For the last 30 years, our Thanksgivings have been as natural (chemical free) as possible. Most Thanksgiving dinners are loaded with ingredients the Pilgrims never heard of: High Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG, artificial colors and flavors, polysorbate 60, sodium caseinate, and transfat. These ingredients are so commonplace today, that for many Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving with them.

I was motivated all those years ago to eliminate chemicals from our Thanksgiving feast, because our four-year-old daughter, Jenny, reacted to the additives and sugars in processed foods. Today, there are over 3,000 additives in our food supply, we have Genetically Modified Foods (GMO), and sugar is paramount. In fact, we now have a new sugar: High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Savannah and Ashlyn are determined to help their mom make their Thanksgiving healthy and yummy.

According to a USDA’ report, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the average American is in the form of added sugars; the majority comes from high fructose corn syrup. Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.

Making your Thanksgiving healthier really isn’t as difficult as you might first think. Purchase a turkey with the nutrition label listing only one ingredient: turkey. Save money and make your own stuffing with leftover whole wheat bread. Instead of soda pop, containing HFCS, for the kids, offer sparkling apple juice. Don’t use box mixes or canned vegetables, like sweet potatoes.

I’d like to know who came up with “candied sweet potatoes.” Aren’t sweet potatoes, well, sweet, without marshmallows? Did you know that marshmallows are really sugar-mallows, because they no longer contain any marshmallow root. Marshmallows are made from sugar, primarily corn syrup, water and gelatin.

I suggest regulating sugar in all its forms to dessert. Delete it from the main course. And, totally eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from your Thanksgiving meal altogether.

Many of the dishes we serve during the Thanksgiving meal are loaded with sugar. Why aren’t they considered dessert? This is beyond me! Jello “salad” is one that stands out. Jello is made with only five ingredients: water, gelatin, sugar, and artificial colors and flavors. This doesn’t sound much like a “salad” to me.

Cranberry sauce is a Thanksgiving perennial. They say there is always an exception to the rule. This is my exception for sugar during Thanksgiving dinner. Cranberries by their very nature are tart. I always purchase cranberries in the produce department and cook them with less sugar than is suggested in the directions. Some make their cranberry sauce with apple juice instead of sugar, but I haven’t been able to find the right combination that suits our family.

Pre-made, whipped toppings, like Cool Whip, are primarily air, sugar and transfat. Make your own whipped topping with real whipping cream. Not only will it taste better, it’s better for you. Cool Whip is made of water, corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut (this is the transfat) and palm kernel oil (CPKO), sodium caseinate, vanilla extract, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60 (glycosperse), and beta carotene.

A natural Thanksgiving begins with having yummy, healthy recipes and then purchasing whole foods. Now’s the time to do a little planning. Read labels and find products free from sugar and artificial ingredients. Take a close look at the ingredients in your favorite recipes and make healthy substitutions. Finally, keep sugar regulated to dessert.

For my alternative to the jello fruit mold, CLICK HERE.

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“Multi-sensory learning” is involving all the senses in the process. When kids have chores in the kitchen, touch, sight, smell, and sound are part of their learning experience. Kids used to help plant, water, weed, and then harvest a summer garden. Kids would help prepare the food for storage, then in the making of meals, and the eventual clean-up. Before every home had a dishwasher, kids not only set the table, but did all the dishes.

When I was growing up I had two best friends, who lived in my neighborhood, Kathy and Debbie. Kathy’s mom was extremely fastidious and her home was always immaculate. We seldom ventured inside Kathy’s house and then it was only with trepidation.

On the other hand, Debbie was the oldest girl of five children. There was always something going on at her house. I was often invited over for dinner.

Wyatt loves to help his dad bring in the groceries and this melon smells so yummy!

Debbie and her brothers took turns helping their mom with the meals. Looking back, I’m amazed at how much time I spent at her house. Because I was there so much, I’d be helping right along with them.

Multi-Sensory Learning Vital for the Picky Eater
Families are divorced from the land where food is grown. We no longer appreciate the work it takes to grow, harvest, and then prepare the food. Often mom doesn’t really cook. So why should kids be expected to help with preparing meals? Cooking is an excellent activity, which will help your picky eater appreciate once-refused foods. Each food has unique colors, textures, smells, and tastes. Each food is different and different is fun! Cooking is a hands-on experience.

