Midwestern Fruit Salad (and a little something for Mom)

Today's installment of Kids in the Kitchen is a little something I like to call Midwestern Fruit Salad!

I got the recipe from one of my favorite food blogs called Iowa Girl Eats.  Her recipes are delicious and on the healthier side, so you really can't go wrong.

She calls this Easiest Fruit Salad, because it is, indeed, the easiest fruit salad.

However, isn't there just something so very quintessentially midwestern about having marshmallows in a fruit salad?

Granted, I've only ever lived in the midwest, so I can't compare it to anything...

Anyway, the other plus is that the girls could do most of this.  

You need:
2 lbs of strawberries
1 15 oz can of mandarin oranges and 
1 11 oz can of mandarin oranges
4 bananas
1 and 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

(Recipe adapted from Iowa Girl Eats...I changed the proportions and the name :))

I hulled the strawberries and cut off the weird parts and divided them into 2 bowls:  1 for Leah to cut and 1 for Maggie to cut.

They were working really hard!

You'll notice that they are using plastic knives to cut.  The knives are gently serrated and much safer than anything else they could use.  Of course, I was always nearby to be sure they were being safe...don't want anyone to lose a finger ;)

They loved being grown up enough to cut!  Also, I didn't micromanage their cutting.  The pieces were not all the same size and that is A-OK!  We aren't on Top Chef :)

After they were done, we put the strawberries in a big bowl and popped it in the fridge until Gracie woke up and was ready to do the next steps.

I opened the cans of mandarin oranges and let her dump them in the strainer...

...and from the strainer into the bowl.

Then she added the marshmallows...

...and gave it a quick stir.

A quick and gentle stir...or else the walls get plastered with fruit salad.

Which wouldn't be the end of the world, I'd just rather not scrape marshmallows off the walls.

Maybe that's just me :)

Then it was slicing-the-bananas-time!

These girls are bananas about bananas!

I'm sorry, but I can't resist the whole bananas about bananas thing.

Just like I can't resist saying, "I'm nuts about nuts!"

I was super impressed by Gracie's slicing!  All of her slices were quite uniform.  Granted, a little on the big side, but uniform nonetheless!

Anyway, about the bananas.  You should wait until a half hour or less before serving to slice them and stir them in.

Ain't nobody got time for brown bananas.

Here it is in all of its delicious glory and the girls in all of their adorable glory!

Now, on to a little something for mom!

I don't know about you, but I get tired of boring lunches.  My girls love them some PB&J, but I'd rather not have a sandwich or boxed mac and cheese.

Enter The Hummus Plate!  I had the most delicious hummus plate while we were out of town and decided to recreate it at home for lunch!

There's hummus (I made mine {didn't peel the beans this time}, but you can certainly buy it), pita bread (I made mine, but you don't have to), sliced and halved cucumber salads, fun lettuce, sliced roma tomatoes, and kalamata olives.  You can use anything salty or briney or a little sour for the olives...some banana peppers or giardiniera (pickled vegetables) would be great, too!

Give the hummus plate a try for lunch! 

You could even serve it with some Midwestern Fruit Salad that your kids whipped up for you!

Don't forget to enter to win the beautiful Scripture print from yesterday!

I hope your day is great!