There are times when my kids don’t like a thing about dinner as much as I have tried to accommodate all tastes. They whine and complain and poke at their food until finally I get annoyed enough to dismiss them.

On nights like this, I worry about the kids getting all the nutrients they need. Oh, I know it’s a bit unnecessary because over the course of a few days they do pretty well, but I can’t help it. I’m a mom, after all. Worrying is in the job description.

Fruit: Anytime, all the time
Invariably, within an hour or two the child is saying, “Mom, I’m hungry.” And I pipe in with my usual refrain, “Have a piece of fruit.” Fruit is a required part of lunches and dinners at our house. After the main part of the meal, the children are reminded to pick a piece of fresh fruit before they are excused.

Clearly, we eat quite a bit of fresh fruit in this house. On days and weeks the kids seem to eat nothing else, they at least eat fruit. Phew, phew, and phew. Apples, oranges, and bananas. Grapes and pears. Peaches, nectarines, and plums. Kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, and cherries. Even mangoes and papayas when they go on special.

When I do the grocery shopping, I consider the market visit a success when the final total is almost half fresh fruit and produce. I consider it my personal challenge, even. I look for entrée recipes, too, that include fruit in some way. The kids love the sweet element, of course. I love that it’s getting all of us to eat the same thing without (much) complaint. There’s a berry chicken recipe we love that uses preserves for the cooking, but I try to garnish is with some of the fresh berries - when in season and reasonably priced.

Diverse fruit options
There have been weeks that the kids have eaten through all the fresh fruit in four or five days and we’re too busy to get to the market until our regular shopping day. For those times, dried and canned fruit is part of my backup stash of things – we make regular runs to Trader Joe’s for dried items. Freeze-dried mangosteen…yum!

The fruit requirement is one of those parenting things that I actually think I did right. Some days I think it might be the only thing!

Berry Chicken

1 small jar of berry preserves – strawberry, blackberry, or raspberry
1 8-oz can of tomato sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp or so dried thyme
1 tsp or so ground ginger
Chicken – breast pieces, thighs, drumsticks, wings, skin on or skin off, boneless or bone in. Your call.
Fresh berries to garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, combine the preserves, tomato sauce, vinegar, thyme and ginger. Whisk together well.

Roll each chicken piece in the sauce, then place in a shallow baking dish. Pour the rest of the sauce over the chicken.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Server with rice or egg noodles.

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