There is a great sense of accomplishment with meal preparation. Most parents will occasionally bake sweets with their children. This is a helpful task to learn how to measure, but most kids don’t need any encouragement to eat cookies or cupcakes. Parents will often allow their kids to make boxed foods, like macaroni and cheese. This, again, only promotes the consumption of highly processed foods.

Meal prep in your kitchen is the perfect setting to talk about various healthful ingredients. What’s the texture? What color is it? Who likes to eat this? What does it taste like? What’s the food smell like? How does it benefit your body (carrots help our eyes, broccoli prevents cancer, etc.)

A Picky Eater Is Never Too Young
Helping in the kitchen is a natural method to include multi-sensory learning, no matter how old your child is. Children experience a great sense of accomplishment when they master simple cooking skills. There’s a greater desire to taste a new food or to eat a once-refused food, if your child has helped in its preparation.

1) A toddler can help carry unbreakable items to the table. They can help to wash fruit and veggies with a soft veggie brush. They can spread cream cheese, nut butters, and jelly on sandwiches with plastic-ware. Mix ingredients. Peel bananas. Shuck corn. Tear lettuce.

2) A preschooler can help set and clear the table. Toss things in the trash. Identify and bring items within reach from the pantry. Help measure ingredients. Break eggs into a bowl with assistance. Make sandwiches. Toss salads (Not just lettuce, either. Try cauliflower and broccoli salad.). Serve herself/himself.

3) Grade school children can set and clear the table by themselves. Wash and dry the dishes. Help make a grocery list and help you shop. They can read the nutrition label and identify ingredients on it. Use the blender. Make simple recipes with assistance. Make salads. Peel potatoes. Make a fruit smoothie in a blender.

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During the hot sultry days of summer, cooking can be the last thing on your mind. In warm weather our appetites decrease, but it’s important to get your five servings of fruit and vegetables.

Salads are not only simple to prepare, but refreshing as well. Salad recipes are an easy way to combine grains, fruits, vegetables, and meats in one easy dish.

7 Tips for Yummy Salads

1) Look for produce on sale. Then find a recipe that calls for those ingredients. Or try a vegetable you normally might not use and feature in a salad, like beets or jicama.

2) To make your salad extra special, add a garnish. Sprinkle paprika; add chopped parsley, chervil, chives or basil. Add hard-boiled egg slices, pepper rings, red onions, or pickles.

3) Add some crunch with sesame or sunflower seeds; chopped walnuts or sliced almonds.

4) When making potato or pasta salad ahead of time, add extra liquid. These tend to soak up the dressing and dry out.

Tino munches on fresh produce.

5) Whole grains, like corn and barley, are great cooled and mixed for a whole grain salad.

6) Serve salad on a slice of melon or halved cucumber.

7) When picnicking, nestle the salad bowl in a larger bowl with ice. This will keep the salad cooler longer and keep it from growing bacteria.

Check out the Salad & Sandwiches section to the right of this page. You’ll find yummy recipes like the Tomato Cucumber Salad recipe: Click Here.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

For info about the FREE Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

Lifestyles and behaviors are established in early childhood. This is especially true for eating habits and food preferences. Unfortunately, many foods that children consume are lacking in essential nutrients.

Our national taste buds have become accustomed to junk foods, loaded with added sugars, artificial ingredients, and synthetic flavors. This has made it much more difficult for kids to enjoy the unique tastes and textures of whole foods, especially veggies. Parents, caregivers, and teachers can promote healthy nutrition in children by limiting processed foods. But that alone isn’t enough. Children need to be taught how to appreciate nutritious foods.

The children’s storybook, The Forest Feast: Baby Bites^® Mealtime Adventures, is designed to help develop healthy eating habits. The Forest Feast integrates fun with whole foods. Best friends, Betty Baby Bites^®, a tiny Italian mouse, and Try Rannosaurus^®, a gigantic T-Rex, eat their way through a prehistoric forest.

Try, a growing dinosaur, has only one thing on his mind—FOOD. In fact, he’s eager to try any new food (that’s why he’s named Try), but his favorite is the green variety (after all he’s green). Try’s searching for a special veggie to bring to the weekly feast. At day’s end, everyone is surprised by his contribution.

Betty Baby Bites^® is Try’s best buddy and she’s the brains behind the dinosaur. She’s a foodie, loving the culinary arts. Betty can often be found supervising meals and interjecting her favorite Italian words of support, fantastico (wonderful) and bravo (well done).

