In early childhood, kids’ produce consumption meets recommended levels, yet it falls off as they enter school-age years. Easy hacks can help your kids continue to eat fruits and veggies as a lifelong habit as routine as brushing teeth!

As you plan for back-to-school this year, check out these 16 hacks to get more fruits and veggies into pre-school fuel, lunch boxes, and afterschool snacks.

School Mornings Destressed

• Set up a “smoothie station” with various fruits and yogurt. Include walnuts as a way to boost omega-3 ALA (2.5g/oz). Allow kids to blend their own concoction in a blender or smoothie maker.
• Mash ripe bananas with eggs to make a simple pancake batter. Cook small pancakes on a griddle until golden brown for a naturally sweet breakfast treat.
• Batch cook oatmeal, spoon it into muffin tins, top with your kids’ favorite fruits and walnuts, and freeze. Once frozen, store in to-go containers. On busy mornings, microwave or let thaw.
• Top whole wheat toast with cottage cheese and leftover roasted veggies (savory) or cottage cheese, sliced fruit, and a dash of cinnamon (sweet).
• Prepare customized fruit salad kits in mason jars for grab-and-go breakfasts during the school commute.

Lunch Box Magic

• Cook some whole-grain pasta and pair with nutritious mix-ins like chopped hard-boiled eggs and a couple of your kids’ favorite veggies. Serve it as a “deconstructed” meal so they can have fun mixing it up at lunchtime.
• Using your favorite whole grain wrap, layer with mashed avocado, low sodium deli ham, hummus, and string cheese.
• A lunch box with separate compartments offers visual appeal to make meals more fun. Add nutritious foods like fruit, veggie sticks, hard-boiled eggs, unsweetened wholegrain cereal, hummus, or trail mix.
• When adding new veggies to school lunch, add notes with silly names such as “Broccoli Bob” or “Carrot the Explorer.” Encourage kids to create stories about the veggie characters.
• Take your favorite cowboy caviar recipe and add leftover chopped pork tenderloin or pork chop. Serve with chips or celery for a delicious and filling.

Snack Attack Solved

• Make a fruit salsa with diced strawberries, pineapples, and Granny Smith apples. Serve as a snack with homemade cinnamon tortilla chips.
• Extra kids visiting after school? Keep your freezer stocked with unicorn wands, made by placing berries on a stick, rolling in yogurt, and freezing.
• Create a rainbow charcuterie board with raspberries, orange and yellow pepper slices, green beans, blueberries, and purple grapes. Store in the fridge for after school snacks.
• Have tacos the night before? Add leftover pork taco meat to a small container and layer with diced cherry tomatoes, sliced avocado, black beans and shredded cheese.
• Make watermelon pizza. Cut a thick slice, top it with feta cheese, onions, basil and a drizzle of balsamic. Or top with yogurt and diced fruit. Slice for a healthy pizza your kids will love.
• Kids can prep these easy snack pairings on their own: apples + walnuts, grapes + string cheese, carrot sticks + hummus, cottage cheese + pineapple chunks.

The post 16 Hacks For A Healthy Back-To-Busy Seasonfirst appeared in The Foundation for Fresh Produce’s Have A Plant® blog.

The Foundation for Fresh Produce’s vision is to grow a healthier world by changing the trajectory of human health. The produce industry has the potential to provide solutions for many of the world’s greatest health and economic challenges – especially those surrounding nutrition and hunger.

The Foundation focuses on improving the appeal of fruit and vegetables as an integral part of people’s diets, supporting the development of infrastructure and supply chain solutions that provide easier access, and establishing strategic alliances that enable children and families to form healthier eating habits.

The transformative Have A Plant® Movement inspires consumers with compelling reasons to believe in the powerful role fruits and vegetables can play to fuel happy, healthy and active lifestyles.