FAMILY FUN WITH FRUIT AND FRUTTARE

If you ask your family if they like fruit, chances are they will say yes. They might say “I love watermelon Jolly Ranchers” or “Grape lollipops are my favorite”—but when you get right down to it, families tend to miss out on products made with real fruit.

Getting your family to  eat more fruit can seem like an impossible task, so I have partnered with Fruttare Fruit Bars to share tips and fun family-friendly activities with fruit.  I love that Fruttare Fruit Bars are made with real fruit that you can taste, like strawberries, bananas, pineapples, coconuts, black cherries, among other delicious fruits. My favorite Fruttare Fruit Bar is pineapple, and I love that it features delicious, ripe pineapples. Best of all, Fruttare Fruit Bars are only 60 – 140 calories (depending on the flavor).

The Fruttare Fruit Farm is one of the great ways that we are able to introduce fun, family-friendly, fruit-centric activities. A few weeks ago at The Shops at Wiregrass, I got to spend the afternoon teaching families how to make Winter the Banana dolphin—something that is fun for the whole family!

At the Fruttare Fruit Farm, we gave families a chance to see for themselves just why Fruttare Fruit Bars are such a great way to cool off in the famous Florida heat. Families participated in a strawberry bean bag toss and got to visit a miniature strawberry patch. They also planted their own strawberry plants and even got Fruttare coloring pages.

I had the chance to talk to local bloggers and moms from around the Bay Area andshare some simple tips and fun fruit-centric activities. Carlee Colonneso, blogger from Frugal and Fun Mom (@frugalandfunmom, @athomemoma) brought her kids to the Fruttare Fruit Farm and fell in love with the activity. She plans to make creating banana dolphins a fun new tradition with her family, too!

By the end of the day, families not only got to spend the afternoon eating delicious Fruttare Fruit Bars with me and the rest of the Fruttare Fruit Farm team, but they were also able to have fun spending time together and creating adorable banana dolphins —  a memory they won’t soon forget.

In case you weren’t able to make it out to the Fruttare Fruit Farm, here are the instructions to create yummy banana dolphins with your family:

Here is what you need for one serving:

1 banana
2 blueberries
2 strawberries
A knife and four toothpicks

Start by cutting the banana in half so that each side stands up on cut side down. Use the part with the stem to craft the dolphin’s nose and mouth. Cut the stem in half– this is where you will want to be very careful. Avoid cutting directly in the middle of the stem, instead cut from one side and go inward.

Next, attach two of the blueberries as eyes with toothpicks. Remove the stem of the strawberries and cut one of the strawberries in half and attach it to the tail of dolphin with toothpicks.  Cut some of the strawberries into smaller pieces. Put a small piece of the strawberry into the wedged open “mouth” of the dolphin that you created by cutting the stem.

The dolphin should be able to stand up on its own on the flat bottom you cut in step one. You have a yummy treat that was almost as fun to make as it is to eat.

Be sure to come to the Suncoast Credit Union 8th Annual Back to School Fair and visit the Fruttare Fruit Farm for even more fun with fruit!

I am Angela Ardolino writing on behalf of Fruttare Fruit Bars.