This isn’t a recipe that I just came up with out of the blue. I’ve actually been making this for husband for ages. For many years he was a vegetarian and so I was always trying to come up with new and exciting recipes that would offer him protein and vegetables (unlike me, a total carnivore at heart). This dish is now a regular in our house. There’s almost always a bowl of it in the fridge because it’s so quick and easy to prepare, but it’s also healthy.
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a fantastic grain for kids because it has more protein then other grains, contains more calcium then milk, plus it’s easy to digest. Quinoa is also full of B vitamins, vitamin E and iron which 9% of toddlers, 700,000 in the U.S. alone have shown to have to be deficiency in.
I made this for my “kids dinner party” recently and all the little ones loved it. One of my friends kept saying her daughter “hates avocado”. Being kind of sneaky (I know! I’m all against sneaking foods, but this was just an experiment, I swear!), I asked her daughter if she wanted a bite of the quinoa mexicana salad and she said yes. When I tell you she gobbled up this dish AND the avocado it proves that sometimes, even little ones can be open minded to new flavors. You just never know.

Quinoa Mexicana Salad (makes 6-8 toddler servings)

1/2 Cup Quinoa, washed and drained
1 Cup Water
1/2 cup fresh or frozen Corn, cooked
1 Avocado, chopped
1/2 Cup Cherry Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Cilantro, chopped
1/4 Tsp Cumin
Salt to taste

1. Bring the water and quinoa to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover for 15 minutes.
3. Place the quinoa in a bowl and cool.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
5. Serve.

I recently went on a family vacation to Hawaii. I arrived in Kauai with dreams of making exotic dishes full of new and interesting ingredients. Kenya and I had a blast going to farmers markets every other day all over the tiny island. The locals told me to get there right when the markets opened and they weren’t kidding. I got to one market at 2:15pm (it opened at 2pm) and they were already sold out of several foods. What they did have though, in abundance, were the sweetest, juiciest and ripest mangoes, papayas, passion fruit, limes and “apple” bananas (a smaller, more dense banana that has a faint taste of, you guessed it, banana). As Kenya and I walked around the markets sipping coconut water (high in potassium and mineral content) right out of whole coconuts, we salivated at the macadamia and coconut baked goods, pink oyster mushrooms that looked like shells and other unusual fruits and veggies such as jack fruit and bread fruit. It was awesome!


Mangoes and papayas are both rich in beta-carotene and along with pineapple they’re all loaded with vitamin C. Recently back home, I’ve been buying passion fruit from our local farmers market for Kenya’s dessert after dinner and he loves them. They’re actually quite easy to find in most groceries, too. Just look for a shriveled, heavy, bright yellow or purple fruit (when it shrivels up s when you know it’s ripe). When you cut into it, passion fruit is loaded with sweet/tangy juice similar to the taste of guava with little edible seeds that are packed with vitamin A, potassium and dietary fiber. Kenya likes to eat them straight out of the shell, but they could also be sprinkled on yogurt or added to something like this fruit salad.
And trust me, the lemon or limes make this tropical fruit salad truly extraordinary tasting.

Tropical Fruit Salad (Makes 10-12 Toddler Servings)

1 Cup Mango, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1 Cup Papaya, peeled, seeded and cut into bite size pieces
1 Banana, peeled and sliced into bite size pieces
1 Cup Pineapple, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
2 Tbsp Lime Juice (you could also use lemon juice)
1 Passion Fruit, cut in half and use only the juice and seeds

1. Place the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Sprinkle the juice and toss in the passion fruit seeds all over the fruit salad.
3. Toss to combine,
4. Serve.