I sheltered my daughter from sweets as long as possible. This was despite the fact that some of our relatives (I'm not mentioning names here) have bowls of candy that their children can freely eat from. But when she entered preschool, I found that I had to relinquish this control-hold a little: There are going to be sweets and it's not fair to deny her completely.
I was able to instill a love of real fruits and vegetables in her and to this day she will get excited about a bowl of fresh strawberries for dessert or an apple for a snack. But she does like treats, too.
I was so dismayed when shopping one day she picked out some "squishies" as she calls fruit chews. I wasn't dismayed that she wanted a treat but by the fact that not only are they marketed with every licensed character imaginable, but that they were packed with sugar, sugar, and well, high fructose corn syrup (sugar). Not much fruit in them at all.
And then one day I saw a new box in the sea of marketing ploys aimed at young children. It was Fruitabu Organic Smooshed Fruit. I thought that it must be too good to be true. I was happy when I turned the box over and saw that not only were they made from real organic fruit, but there were no additives, no artificial sweeteners or flavors. I bought a box and we've been hooked ever since.
My daughter includes these in her "treats" food group and I'm not going to tell her that I consider them to be good for her.
Fruitabu is made by Stretch Island Fruit Company and come in two varieties. Fruitabu Flats are fruit leather and Fruitabu Twirls are fruit roll-ups. Both types of smooshed fruit are available in apple, apricot, grape, raspberry, strawberry. They really are "portable real fruit." Though I will mention they are a little on the sticky side, but no bother.
They are widely available in stores and online, though the store I buy them at only carries apple and strawberry twirls.
WIN IT: One luck Full Mommy reader will win three coupons, each good for one Fruitabu product (retail value $12). To enter, leave a comment here by midnight (eastern), Friday, May 2, 2008 (anonymous comments with no e-mail are not valid entries). In your comment, please tell us one thing that is on your mind about the environment, something that you already do that is earth-friendly, or an action that you want to begin. If you've already tried any of these Fruitabu food products, let us know what you think. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced on Prizey Winners. See our Tips For Winning for further entry information. Open to residents of the US only, please.
(This was written by Leeanthro who can be read at Soy is the New Black where she dishes about family, food, foraging, and frivolity. While many of the products she discusses are sold only through boutique or specialty stores, some are widely available at national stores and online.)
118 comments:
My kids love Fruitabu. Great variety of flavors (that are actually fruit and not fruit-flavored).
Fruitabu is awesome...my girls think they're getting such a treat when I pull these out!
I think these sound good. I'm not sure if my daughter will get a chance.
These look tasty. I think my son would enjoy them in his lunches. I've always been a bit of a health nut where he is concerned, and often pack lunches consisting of dinner leftovers in a thermos or insulated reusable plastic container. He likes getting a variety of foods for lunches, and I like that his lunch packaging doesn't end up in a landfill.
These sound great! We've started using cloth tote bags when shopping and I'm currently making cloth napkins to use instead of paper.
My daughter loves the fruit twirls and fruit leather. I love the no added sugar.
We compost and are just about to plant our vegetable garden!
I've just started using reusable shopping bags, generally I remember to keep them in the car, but forget to bring them in the store. We're also weaning off of bottled water, switching to refillable, non-BPA alternatives.
We use cloth diapers and wipes instead of disposables.
These sound great! We currently get another brand of smooshed fruit, but I would love to try Fruitabo.
I love Fruitabu!!!! Wish it wasn't more expensive to eat healthy!
Right now I bring my own cloth bags for shopping. I always turn off the lights in the room we're not in and make sure we don't waste water.
My daughter loves Fruitabu's! We use reusable lunchbags and glass containers in them, and I'm going to make some wrapamats for our sandwiches.
sarah dot brassard at gmail dot com
WE LOVE Fruitabu's! We recently installed a Greenwood furnace in our house. It burns wood so hot, their is no smoke. We live on a lot of acreage with woods, so we just clear out the already down trees. It is 90% efficient! Plus it uses little to no electicity to run. Love it!