The Forest Feast is divided into three whimsical adventures. Each escapade ends with the recipe Try and Betty devour. When a child helps to prepare the same meal that Try and Betty eat, they begin to appreciate Try’s conviction, “Green food is yummy!”

“Green food is yummy!”
Aidan likes to pretend he’s Try Rannosaurus.

The Forest Feast stands alone as a charming tale for children. Although, it’s intended as a companion for the parenting book, Baby Bites^®: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. The reading and visual input aspects of multi-sensory learning are engaged when The Forest Feast is read to children. Betty Baby Bites^® and Try Rannosaurus’^® antics are sure to win over even the most vegetable-resistant child.

Read more about The Forest Feast, CLICK HERE.

Click Here for the Baby Bites Store.

The Pizza Box Falnnel Board is a fun and inexpensive project to do with your children at home. If you ask, most pizza stores will give you a new box without a charge. First, read the story, The Forest Feast to your children. They will practice the story with the Pizza Box Flannel Board.

Flannel Board Materials List:
The Forest Feast storybook
Pizza Box: medium sized. Ask a local outlet for a unused pizza box.
Flannel: approximately 12″ x 24″ piece for the interior of the box in a dark color. Flannel in various colors for the cut outs.
White Glue
Craft Sticks
White Paper
Scissors
Markers

Method:
1. Cover the outside of the pizza box with pictures photocopied from The Forest Feast. You may use the PDF file in Teacher 3-day Plan: Click Here.

2. Cut 1 piece of felt to fit the inside bottom and top of the box as the background. Glue the felt in place with a thin film of white glue. Use a Popsicle stick to spread the film of glue.

3. Make cut outs. On white paper, Trace around images of Try Rannosaurs^® and Betty Baby Bites^TM in The Forest Feast to make a pattern. Make patterns for the food in the recipe for the Forest Stew: carrots, celery, turnips, tomatoes and the stew pot. Pin the pattern to various colors of flannel and cut. Draw eyes and other details on the images with a felt pen. Store the felt pieces inside the box. If you have an artistic flare, you will be able to free hand the cutouts. Since I don’t, I photocopied images on copy paper, glued them to a small piece of flannel and cut around the images. The cutouts because of the weight of the paper the images are heavier than plain flannel, but they work just fine when the box is laid flat and stay fairly well when it’s setting upright.

Definitions & Questions:

Nutrition: a food which gives our bodies the things it needs to be healthy.

Whole food: plucked or picked; something from the earth. Whole foods help you grow and stay healthy.

Junk food: fills your tummy with no nutrition.

What’s the difference between whole food and junk food? (Both fill your tummy, but only whole foods help your body grow and stay healthy.)

Why don’t Betty Baby Bites^® and Try Rannsaurus^® eat junk foods? (Junk foods are man-made. They aren’t plucked or picked from the earth.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® named “Try”? (Because he will try any food.)

Why is Try Rannosaurus^® always hungry? (Because he’s a growing dinosaur.)

What’s Try Rannosaurus^®‘ favorite food? (Veggies. He often says, “Green food is yummy!”)

Why do the forest animals only eat whole foods? (It’s prehistoric times, only whole foods. Whole foods give their bodies what they need to be healthy and to grow.)

Click Here for ordering information for The Forest Feast.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Best friends, Betty Baby Bites^®, a tiny Italian mouse, and Try Rannosaurus^®, a gigantic T-Rex, eat their way through a prehistoric forest. Betty and Try’s mealtime experiences emphasize the goodness of non-processed whole foods. Vegetable-challenged children are disarmed because Try is eager to try any new food (that’s why he’s named Try).  His favorite is the green variety (after all he’s green).

Aiden likes to pretend he’s a dinosaur like Try Rannosaurus^®

After reading The Forest Feast, you can further enhance healthy eating when you engage children in additional fun whole food activities. The following seven activities are equally effective in a home or school setting. They are even more effective when integrated with reading the whole foods storybook, The Forest Feast:

1) Food on a Plate
Provide pictures of whole foods from supermarket circulars and magazine photos. Have the children glue them to a paper plate. If children are older than four, they may cut out the photos themselves using safety scissors.

