Taste Testing Tuesday – #11

We’re back with another Taste Testing Tuesday! Today let’s see if we can figure out what your kids’ favorite type of salad is! A salad can be fixed in sooooo many ways that I can’t begin to list all the options, but here’s a few suggestions. Let’s start off with the main ingredient – lettuce!

We like to eat romaine lettuce but there are so many types of greens and lettuce you can try. Like fresh spinach, kale, iceberg lettuce, arugula, boston lettuce, swiss chard, green and red leaf lettuce and the list goes on!

Now let’s talk about “toppings” to include in your salad. Here’s some chopped onions, chopped celery and chopped red and orange (or green) bell peppers.

Next we have chopped fresh mushrooms, chopped apples and grated carrots.

More ingredients you might try could be chopped avocado, crumbled cooked bacon and dried cranberries.

More goodies might include croutons, chopped hard-boiled eggs, roasted cashews and roasted pecans.

Some grated cheese sprinkled on top adds a great touch. Here we have grated mild cheddar and finely grated Italian cheese mixture.

Set all the ingredients you’ve chosen for this salad out on the countertop or table. It’s nice to set it out like it’s a salad bar at your local restaurant. Start out with the lettuce and greens. If your child thinks they aren’t a fan of the greens, try to get a few small pieces in on the bottom layer that can be mixed in with the toppings and not noticed as much. 😉 Then let them heap on the toppings! Having toppings of various colors can help make the salad more appealing to the eye. Last but not least, have a little variety of salad dressings to top off the salad. Here we have Country French, Ranch and a make-it-yourself Italian.

Perhaps make your child’s salad in small amounts in case they don’t like some of the ingredients they pick. That way the whole salad isn’t ruined because of one unpleasant ingredient.

Look how nice and appetizing a salad can be!

The things you can put on a salad are almost endless! Think about things you see on a salad bar at a restaurant. Google salad ingredients. Add some chopped meat to up the amount of protein. Another fun part to eating a salad could be letting your child help shop for the ingredients. Ask them what they think would be good to include. Then let them help prepare the ingredients. The more they are included and the more praise they get for helping, the better the salad will look to them. 🙂 It’s ok if they don’t like every item, but compliment them on the ones they do try. Adding a comment on how much bigger and stronger their muscles will grow, might help too! Lol 😉 Have fun on your salad adventure!!

Taste Testing Tuesday – #10

We’re back with another exciting adventure for your taste buds! Ready? Today we’re trying dried fruit! While you can use any kind of dried fruit for your taste test, here are the 5 kinds of dried fruit that we are using today….

#1.) Raisins

#2.) Blueberries

#3.) Cherries

#4.) Cranberries

#5.) Strawberries

There are many more dried fruits to pick from like bananas, dates, figs, prunes, mango, pineapple, etc, etc. So if you use different fruit than the ones I used, that is absolutely fine!

Put a small bunch of each kind of dried fruit on a plate for each person doing the taste test.

If you have been following along each week with our taste test, you know what to do! If you’re new to Taste Testing Tuesday, be sure to go back and check out our other 9 taste tests. If you aren’t familiar with our tasting adventures, grab a piece of paper and draw a quick chart for recording what you think of each type of fruit you will be tasting. Here’s what mine looks like today:

Taste one fruit, decide what you think of it and draw a face in the corresponding chart box. A happy smiling face means you like it. A face that has a straight mouth means it’s just ok. And a frowning face means, umm, no thank you! Which fruit turned out to be the one you will ask mom or dad to buy more of please? Did you say “no, thank you” to any or them? I liked all of the fruit I tested but as you can see, Rick had a few that didn’t rank too high for him. Remember, it’s ok if your likes and dislikes are different from other people. Not everyone likes the same foods, so there is no right or wrong answer.

Now let’s add just a little more fun to today’s Taste Testing Tuesday. Take 2 or 3 pieces of each kind of fruit you have and mix them together on your plate.

Then WITHOUT PEEKING, take a piece and put it in your mouth…can you tell what kind of fruit it is just by tasting it but not looking at it? You could also have someone else put a piece in your mouth (after they have washed their hands, of course!) and you can see how many bites you guess the correct fruit. 🙂 I hope you’ve had fun with us today and maybe found some new types of dried fruit that you like to eat! Happy hugs to each of you! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #9

Hello again! We’re back with another round of Taste Testing Tuesday! Today’s main ingredient is vanilla greek yogurt. Or any kind of yogurt you would like to use. We will be using Chobani vanilla greek yogurt and trying it 5 different ways. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil to make a chart and draw a face for what you think of each taste test. Draw a smile if you like it, a straight face if it’s just ok and a frowny face if you don’t care for it. There is no wrong answer! (Don’t forget to try it plain to see if that is your favorite way.)

Put a couple of spoonful’s of yogurt into each little bowl. For our first taste test, let’s add some granola. Mmmm!

To the next bowl, let’s add a few blueberries.

In bowl #3, let’s add some miniature chocolate chips. (Oooo, did I see your eyes light up for chocolate chips?!)

In bowl #4, how about using some fresh or canned peach slices?

