TM
st re ng t hing f a m ilie s f r o m w i t h i n
POWERED BY FOUR BARREL FITNESS
By Adam &
Kristin Kleinert
Taste the
“Real”
Rainbow
ummertime is the perfect
time to up your fresh food
game. Farmers markets
are springing up, roadside
stands are abundant and
the fresh fruits and veggies
at the supermarket are beautiful.
S
A delicious change from the produce we’re
forced to purchase in the colder months (we live
in the Midwest after all), the fresh fruit this time
of year is sweeter and the vegetables are much
tastier. Time to take advantage.
A couple of years ago, when the kids were home
from school for the summer and accompanying
Mom to the grocery, Dad came up with an idea
to make the shopping-with-kids experience a
bit more fun and interactive. Hence, the birth of
“The Color Game.” (It’s a lame name, we know,
but our kids were smaller when we came up
with it and now, it’s stuck. You can come up with
something way more creative at your house!) The
game gave the kids a stake in what we purchased
in the produce section at the grocery. In addition,
it often required us to explore new recipes and
methods for enjoying fresh food.
The premise was simple: Before we’d leave
the house, Dad assigned each kid a color. When
we made it to the fresh produce section of the
supermarket, they had to choose an item to take
40 EXTOL SPORTS / JUNE 2017
home that was a shade of the color they’d been
designated. One stipulation existed: When Mom
or Dad decided to serve each person’s chosen
item at our family dinner table, they had to try it.
This summer, the FamFitter family is
resurrecting The Color Game and we encourage
you to try it with your own family. Here’s a quick
guide to getting it started and a couple of points
you may want to think about before introducing
it to your household.
The Basic Idea
Each child is assigned a color. They must pick
an item from the fresh produce section of the
market in their assigned color.
If you’ve got less than adventurous eaters,
it’s good to start off with items they already like
or have at least tried before. You can always let
them choose something more adventurous a
couple of trips in, but you want them to enjoy the
experience enough that they want to participate
in the process repeatedly.
Now, when you’re ready to shake things up
a little, along with assigning a color include a
short list of “typical” produce from which they
may not choose. This is a great way to introduce
new items to the family table and it ups the fun
factor by encouraging kids to think out of the
box. For instance, if you assign the color red,
make strawberries and red peppers off limits.
You’ll end up with a more unique item in your
grocery cart and your family will have to branch
out a little from its comfort zone.