We love the fruitabus. Just like your daughter my son thinks we are 'letting' him have a treat. My thoughts on the environment right now are the things I CANT recycle. We are trying to call our local recycling places and noone seems to know what to do with certain things (#6 & #5's) -I worry we are losing a chance to recycle some things
These sound great. We try to do our best for the environment by using canvas tote bags for groceries, using CFL bulbs, and using all hand-me-downs for our child's clothes and toys!
My kids LOVE fruitbu! I just started getting the kids to help w/ recycling.
mcginnisfamily5(at)gmail(dot)com
My son loves fruitabu, especially grape. We are all about the cloth bags for shopping. I am trying to teach my son to be conscious of what happens to things he throws away.
recyclebin@att.net
Fruitabu sounds delicious! My new goal is to save and reuse jars and containers that food products come packaged in. I especially love reusing glass containers as I try to reduce the amount of plastic in our home.
jennj44(at)hotmail(dot)com
I love finding new yummy, organic treats for my son.
We have recently installed a water filter in our house, so we can reduce our use of bottled water
krisindam at mac dot com
My kids are very enviro-friendly, they are the kids at the park who pick up litter before playing.
i always you cloth bags for grocery shopping
We have not tried FruitBu yet but would like too. BPA has been on my mind a lot lately
We use re-usable grocery bags, recycle and are replacing cleaning products with "green" ones. I would love to win this to try it out! Thanks for the great giveaway.
We've started recycling with our waste removal company
Ive been thinking a lot about recent finds of prozac in our water supplies :(
amiramurphy at gmail dot com
I try to use reusable shopping bags, and we've tried to eliminate bottled water, using SIGG bottles instead.
We have a small veggie garden and grow most of our own salad fixings.
We've been cloth diapering our kiddies and trying to remember our reusable bags! :) But we love Fruitabu! :)
I've had these - they're not bad!
I'd love to start recycling more!
We just started cloth diapering! Way to go green
I carry reusable bags in the car and the diaper bag.
We've begun carrying our clothes bags into the store. I've never tried this before. I hope to win!!!
The most important thing I do for the environment is to try to not buy things from China. It's not easy! Because their environmental policies are 1880's era reprehensible!
I am building my supply of reusable shopping bags, I hope to have enough soon for the entire shopping trip. Thanks for the giveaway, I've always wanted to try these!
katie at dekabyte dot com
Sounds like a delightful alternative to other "brand" name "fruit" snacks.
I have become very concerned about plastic water bottles. I see people buying it buy the cart fulls. Previously, I thought when we used the recycle bin here at our home, they were being recycled. I guess this is not the case! Please enter me in your drawing. Thanks,Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
We recycle our plastic grocery bags and use the fabric reusable kind now. We also use biodegradable detergents.
we have not tried Fruitabu, I'd love to win. I use my totes when shopping and compost and recycle as much as I can
tiramisu392 (at) yahoo.com
I would love to try Fruitabu! Im so glad to hear about it here.
This year we've gone *green* and doing as much as possible, especially saving power and looking into a Hybrid car.
Please enter me into the contest. My email is RainBubbles7 (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Thank you and have a nice day!
I would love to try Fruitabu! Im so glad to hear about it here.
This year we've gone *green* and doing as much as possible, especially saving power and looking into a Hybrid car.
Please enter me into the contest. My email is RainBubbles7 (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Thank you and have a nice day!
We use steel water bottles instead of buying bottled water (except for our youngest, who's still nursing). Next up: more scratch cooking and less processed food! Thanks for the contest.
emhagedon at gmail
I'd love to win this one, my 3 year old loves this stuff and so do I. I am now switching completely over to cloth totes and hopefully someday I can buy a hybrid car... thats a dream at this point though!
num1twinkie at yahoo dot com
I've tried the Fruitabu Twirls and I think they're great (although they are very sticky!). I keep hoping that Fruitabu will come out with a healthy fruit snack alternative because my daughter and I both love fruit snacks.