Just one more bowl to go! Let’s add cake sprinkles! That looks pretty cool! This bowl gets my vote for the best looking bowl!

Ok, so what did you think? Did you like them all? Which one is your favorite? Least favorite? What else can you think of to add to vanilla yogurt?

Not only are kids finding new things they like to eat through taste testing, but they are also learning that not everyone likes the same foods and that’s OKAY!! I saw this with our own grandkids last week. They looked at each other with more respect when they didn’t all like the same things but it was just fine that they didn’t. 😉 I hope you have fun testing out different ways to eat vanilla greek yogurt!

Until next week’s Taste Testing Tuesday, we’re saying so long! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #8

Hello and a happy Tuesday to you! It’s a GREAT Tuesday for us because 4 of our grandchildren are here staying with us and we are having a super-duper time being together! 🙂 They helped me with this Taste Testing Tuesday but we were having so much fun I forgot to take very many pictures. Oops! So Taste Testing Tuesday #8 is all about tasting different kinds of cheese. We have 6 kinds to try out…Colby, Smoked Swiss, Smoked Cheddar, Swiss, Muenster and American.

We started out with me drawing in the faces on the chart for what we each thought of each kind of cheese. Halfway through the kids took over drawing their own faces to express their thoughts so things got even funnier. 😉

Now for some cheesy grins! 😉 Little Miss said she liked ALL of the cheese.

This guy was not too impressed with smoked cheeses but Muenster was a definite YES! Although when his brother tried to give him Muenster with chocolate powder on it, that was a strong NO!

Middle brother liked some of the cheese, but some he could easily leave alone.

This guy was a good sport and let his Grandma talk him into participating. 😉 His favorite is Swiss.

We hope you’ll take a Taste Testing Tuesday Cheese test too! (Wow, that’s a mouthful!) Thanks for stopping by!

Taste Testing Tuesday – #6

It’s Tuesday again and time for your favorite blog post – Taste Testing Tuesday! 🙂 Today we’re checking out some tasty foods that go great with tortilla chips. (Most kids like tortilla chips, right? Let’s sneak in getting them to try some new foods that go great with them.) Get a piece of paper ready with your chart to write down what each person thinks of each taste test. Here’s the goodies we used this time: Tortilla chips…

Taco flavored hamburger…

Guacamole…

Refried beans with some cheddar cheese…

And hummus.

Guacamole and Hummus can be bought or you can make your own. I found LOTS of recipes for each online. Make it a fun time with your Taste Test by having everyone try the new things at the same time. Dish some of each food out on each person’s plate and give them a handful of tortilla chips. Letting each one draw a smiley face on their chart adds to the fun.

Feel free to switch out any of the food items we used and add some of your own. Salsa and sour cream could also be fun foods to add. Even mixing some of the foods together might be a hit. Enjoy! I hope everyone finds something new that they like! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #4

It’s Tuesday again! Time for another fun adventure of letting our taste buds try something new! What shall we try today? It’s a light green color and comes in long thin stalks. Can you guess what it is? It’s celery! Wait, wait, wait! Don’t turn up your nose at celery until you’ve tried these 6 ways of eating it. You might just find that you like it! Ok, first we start with some cleaned stalks of celery. I cut each stalk into 3 pieces. You can try it plain first, if you like.

Remember to make a chart of what you think of each flavor. The first way we’ll try is with peanut butter. Yum! If you can’t have peanut butter, maybe you can have cashew butter or almond butter. Be sure to ask mom or dad if you have any food allergies. (I am actually allergic to celery which is kinda sad.)

Just fill the convenient little trough on the celery piece with peanut butter goodness.

Is your mouth watering yet? Eat the celery with peanut butter and mark on your chart what you think about it. Really yummy? Just ok? Not so great, no thanks?

For our second taste test, let’s try adding cream cheese to the celery.

Use a table knife to scoop some cream cheese into the celery.

The white cream cheese looks so pretty on the green celery. What do you think of this combination?

For our next test, let’s use some cheese. We tried a can of Easy Cheese. This one is rather fun because you get to make the cheese squirt out of the can into your celery. Try and keep it IN the celery, if you can! It’s a really warm day here so our Easy Cheese wanted to melt and run all over everything, so watch out for that!

So that’s 3 ways to taste test celery.

Are they still looking a little boring to you? Well, then let’s jazz them up a bit! Let’s go with the peanut butter ones first…we’ll add a few raisins. Looking better already and raisins will add some sweetness!

Let’s see…how can we jazz up the celery with the Easy Cheese? Let’s add some grated cheese on top. Yep, that looks better too!

And for the ones with the cream cheese…you’re going to like this idea…let’s add a few chocolate chips! Now that looks like dessert!

Yum! Now that’s a pretty appetizing looking plate of snacks!

Which one turned out to be your favorite? Leave a comment and tell me what you think of our celery snacks. Hope you and your taste buds had a good time today! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #3

Welcome to another adventure with Taste Testing Tuesday! What’s your favorite food to pair with Ritz crackers? That’s where our taste test is taking us today. 🙂

Let’s give this a whirl and see what you like best with your Ritz! Gather up any ingredients you have on hand that you think might possibly work with a Ritz cracker…and even a few that sound kinda off the wall. I’m going to share a few with you that I taste tested today.