2) Healthy or Junk Food?
Give the children paper plates or a piece of construction paper with a line drawn down the middle with a marker. Write healthy on one side and junky on the other side. Have pictures of junk foods like donuts, cookies, and potato chips, and pictures of whole foods. Have kids glue their photos to the appropriate side of the plate.

3) A is for Apple, B is for Banana…V is for Veggie
Provide children with pictures of whole foods and show them how to write the appropriate letter of the alphabet which corresponds to the food.

4) Guess the Food in My Picnic Basket
Prepare laminated pictures of whole foods or use a picnic basket with plastic play food. Play a guessing game with the children. Say “In my picnic basket I have some fruit. It is a red and it’s a berry. What kind of food is it?” Give the children a moment to guess, then take the item from the basket and show them a strawberry.

5) Genesis Connection
Read the creation story in Genesis. God created all things. Did He create the dinosaurs? Are dinosaurs in the Bible? In the book of Job God mentions some of the things He created. In Job 40 describes a great beast called a “Behemoth.” Read Job 40:15-24 with your child. Does this beast sound like a hippo, an elephant, or a dinosaur? Today we call the Behemoth a dinosaur, which means terrible lizard. Click Here for more information about the Behemoth.

6) Veggie Dip Snack
Prepare Julienne strips of veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) with either a hummus or avocado dip. Ask the children if Try would eat this. Why? Which veggies would be his favorite? Give each child a small paper plate with each of the veggies and a dollop of dip. Discuss the textures, tastes, and how yummy each veggie smells.

7) Fruit and Vegetable Prints
You’ll Need: Paint or ink. (to make tempera paint thicker and stickier add a touch of flour or glue). Sponges and an old cookie tray or Styrofoam tray. It’s a good idea to put the paint on a sponge so that when an object is dipped into the paint, the sponge will only let off a little bit of paint…because a little is all you need.
You will need: Paintbrushes, water and water containers. Paper and a covered work area. Fruits and veggies of all kinds: carrots, starfruit, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, avocados, and apples.

Method:
1. Dip fruit and vegetables into paint or printing ink and stamp them onto paper in random or ordered patterns.
2. Kinder artists may instead apply the paint or ink directly to the vegetables with a paintbrush.
3. No knives are needed except for to cut the fruit or vegetable in half (an adult should do this part).

For more fun food ideas, go to “Browse Baby Bites Categories” located on the right. Then click on “The Forest Feast Teaching Helps.”

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Engineered foods are leaving dietary gaps replacing whole foods. Ironically, experts say, our kids are actually missing out on more nutrients than did then children of the previous century. This generation is not expected to live as long as the last. We would improve our children’s health and longevity if we would feed them whole foods.

Tino can ‘B’ helping & funny.

According to a report by the National Cancer Institute, only 1 percent of children between ages 2 and 19 meet all the USDA Food Guide Pyramid recommendations for grains, vegetables, fruit, meats, and dairy. What’s shocking, 16 percent meet NONE of the recommendations.

Your Child Can ‘B’ a Healthy Eater
B-1: Be aware that in most ways our food supply has been defiled. It’s full of processed foods, which taste great, but have little nutritional value. In addition, many times processed foods contain harmful ingredients. Learn to read labels and discern what they say. A good rule of thumb is if you can’t pronounce an ingredient, it’s not a real food.

B-2: Be vigilant in limiting these poor dietary choices. You accomplish this by purchasing whole foods and limiting processed foods in your kitchen. Your child can’t eat it if you don’t buy it.

B-3: Be a teacher and a role model. Teach your child the value of whole foods. You teach by example and by incorporating multi-sensory learning into your child’s experience. Picky eaters are disarmed when you no longer bribe or make vain threats at the table. Teaching a child to enjoy whole foods requires using all the senses, not just taste. Involve your child in the kitchen and always reinforce how wonderful the food tastes.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

Extruded grains are industrially processed foods, including “healthy” breakfast cereals, which really aren’t so healthy. For all boxed breakfast cereals, grains are extruded — forced out of a hole at high temperature with pressure in order to make them into the various shapes typically found in breakfast cereals. The extrusion process destroys most of the nutrients in the grains, including fatty acids.

Angel starts her day with a hot breakfast.

Industrial processing not only destroys the nutrients in cereals, but makes them more difficult to digest. In addition, sugar, white flour, hydrogenated oils, and synthetic vitamins are added to cereals.