One earth-friendly thing we do as a family is leave the lights off and open the windows on sunny days (which is basically every day here in AZ).
Thanks for hosting this great contest!
Stephanie@metropolitanmama.net
Oh, these look interesting. It looks like they're kosher too. Most fruit snacks aren't and those that are kosher are full of sugar. I'd love to give these a try.
As far as the environment, we're now using some reusable bags instead of plastic. Those plastic bags that we do use, we bring back to the store to recycle.
Just this weekend I decided to start to stop using scrub sponges to wash dishes and instead use washable crocheted washcloths. I figure every little bit helps.
We use cloth diapers and try to use cloth bags instead of plastic. My kids would love to try Fruitabu.
mccammacks(at)sbcglobal(dot)net
I try hard to be environmentally friendly.
I would love to try Fruitabu! I've had something similar, but it was too expensive to buy often. This sounds delicious!
I just bought some of the Trader Joe's Kitchen Cloths in order to try to stop using paper towels in the kitchen. It picks up spilled liquids in a flash!
Why do people slaughter and eat cows and lambs here but not dogs and cats? They ALL suffer and feel pain. 10 billion raised and killed a year. It is not necessary - stop the obesity epidemic in this country.
we use reusable shopping bags
We stopped using paper plates, paper cups and paper napkins. We also stopped buying bottled water and just use refillable ones.
One thing that is always on my mind is packaging. I can't believe how some things are packaged these days. WE use reusable shopping bags & I've also made a few sheer bags to use for produce.
The one thing that I am especially proud of is we re-use our empty teddie peanut butter jars as drinking glasses, food storage and other things.
Thanks!
I would love these! Living in the desert, wasting water is on my mind.
We cloth diaper, bring reuseable shopping sacks and use renewable energy. We LOVE Fruitabu here, the grape is so juicy tasting, its just heavenly!! And really calms my sweet cravings I get!
I've been interested in learning more about composting. Great giveaway, thanks!
We use cloth tote bags for all our shopping.
We use cloth grocery bags and recycle as much as we can. Both of my daughters love Fruitabu! Their favorite flavor is strawberry! Not only do they taste great, but they are 100% fruit!
Yum! Pick me!
toriosorio at gmail dot com
I compost, collect rain and kids bath water for the garden, reuse plastic bags and reuse milk jugs for planters and watering containers. Love to try these Fruitabu products!
I have not tried these, but I think my kids would love Fruitabu! We are very environmentally conscious. I pack my children's lunches all in resealable containers that they bring home. Plus, my kids all walk to school to save gas!
vanillaglitter@gmail.com
I have tried these, and they are SO good! I bought mine at a local grocery and not only do they have a great taste, they are a good deal! They also pack perfect when hiking and lunching or snacking...
I would like to start using the water form my showers to flush my toilet.
Wow- I've been wanting to start a garden here=) jbubolz-miller@hotmail.com
We use green laundry detergent, have started a garden, and are renovating our house with earth-friendly materials. Would love to try Fruitabus! madampince61@gmail.com
Sounds yummy!
We recycle as much as we can.
I have been thinking about eco friendly cleaning products
We would love this! We are recycling, using reusable bags, switching to energy efficient light bulbs, and not buying cases of plastic water bottles! Thanks!
Thanks!! We use SIGG bottles, cloth grocery bags and always recycle.
one thing on my mind: potable water shortages
something I already do: buy local
action I want to begin: remembering to bring reusable bags along when I shop
I take my own bags when I go shopping.
We use only the necessary itilities...we turn of lights, do not let water run, lower the heat, walk when we don't have to drive.
