How do you make fruit and veg fun to help your children reach their five a day? Share your ideas with Change4Life for a chance to win a £300 voucher NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

We all know that fruit or veg is the healthiest option, but it can sometimes be tricky to get your children eating their 5 a day. With that in mind, Change4Life would like to hear about the ways you make fruit and veg fun so your children happily tuck in to the fruit and veg on offer.

Whether you arrange fruit and veg into faces, create fruit kebabs or have other creative ways to make fruit and veg fun - share your tips and ideas below.

Feel free to share images of your creations if you have any!

All who leave a comment below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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I think the best way is to serve it as part of the ordinary family meals, and to serve an interesting range of vegetables, cooked in a variety of ways.

Cauliflower cheese, roast root vegetables, vegetables braised or baked, all add flavour and interest to meals.

One thing I do is rather than make a mixed vegetable soup, (though that is a useful dish) is make soups featuring just one or two vegetables, Potato & Leek, French onion, tomato and herbs.

Most children like fruit, and few can resist fruit with ice cream, or a family favourite here fruit fool made with Greek yoghurt and fruit puree, especially rhubarb or strawberry.

Fruit with breakfast
Veg or salad with every other meal and snack
Fruit, veg and salad on the way home from school
Introducing new ones, persevering with ones previously disliked, relying on those in favour!
Grated courgette, carrot, parsnip, squash with everything possible!

Banana ice-cream (puréed frozen bananas) is good, but by and large I just present veg and fruit as often as possible and expect it to be eaten. Cajoling and hiding won't serve them well in the long run.

I always used to arrange DD's sandwich into a clown face shape - with 2 triangles for the bow tie, & various pieces of cut up veg for the nose (tomato), ears & eyes (cucumber), hair (carrot sticks or a few crisps).

Broccoli trees, etc. Nice presentation helps. We tell her about carrots containing vitamins that help the eyes, oranges & garlic being good to help against colds, etc. She's nearly 6 & fairly unfussy now - can usually eat 6 or 7 adult veg portions per day, given the chance. Her school do offer a good hot lunch, with vegetables and salad every day, and fruit as well as pudding (I suspect she usually chooses the pudding though!) We don't generally do pudding at home except very occasionally. Nor do we do snacks - never have, there doesn't seem to be any need for it. DD had milk between meals as a baby / toddler, which was sufficient. I suspect snacking just encourages a lack of self control & inability to cope with being slightly hungry for a short while - something humans have evolved to deal with.

I've never made it an issue so I've never felt like trying to make it fun either. I don't try to make meat or fish or weetabix fun, so I feel like if I spend time making veg fun then I'm making the issue bigger by giving it attention. Plus to be honest I'm too bloody tired to be arsed with arranging veg into facial features. Same with crusts; eat them, don't eat them but don't expect me to start chucking the edges in the bin for no good reason.

Fruit and veg are just part of the food we eat; they are tasty, colourful and they fill us up. If anyone chooses not to eat something at a certain mealtime then the only reason it would be an issue is if they have specifically said that's what they wanted when I started cooking (unless I've burnt it then they are forgiven ).

I did use to make hedgehog mashed potatoes with carrot sticks bit more for my benefit than DS!

We've been ridiculously fortunate (so far!) that both DC like most fruit and veg. I try to keep it varied, so have the basics in lile apples/bananas/oranges and then buy different berries or tinned fruit for some thing different. Corn on the cob is a novelty from just normal sweetcorn. Unfortunately they're not particularly into dips, or that would be another way to get some veg eaten. Then there's the classic blitzed veg in bolognese or chili con carne!

I am lucky that my daughter has always loved her fruit and veg.
As a baby we always had a variety of them at hand cut up into fun shapes.

We also let her pick her own fruit and veg when we go shopping, meaning she is more likely to eat them :)

Mine are 11 & 14 and the things that still work are:

Sticks of carrot celery sugar snaps to munch on just before a meal when they’re starving

Cut up fruit (apple done with mandolin) with squeezed lemon juice over

I have 7 children and the trick is to start young like as soon as you can!. And for them to see you and others around them eating it also.
I have no problems my children will even tuck into Brussels sprouts and parsnips plus cabbage my eldest doesn't like blueberries and they share the hatred for marrows but that's about it.
I'm one very lucky mummy lol.