The first one is simply peanut butter and jelly. I used apricot jelly because that’s the kind of jelly I have open right now.

Or if you aren’t into peanut butter, try some cashew butter and honey. Watch out, the honey tends to run off the top.

Next I tried a small piece of honey roasted smoked turkey and some honey mustard.

I bet you’ll go for this one if you like pizza! I used pizza sauce and some grated mozzarella cheese on top. One word of caution, fix this kind right when you’re ready to eat it because the cracker will get soggy if it sits too long.

You’ve heard of cheese and crackers, haven’t you? I paired some cojack or colby-jack cheese with a Ritz cracker for this taste test.

Do you like tacos? Then try some salsa and some grated cheddar cheese on a Ritz. Again, this one will get soggy if it sits for too long before eating.

Here’s a fun one – melt a few chocolate chips and add just a bit of coconut oil to the melted chocolate. Dip your Ritz cracker halfway into the melted chocolate. You can let it sit on wax paper for a few minutes in the freezer to help the chocolate harden up again. Who can resist chocolate??

So now you have 7 suggestions for toppings to try on Ritz crackers! What toppings did you use in your test? Which one did you like the best? Which one did you like the least? Did you make a chart to record your thoughts?

Hey, it looks like someone has been taste testing at our house!

Have fun with your Taste Testing Tuesday for this week! I hope you find a new combination that you love! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #2

It’s time for another Taste Testing Tuesday! Today we will be trying ways to eat bell peppers or sweet peppers. In doing a little research on bell peppers, I found out that they are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin E. They have lots of iron and anti-inflammatory properties. So not only do their vibrant colors of green, yellow, orange and red make them appealing to the eye, they are also healthy to eat.

Bell peppers are easy to prepare. Simply cut out the stem area at the top and discard. Cut the pepper in half and throw away the seeds that are inside. Rinse and just that easy, you are ready to try a yummy way of eating them!

One suggestion is to cut the pepper in quarters and then each quarter in half to make little “boats”. Fill each one with your favorite egg salad or a cheese mixture.

You can cut the peppers in slices and use your favorite dip for dipping. Try using sour cream and adding some spices like cilantro, parsley or dill. For some reason, kids love dipping their food in something…lol.

Another idea I came across was for bell pepper nachos. Slice the peppers in thin strips and sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Heat in the oven or microwave just until the cheese melts.

If your kiddos just don’t go for peppers but you’d really like to sneak some healthy goodness into their diet, try hiding finely chopped pieces of pepper in things like meatloaf or meatballs. Or run the peppers through the blender and add them to pasta or spaghetti sauce. However you try them, I hope you can use these ideas to get some awesome bell peppers into your kids’ bellies! 😉 Be sure to stop back next week for another Taste Testing Tuesday! (And for fun crafting ideas in between!)

Taste Testing Tuesdays – #1

Happy Tuesday, everyone! We are starting something new today that I hope to continue at least through the month of August and maybe longer. It is often hard to get kids (and adults) to try new foods thus my idea was born for Taste Testing Tuesdays. We will try some different foods with different dips, for example, in the hopes of finding some ways kids (and adults) will enjoy eating foods they might ordinarily avoid. We will make it a little more fun by letting the kids record what they think of each item which will also make it nice for mom and dad to have a way to remember who likes or doesn’t like what! So let’s start our first Taste Testing Tuesday!

Today we’ll try raw carrots with 4 different items to dip them in. And we’ll try them plain, just by themselves. Feel free to change out what items you use for your kids. For our taste test we used Ranch dressing, French dressing, Sour Cream and Honey Mustard.

Put 5 carrots (at least, more is great!) on each person’s plate and add a little bit of each dipping item too.

The first carrot should be eaten plain (if you can get away with that) to see if maybe that will be their favorite way to eat raw carrots.

Try each type of dip with a new carrot so the flavors don’t get mixed together. (Unless, of course, they LIKE mixing the dips together and they will eat the carrots that way! Then have at it! Lol) As they taste each item, have them record on a piece of paper what they think of that combination. A smiley face for “Yes, I like it!”, a face with a straight mouth for “It’s ok.” and a frowning face for “No thank you!” Here is one idea for how you can set up your chart:

I used an 8 1/2 x 11″ piece of printer paper. The squares are 1″ in size. Then I added “Carrots” at the top so you remember which item this chart is about. I put names down the left side and the name of each dip across the top.

This is what it looks like with the faces filled in.

Maybe the kids will think of more food that might be good for dipping carrots in and this chart has room for recording 3 more. My hope is you will find some combinations that will make your kids ask for more raw carrots! (Though there may be those that only like to lick the dips off the carrot and not actually eat the carrot. Ha!)

Rusty thought it looked like fun and that he should be involved too. Since raw carrots are actually good for dogs, I gave him one to try.

While he thought it was great fun to toss the carrot around and chase after it, he didn’t really like the idea of eating it. 😉 I enjoyed our first taste test and found some combinations that I might want to try again. Good luck and have fun! Tune in next Tuesday for more Taste Testing Tuesday fun!