A healthful breakfast doesn’t come out of a cereal box and it doesn’t have to  take a lot of time. In fact, most healthy breakfasts take only a few minutes to prepare:

1) Make rolled oats, not the instant kind, which has been further processed and sugar is the main ingredient. My favorite oatmeal is with apples and walnuts, but add any dried fruit or mash a soft fruit like a banana into your oatmeal. Prepare enough for two mornings and refrigerate half for later in the week.  When reheating, all you have to do is add a little more liquid, heat, and stir.

2) Hard-boiled eggs are another breakfast item which can be made in advance of your busy morning. And it takes only a minute to scramble a few eggs.

3) Toast is great, when it’s a whole grain. Spread a little butter or fruit-only jelly and you have some sticking power. In a hurry? make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to eat on the run.

4) Left-over brown rice from last night’s dinner can be warmed with milk or chicken broth for a nutritious start to the day.  Add a piece of fruit or yogurt.

5) Fruit smoothies come together in a flash right in your blender.

6) French toast or pancakes made with whole wheat and top with fruit-only jam or applesauce. Don’t forget blueberries, a super way to start your morning.

7) Don’t have time to cook? Who says that you have to have “breakfast” food? How about an egg salad sandwich or a piece of chicken from last night’s dinner? Or a handful of nuts, sliced fruit, and an oatmeal cookie (only if you made the cookie yourself with whole grains and honey).

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

Try Rannosaurus® is a growing dinosaur with a massive appetite. Unfortunately, his brain isn’t in direct proportion to his large mass. To make matters more difficult for him, he isn’t the most coordinated creature in the forest either. Try has one thing on his mind–food. His tummy’s growling is a constant source of distraction as he searches for a very special veggie. At day’s end, he surprises everyone.

Betty Baby Bite s^TM is Try’s best buddy and she’s the brains behind the dinosaur. She’s a foodie, loving the culinary arts. Betty can often be found supervising meals, while offering encouragement. She loves to interject her favorite Italian words of support: fantastico and bravo.

Betty and Try’s mealtime experiences emphasize the goodness of non-processed whole foods. Vegetable-challenged children are disarmed because Try is eager to try any new food (that’s why he’s named Try) and his favorite is the green variety (after all he’s green). Try bellows, “Green food is yummy” and “I’m so hungry I could eat a tree”!

The Forest Feast is designed as a multi-sensory experience. Recipes are included at the end of each segment, so parents can make the meals that Try and Betty enjoy with their children. In addition there are numerous whole foods activities for parents and teachers to do in conjunction with reading The Forest Feast to children. They are found on the right column of this page: The Forest Feast Teaching Helps: >Click Here.

This holiday season when you purchase The Forest Feast, the shipping is FREE. It’s also available in combo packages with additional savings:

1) Combo Pack. You’ll save when you purchase both books! The Combo Pack includes 1 copy of: Baby Bites — Transforming A Picky Eater Into A Healthy Eater, the parenting book. PLUS 1 copy of The Forest Feast — Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures. The Children’s Whole Foods Storybook. >Click Here for more information.

2) Child’s Gift Package.
It’s the perfect gift fusing fun with healthy eating, whether the child is a picky eater or not. The Child’s Gift package makes the perfect holiday or birthday gift for a pre-schooler or early elementary child. The Child’s Gift Package includes The Forest Feaststorybook; an apron with image of either Betty Baby Bites OR Try Rannosaurus; a stuffed green dino, one wooden spoon; and a green gift bag. >Click Here for more information.

My holiday wish for you:
Mangi bene, ridi spesso, ama molto. (Eat well, laugh often, love much.)

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

The Forest Feast is a whole foods storybook. The characters, Try Rannosaurus® and Betty Baby Bites^TM, love to eat whole foods, especially veggies. Naturally, reading the story again and again will reinforce this concept.

Your child doesn’t have to be a “picky eater” to benefit from The Forest Feast. Children are constantly bombarded with messages about junk foods. Advertisers target children with commercials for sugary breakfast foods, fast foods, and candy. Today, all children need positive reinforcement that whole foods are yummy.

The concepts in The Forest Feast are enhanced when you incorporate the story with fun activities. If you are a primary school or preschool teacher these activities are easily incorporated into a classroom experience. The most effective multi-sensory experiences for children will be with real food and parents have the edge over teachers on having their children help with cooking.