Oh and also I should add .. we have an allotment where they help out to grow there own veggies that is a HUGE help... the look on there faces when you say look today we are eating the veggies that you grew how amazing are you!!

5 a day has been increased to 10 and over for a long while now. 5 being the minimum

My kids seem to like anything when its chopped up and presented in a small bowl and allowed to eat in front of the tv!

We make shapes and even cut out from melons rabbit or star shapes.

My two love frozen peas still frozen. Could be worse I suppose!

My toddler likes to wander around the supermarket with me and helps to choose/weigh the fruit and veg he likes and wants to try. He also likes being able to 'chop' it ready for cooking so he knows where it comes from and what it looked like before it gets put on his plate. He's a great eater.

Plenty of fruit and veg available. Mixture of dried, tinned, fresh and frozen. Three portions for breakfast, often overnight oats with raisins and frozen mixed fruit and a side of grapes. Or weetabix with strawberries, grapes and a prune or fig or dried apricot. They expect several bits of fruit for breakfast.

Apple/pear/banana for a snack. Taste tests, which variety of apple is your favourite? We also talk about fruit being in season.

Teach the children what size a portion is.

Three veg with dinner - mashed carrot, frozen peas, frozen broccoli. Pudding plain yoghurt and tinned pineapple or peaches or mandarins. Frozen bananas.

A bowl of cooked frozen diced veg whilst watching tv - dd loved this!

Salad with lunch - cucumber, olives, carrot sticks, cheese, crackers.

We only give them vegetable pizza and veg soup- home made or bought.

I find if three are not eaten by the end of breakfast it’s hard to hit 7/8 as they only get 1 or 2 portions in school meals/snacks. However ds loves melon due to school lunches - he wasn’t keen before.

Frozen, tinned and dried fruit veg keeps waste and cost down and is easy and quick.

I don't, they just like fruit and veg.

My two aged 5 and 6 are always offered veggies and fruit as a snack. I buy carrots and cherry tomatoes daily. We talk about nutrition, where food comes from, how it benefits you and also when nobody else is around about how much more comfortable it will be to do a poo if you've had sufficient vegetables. They always have a salad in their packed lunch or at lunch at home. Pudding is usually a help yourself from the fruit bowl job. Vegetables and Dr Karg crackers are always available on a help yourself basis.

Edible glitter in broccoli

I remember when I was little, when we had cherries, my Mother used to hang "pairs" of cherries over my ears like earrings, and we would sing a song about ripe cherries!

Ad for fruit I've always encouraged them from 6 months to hve regular portions of fruit which they have now grown up with. They come home from school and will have 4 portions of fruit. As a well done for fruit I've always allowed them a biscuit or 2 after.

As for vegetables at dinner time, I've always been strict and told them it's either what's cooked for dinner or they can go to bed hungry. They have never taken the latter option thankfully!

We always have a bowl of fresh fruit on offer for quick snacks and grabbing on your way out the door instead of sweets or chocolate.
We try new fruits but also make fruit salads instead of a pudding - cut up fruit is sometimes easier to eat.

I never really tried to make it fun. I treated it as normally as bread or any other staple ie it's simply something you eat.

My middle boy has no issues eating fruit and veg but my eldest point blank refuses to eat any type of veg. He's fine with fruit mind you which i imagine is because it's sweet! I try and cook home made food on a daily basis, that way not only do I know what is in it but I can also add whatever I like to it. When making sauces I grate and finely chop loads of different veg to his in the sauce and my kids have no issues eating it. I know if they saw the veg in it, it would be another story. I also don't force them to eat their veg. Although I know my eldest won't eat the veg on their plate I still put it on at every meal time and it's his choice whether to try it or not. I emphasise how nice the veg is when I'm eating it and my middle boy follows suit. All 3 of my boys love soup which is a fantastic way to get lots of veg into them. Blended up, they don't realise the quantity of veg they have just eaten. I also occasionally attempt to make funny faces our of fruit and veg to make it look more appealing. When shopping I try and get them involved too and let them pick the veg for our meals. Hopefully my eldest will start enjoy veg like his brothers do but until then I will continue hiding the veg in our sauces at meal times.