#Honestgoodness Recipe: Holiday Fruit Tree

Today's Foodstirs recipe is sure to help you beat the Mondays. Get the kids in the kitchen and whip up one of these #HonestGoodness fruit trees for your next holiday party!

Want a warm feeling, even when it's cold outside? Making this festive fruit tree together is the perfect activity to help keep the kiddies (and their parents) entertained--and healthy. A completed Holiday Fruit Tree also makes the perfect host/hostess gift or can be used as your very own show-stopping holiday centerpiece.

Holiday Fruit Tree

Serves 4

Kids can help:

• Wash fruit
• Organize the bowls of fruit in rainbow color
• Count toothpicks
• Older kids can push toothpicks into the apple (Parents will need to cut and push toothpicks into the carrot.)
• Push pieces of fruit onto the toothpicks
• Create patterns with the fruit

Ingredients

1 large apple, cored

1 large carrot, peeled

1 round slice melon or pineapple

1 cup whole strawberries, stem removed

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blackberries

1 cup tangerines

1 cup kumquats

1 cup grapes

1 cup pineapple

1 cup melon

1 cup kiwi

Toothpicks

Instructions

1. Wash and prep fruit. Set aside in individual bowls. To make the trunk of the tree, slice off the top of the apple that has been cored. Set the flat side of the apple onto a plate. Then stick the thicker end of the carrot into the center of the cored apple, peeling the bottom end until it fits.

2. Push several toothpicks into the apple. Before you begin pushing toothpicks into the carrot, cut them in half. Push the sharper, pointed ends of the toothpicks into the carrot.

3. Start pushing pieces of fruit onto the toothpicks. Continue until the tree is full. Using a star cookie cutter, cut out a star from a round piece of fruit such as melon or pineapple, and place on top of the tree. If you do not have a star cookie cutter, starfruit is perfect for the top of the tree.

4. Wrap the tree in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Toss together a delicious fruit salad with the fruit that did not fit onto the tree.

-Katie Romey, MS, RD, Foodstirs Chef

Make sure to share your fruit tree creations with us on social media by tagging #honestgoodness! Using this method, what other creations can you come up with?