While reading the story, encourage your children to say with Try Rannosaurus^® “Green food is yummy!” Auditory learning is vital. When children think and say positive words about veggies, they’re beginning the journey to healthy eating.

Be sure to discuss the food you’re highlighting when involved in one of the food activities below: its texture, its aroma, its taste, its goodness and how it helps the body.

Aiden says “Green food is yummy,” like Try Rannosaurus®.

First, read The Forest Feast to your children, then pick an activity:

1) Food on a Plate
Provide pictures of whole foods from supermarket circulars and magazine photos. Have the children glue them to a paper plate. If children are older than 4, they may cut out the photos themselves using safety scissors.

2)  Healthy Food or Junk Food?
Give your children paper plates or a piece of construction paper with a line drawn down the middle with a marker. Write HEALTHY on one side and JUNKY on the other side. Cut out pictures of junk foods like donuts, cookies, and potato chips, and pictures of whole foods, like vegetables and whole grains from newspapers and magazines. Have your kids glue their photos to t he appropriate side of the plate.

3)  A is for Apple… V is for Veggie
Provide your children pictures of whole foods and show them how to write the appropriate letter of the alphabet which corresponds to the food. I’ve offered (below) other whole food words for the letters which do not match to a fruit or veggie. You’ll want to be sure that there are more veggies in your list than fruit. The challenge for more children is eating vegetables, not fruit. Ask the children, ”Would Try Rannosaurus® would eat this?” and “Why?” Which veggies would be his favorite? Green veggies, of course. Discuss the textures, tastes, and how yummy each veggie or fruit smells.

Fruit: apple, banana, cherry, fig, grapes, kiwi, lemon, mango, nectarine, orange, pear, strawberry and watermelon.

Vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, carrot, dandelion (yes this is edible), eggplant, horseradish, kale, lettuce, mushroom, okra, peas, radish, spinach, turnips, watercress, yams and zucchini.

Other Whole Food Words for the Alphabet: eggs, julienne (to cut in thin strips), honey, vegetable, quinoa (a seed, not a grain, often eaten as a breakfast) and unleavened (without yeast or baking powder)

4) What Food is This?
After reading The Forest Feast to your children, have them guess the food in a picnic basket or cloth shopping bag. Prepare laminated pictures of whole foods or use plastic play food. Of course real fruit and veggies is best. Say “In my picnic basket/shopping bag I have some fruit. It is a red and it’s a berry. What kind of food is it?” Give the children a moment to guess, then take the item from the basket and show them a strawberry. Discuss the textures, tastes, and how yummy each food smells as you pass around the produce.

Another method for this activity is to blindfold a child (or have them close their eyes). Then place have them put their hands in the grocery bag or picnic basket. Have them describe what they are feeling and then guess what it is.

5) Genesis Connection
In discussions about whole foods and the forest animals, read Genesis 1, especially verses 11 and 12 (God created the vegetation) and 24 (God created the animals). Talk about how vegetation was designed to keep our bodies strong and healthy. For additional discussion about dinosaurs read Job 40:15-21. What is a Behemoth? He eats grass. He is very strong like bronze and iron. He is extremely big and his tail is as large as a tree. What animal does that sound like? Click Here for more information on dinosaurs in the Bible.

6) Veggie Dip
Prepare Julienne strips of veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) with either a hummus or avocado dip. Ask the children if Try Rannosaurus® would eat this. Why? Which veggies would be his favorite? Give each child a small paper plate with each of the veggies and a dollop of dip. Discuss the textures, tastes, and how yummy each veggie smells.

7) Fruit and Vegetable Prints
Materials Needed:
Paint or ink (to make tempera paint thicker and stickier add a touch of flour or glue).
Sponges
An old cookie tray or Styrofoam tray.
Paintbrushes
Water and water containers.
Paper and a covered work area.
Fruits and veggies of all kinds: carrots, starfruit, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, avocados, and apples.

Method:
1) Cut the fruit and veggies (an adult should do this).
2) Dip them into paint or printing ink and stamp them onto paper in random or ordered patterns. Kinder artists may instead apply the paint or ink directly to the vegetables with a paintbrush. It’s a good idea to put the paint on a sponge so that when an object is dipped into the paint, the sponge will only let off a little bit of paint… a little is all you need.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for The Forest Feast.