Healthy and Fun Summer Fruit & Veggie Snacks for Children

With kids home from school during the summer, there are plenty of ways to get them to eat their fruits and vegetables while also keeping it fun. Here are some ideas.

Slice a big round section of a watermelon as the pizza "base", and have the kids get creative with toppings, such as cream cheese, yogurt, or fruit preserves instead of tomato sauce, and their choice of healthy fruit toppings like strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. Drizzle with honey for extra sweetness, then cut into "pizza slices".

Purée 5 cups of blackberries in a blender. Strain purée through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing solids to extract as much juice as possible to yield 1.5 cups of purée. Discard solids. Heat 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, and ¼ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Stir lemon syrup into purée. Pour purée into 3-ounce paper cups or popsicle molds, and freeze until solid, about 3 hours.

Get creative with cutting up vegetables and having kids put them on a plate to make pictures. Broccoli trees, cauliflower clouds, lemon sun, and all kinds of interesting shapes made from pepper and carrot slices. Of course, in order to participate, the artists must eat their creation when they're done, either with a yummy dip or tossed in a salad.

Use sliced celery as the "log", slather the log with peanut butter, and push in raisins, blueberries or blackberries as the "ants". Bug-loving kids will love this one!

Alternate grapes, strawberries, and cheese cubes on skewers, then drizzle vanilla yogurt with honey and serve as dip for the kabobs. These kabobs are better for older children than younger (because of the skewers), but adults will love them too! Or, you can substitute veggies for fruit (such as cherry tomatoes, pepper slices, zucchini slices, peas, carrot slices, etc.), and nix the honey.

You'll need 3 pounds green grapes, Jolly Rancher gelatin dessert mix in 2 different flavors (one 3-oz box each), Jello mix in 2 different flavors (one 3-oz box each), toothpicks, and 1 cup of water. Pour 1/3 of a box of each flavor into small bowls. Poke a toothpick through the spot in the grape where the stem was attached. Using toothpick, dip grapes in water and roll in mix, then put in fridge to chill. Once chilled, you can remove the toothpicks, and even put these in the freezer for an extra cool summer treat!

In a blender, pulse 3 cups of raspberries and 1 tablespoon fresh red beet juice (or more beet juice for extra nutrition) several times. Add ½ cup honey and 1.5 tablespoons lemon juice, and blend until smooth. If desired, pass mixture through a sieve to remove seeds. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Kids will love the bright, rich red color and yummy, sweet taste of the raspberries. No need to tell them about the beets until after! Serve them alongside the Blackberry Lemon Pops.