Here are three very different ways to whip up fruit salad, all delicious, and all quite different! I’ve arranged them in order from most parental prep to most kid-involvement!

Fruit Salad in a Shell

This one is all grown-up work, thanks to lots of chopping and a classic presentation in a scooped-out watermelon!

Ingredients:

• 1 mini watermelon
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cantaloupe
• 1/2 cup finely chopped honeydew
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cup blueberries

1. To start, scoop the flesh from half of a mini watermelon. Chop the flesh to equal 1/2 cup and reserve the remaining watermelon for another use.
2. Combine the watermelon pieces in the shell with the remaining ingredients, stirring gently.

Needless to say, the kids loved looking at this one almost as much as eating it!

1-2-3 Fruit Salad

For the next version we made, care of High 5 magazine, not only was Veronika involved, but she got to practice counting!

 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons raisins
• 3 tablespoons plain non-dairy yogurt
• 4 grapes
• 5 banana slices
• 6 cantaloupe chunks
• 7 kiwi slices
• 8 strawberry slices
• 9 blueberries

After combing all that in single-serving bowls, we gave the fruit salad 10 stirs! I loved setting out index cards for each ingredient, making this culinary math at its finest.

Veronika read me each number before we added that item, and I helped her select out the right number to plink into her bowl.

You can see that the tasting began before the counting was complete though!

Canned Fruit Salad

For this final version, Veronika got to be in charge! Purchase snack fruit cups of pineapple, peach, and pear pieces, and all your toddler has to do is dump and stir.

In a bowl, combine the canned pineapple, peaches, and pears to taste. Let your toddler use a butter knife to slice a banana, and add to the bowl, along with a (grown-up) chopped apple. Now spoon a carton of vanilla non-dairy yogurt on top as the dressing! Stir to combine.

Note: If you can’t find individual snack cups, simply purchase one can of each fruit. In this case, you will need to do some grown-up slicing!

Veronika has officially moved up from Hello magazine (the Highlights edition for tots aged 0 to 2) to the company’s High 5 magazine, aimed at 2 to 5 year olds. And that meant she was ready for her first recipe side-by-side with me!

To start, I did a little grown-up prep and chopped 1/4 cup green onions and 1/4 cup red bell pepper. Set aside.

Meanwhile, thaw 1 (16-ounce) package shredded hash browns. Drain in a colander and transfer to a large bowl.

Time for Veronika to join in! She helped stir in the green onions and bell pepper, 3/4 cup shredded non-dairy cheddar, 3/4 cup shredded non-dairy Parmesan, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Next, she lined muffin cups with cupcake liners, proudly depositing each one!

I helped her spoon some of the hash brown mixture into each cup, tamping each one down as needed (You can use your fingers or the back of a spoon for this step).

Finally, together we drizzled each portion with 1 tablespoon non-dairy creamer; the slightly nutty flavor of almond-based creamer was nice with the rest of the flavors.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, then let cool slightly before serving. These were fantastic as part of a breakfast-for-dinner night, including vegan bacon and breakfast burritos!