had fruit that was eaten after 3 or 4 days and was fine!

We were sent the 350ml sprayer bottle which costs £4.49 to purchase and they also have a 950ml bottle available for £5.99 which can be used as a refill for the sprayer or to crate a 'bath' to soak produce in.

I think this is really good value for a natural product that does seem to last! We have been using the spray on all fruit and veg for a week now and it's still over 3/4 full!

You can find out more about Fit Antibacterial Fruit and Vegetable wash and purchase it online at www.buyfit.co.uk. You can also keep up to date with the latest news and offers on Twitter!