Grapes

[SilverSabre25]

You can cut them up ahead of time, just toss them with a little lemon juice before storing in an airtight container in the fridge. It keeps them from browning so quickly. If the kids taste the lemon and hate it, just give them a quick rinse before serving.

Excellent, thank you! How long do they keep?

[MG&Lsmom]

We can't serve grapes to the under 3 crowd, even cut up. Also included on the list are nuts and nut butters, any dried fruit & hot dogs.

[kendallina]

I would love to serve grapes to the preschoolers, but don't just for that reason. Doing them ahead of time would be nice...haven't tried the lemon juice trick, but it works with other fruits, so I should try it...

[ninosqueridos]

Speaking of grapes, my DS who is almost 4 was gagging on them this morning. They were red, seedless and cut in HALF. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be the grape itself, but the skin that gets kids gagging.

NANNYDE thank you for posting that article - My dcps repeatedly send 5 out of those 10 things for their kids all the time (they provide lunch, and while they don't need to, they send in those items for snack).

When I tell them that their kid was choking on x, y, z....they look stunned like wow, they are fine with them at home. I end up cutting food up for them all the time (even things like strawberries they send in whole for young toddlers). I just had to give backblows to my 20 month old last week who was choking on a strawberry. Ugh.

[momofsix]

I always quarter the grapes. the big kids whine about it, but they're not choking at my house! I do it in the morning, enough for that day and they're fine.

[broncomom1973]

I just pop into the food processor the total serving size for all the kids and zip them. The kids love the puree fresh grapes and it saves all the chopping.

Well, that sure would save alot of time. I certainly do not plan on doing the heimlich maneuver anytime soon, . I am a "freak" about dicing things up. When I do grapes I slice them in half lengthwise, then rotate them 1/2 turn and slice them again lengthwise and then slice them across the lengths so that each grape is literally in 12-16 little diced up pieces. Dh bought me an awesome food processor a few years ago so I could puree up veggies for the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jerry Seinfelds wife, but it is so darn complicated to use that I rarely use it. I did however, just come across a mini processor I had sitting behind my toaster, so I will try the grapes in there next time...... Im sure it will save me a tremendous amount of time.

[nannyde]

Well, that sure would save alot of time. I certainly do not plan on doing the heimlich maneuver anytime soon, . I am a "freak" about dicing things up. When I do grapes I slice them in half lengthwise, then rotate them 1/2 turn and slice them again lengthwise and then slice them across the lengths so that each grape is literally in 12-16 little diced up pieces. Dh bought me an awesome food processor a few years ago so I could puree up veggies for the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jerry Seinfelds wife, but it is so darn complicated to use that I rarely use it. I did however, just come across a mini processor I had sitting behind my toaster, so I will try the grapes in there next time...... Im sure it will save me a tremendous amount of time.

That's how I used to do grapes until I fell madly in love with my processor.

I'm into it for a couple of years and I gotta say Seinfelds wife is right. Kids love puree. My 4.5 y/o real life princess is my biggest puree eater of the bunch. I puree SO much now... to sneak into their stews. They don't even see it coming

I put up a lot of in season veggies in puree and serve as sauce or stick in stews. My kids had spinach today in their stew that came from last spring.

If you don't want your processor you can send it my way.

[Missani]

Thanks for the lemon juice tip...whoever said that. I will have to remember that. I don't mind the cutting, but it would be nice to do a few servings at once and save them.

Also, if you serve grapes to your dck (I do...they love them), I've heard that they should be quartered. I always quarter grapes and thought I was weird, but once I went to a training and learned an interesting fact: grapes are actually more hazardous cut in half than they are whole. I guess it's because the "flat" side can lie against the trachea and kind of get wedged there. This makes it harder to "eject" with the Heimlich maneuver if needed and if it gets caught that way. It made me feel better to know that I wasn't weird, but now it makes me cringe when I see people cutting grapes in half for small children because they think they are helping and doing the right thing when in fact, they may be making it worse. Just a suggestion...

[Cat Herder]

We can't serve grapes to the under 3 crowd, even cut up. Also included on the list are nuts and nut butters, any dried fruit & hot dogs.

Same here, but they have no problem with grape preserves.....

[Sunny Day]

We daycare ladies are probably the fastest GRAPE CUTTERS IN ALL THE LAND!!! I swear I spend a large quantity of my time doing just that! ::

[SilverSabre25]

Do you guys store grapes in the fridge or on the counter? If on the counter, how long do they last (assuming they're not eaten first, which is the likeliest case in my house, )

[cillybean83]

i keep them in the fridge...or freezer for smoothies

[kendallina]

Fridge. Dh will only eat fruit if it's cold.

[Danielle]

My kids love fruit so I've just been cutting up a big batch and keeping it in the fidge. Right now we have a big bowl of grapes, strawberries and blueberries. I cut the grapes on Sunday and they aren't browning..though they are a little pink on the edges from the strawberries. The kids have been eating them just fine.

[mickey2]

Freeze them! Cut them up, put them in baggies or small containers and freeze them!
My kids love them like this. Especially the teething babies.

I do this with strawberries, bananas, watermelon, etc


I live in the country. To go into town and back is an hour plus the time it takes to shop so when I do go I get everything that I need sometimes for up to two weeks!