Need some healthy yet patriotic snacks for this coming Fourth of July? Check out these no-sugar-added fruit treats.
Like most of America, we will likely be staying home this Fourth of July. I still want to make the day special for the kids, so I came up with four, Fourth-of-July inspired fruit-filled treats to make at home. The first is a red, white and “fruit” platter in the shape of an American flag. The second is a bitty bite cup filled with watermelon stars, blueberries and pineapple. The third and fourth snacks use the leftover fruit from the first two treats to make red, white and blue smoothies and popsicles.
Not only are these snacks delicious, but they are also a fun way to encourage the kids to eat healthy snacks. An added bonus is that they’re incredibly easy to make. If you’re lucky enough to get out this Fourth of July, the first two snacks would be a simple and refreshing dish to make ahead of time and take along for an outdoor picnic or party.
The best part is you can make all four fruit snacks using the same four ingredients (plus water and ice). Just start with the flag because that’s where the leftover fruit comes from for making the next three snacks. Don’t have time to make all four? You can freeze the leftover fruit and make smoothies and popsicles at a later date.
Ingredients and Equipment:
Here is what you need to make all four snacks:
Ingredients:
- Whole pineapple
- 6 oz container blueberries
- Watermelon
- Banana
- Crushed ice
- Water
Optional ingredients:
- Lemon, lime, or orange juice
- Food coloring
Equipment:
- Stainless steel fruit and veggie cutters (I use these
)
- Blender or immersion blender (I have this hand blender
)
ONE – Red, White and “FRUIT” Flag Platter
I realize it is still June, but I’m posting this instructional now because you’ll need to order these
To make the star-watermelon pieces, start by prepping your pineapple and watermelon.
For the pineapple: cut the top and bottom off of the pineapple. Then use a sharp knife to slice along the sides of the pineapple to remove the rind. Lay the pineapple on its side and cut it into approximately 1/2 inch thick rings (keep the core).
For the watermelon: I had already sliced my watermelon into triangles, but you can get more shapes out of the watermelon if you just slice it into 1/2 inch rings. Leave the rind on.
Sources: Fruit Cutters
After prepping the watermelon and pineapple, you’ll need the star and large flower fruit cutters to cut out the fruit shapes. The watermelon is a breeze to cut. Just use the large flower cutter to cut out 11 circular pieces. Then use the star cutter to remove the center of the watermelon circles. Reserve the leftover watermelon stars for the bitty bite star cups.
Unlike the watermelon, the pineapple is not as easy to cut with the fruit cutters. But do not get discouraged! Indeed, this whole watermelon-pineapple combo resulted when I realized it is nearly impossible to cut a perfect star out of pineapple. Just do your best to cut out a star shape. Then fill in your watermelon flowers with the pineapple stars. You may have to trim your pineapple pieces so they are not too tall. When you combine the stars with the watermelon, you can hardly see the imperfections. Cantaloupe or nectarines would be an easier-to-cut alternative. But the pineapple enhances the already-refreshing taste of the watermelon.
Use the heart cutter to make nine “stars” for the flag. Then line up your blueberries for the blue stripes in the flag, alternating with the watermelon-pineapple pieces. Remember that for the American flag, the red stripe goes on the top and the bottom.
The kids and I did a test run of these so I could take photos, and they had a lot of fun helping me cut out the various pieces. We did make a slight (ok—giant) mess, though. So if you are crunched for time or mess-averse, do this one yourself and surprise the kiddos.
I left the platter out all morning, and it was gone by lunchtime. The fruit flag could be upscaled for a larger group by changing out the platter or by layering the fruit slices. Alternatively, you could make just the watermelon-pineapple bites or the individual shape components of the dish for a fruit salad.
TWO – Bitty Bite Star Cups
After you finish making the American flag out of fruit, you will have quite a bit of fruit leftover along with a lot of tiny little star cut-outs.
To take advantage of all this fresh fruit, I simply sliced up the remaining pineapple and watermelon and spooned it into small cups with the blueberries to make individual fruit salads.
I put mine in these bitty bite cups from Crate & Barrel, but you can also use disposable clear plastic cups for easy cleanup. Pretzel sticks are a good cutlery alternative.
THREE – No-Sugar-Added Fruit Smoothies
Now at this point, you could take a break and put all of your leftover fruit pieces into freezer storage bags to make smoothies and/or popsicles at a later date. But if you want a delicious breakfast meal or afternoon snack, keep on going. To make the smoothies, you will need your leftover fruit from the projects above plus a banana for added sugar and creaminess.
One of my favorite kitchen appliances is my immersion blender (linked here
For this Fourth of July-themed recipe, you’ll basically be making three “mini” smoothies out of the leftover fruit to get the red, gold, and blue components for the smoothie.
Here’s the recipe:
- 1/3 banana
- 1/2 cup fresh or frozen fruit of desired color
- 1/4 cup ice
- 1/4 cup water
Starting with your first color, put all four ingredients into the blender and combine until smooth. Depending on freshness of fruit, you may need to add more banana if it needs to be sweeter. You can also add lemon, lime or orange juice to brighten the flavor. Pour the smoothie into a separate container and refrigerate it while you make the next color.
Repeat these instructions for the next two colors of fruit. Then, alternating colors, use a spoon to combine all of the smoothies into clear glasses. For a pretty garnish, top off your smoothie with leftover fresh fruit star cut-outs and blueberries.
Each smoothie recipe makes a one cup smoothie. Multiply up if you are serving a bigger crowd or you could use smaller cups.
FOUR – Patriotic Popsicles
These popsicles are by far one of my favorite healthy snacks to make for the kids. They’re a great way to use leftover fruit so it doesn’t go to waste.
To make the popsicles, all you have to do is follow the instructions for the smoothie recipe above. You can add blue food coloring to the blueberry smoothie if you want more of a true-blue color, but au naturale works too (compare the above and below photo to see the color difference). Then pour the smoothie liquid into your popsicle molds and freeze until the popsicles are hard (freezing time varies depending on the mold you use, but mine takes about 3-4 hours). I have these inexpensive molds from Walmart (I think I paid less than $1 for them).
There are also a lot of cute options online. If you don’t have popsicle molds, you can use any plastic or silicone cup and put a “stick” in it (I’ve used spoons when I couldn’t find sticks). Run warm water over the mold before removing the popsicle so it comes out easily.
And that’s it for Fourth of July treats! Pin the images below or above if you need to save these snack ideas for the actual date. Need Fourth of July decor inspiration? See how I made three July 4-inspired flower arrangements (link to the blog post here).
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