THANKS FOR GREAT CONTEST
I have reusable water bottles for my 3 kids. They have to bring in water everyday (we live in FL) for their gym class. I wash and refill instead of giving them a new prefilled bottle everyday. I do the same w/ my cofee when I go to work in the morning.
We also switched out our bulbs!
Ha! I bet they taste great I would eat them myself:) And kids? I think these sweets are as good as can get for begging kids!
I want to get stainless steel water bottles so I can stop buying bottled water.
My sons love the Fruitabu fruit roll-up snacks. As a family, we use re-usable bags and use cloth bags when shopping. We try to be an eco-friendly family by recycling, buying locally, and conserving energy whenever possible!
I'm trying to get into eating more healthier. So being vegetarian these sound fantastic!
I think recycling should be a law--it's a crime that only a handful of my neighbors actually recycle. The Fruitabu snacks are good.
I am trying hard to get my son off the sugar filled fruit snacks. This would be a perfect substitute
Use canvas bags for shopping.
I'd love to try Fruitabu and pass 'em on to my lil cousins who snack at my house once a week!
Fruitabu is fantstic!!!! Great product
Yummy! My son got one of these from his dance friend last week - he agrees - YUMMY!!
We put all our plugs on power strips, and we turn off all the strips when we go out or go to bed.
I recently switched out all of our lightbulbs for CFLs; I can't wait to see next month's electric bill to see how much impact it has on our power usage.
We have had our eyes on Frutabus for a while now. Would LOVE to try them! We currently recycle and use green cleaning products to help minimize our impact on the environment.
luvmybabybee at gmail dot com
Currently we reuse whatever we can -- use all natural dishwasher detergent, fluorescent light bulbs, and recycle! We haven't tried fruitabu but they sure look yummy!
We're using reusable shopping bags and non-toxic cleaning products. I haven't seen Fruitabu in my supermarket, but we'd love to try it.
Fruitabu are yummy! We recycle, use cloth diapers, cloth napkins, handtowels vs paper towels, reusable shopping bags, microfleece instead of kleenex.... there's always more I want to do, though! Thanks for the chance!
aaronandjulie719 at yahoo dot com
I would like to switch to energy efficient light bulbs. We already recycle almost more than we throw out.
We have tried the Stretch Island Fruit Leather, but I don't think it is Fruitabu. Would love to try these!
This year we are trying to grow some of our own veggies so we don't have to buy as many from the store!
lucycontest at gmail.com
We have recently started composting. We have also ordered a worm composter. My current obsession is to make a rain barrel :)
I bicycle almost everywhere.
theyyyguy@yahoo.com
i live in an apartment buliding, so i always see people throwing away cans and bottles instead of recycling them, so i pick up the bags and recycle them myself.
I use my kids worn out t-shirts to wipe up spills rather than using paper towels.
OOO We'd love to give them a whirl!! As for eco friendly stuff we recently changed over to all eco friendly cleaners and laundry detergents as well as recycle of course and reuse alot of paper products
Conserving water and electricity, re-usable shopping bags, and the "new" light bulbs :)
froggypartyof2 at aol.com
I keep fruit snacks on hand for when my grandkids visit. I would love to win some Fruitabu.
Nanette
nanoart@yahoo.com
We've switched from disposable plastic water bottles to a water filter and reusable bottles
We use a programmable thermostat to lower the heat and a/c while we're sleeping or away from home. We lowered the temp on our water heater and we use a clothesline for drying clothes.
I let other people know what they can do to help the environment, people always think that you have to do a lot, but even a little bit helps, and spreading the word about how easy it is, really helps.
I've never heard of Fruitabu. It would be wonderful to be able to give my girl a treat I feel good about.
nidawkins(at)gmail(dot)com
Have people beware that their rooftops shingles are messing with our earth. Ya need to get metal Shingles. To much Asphalt in shingles. this helps our earth.
I would love to use my car less. I really want to try these Fruitabu - I have heard such great things.
smesarch@yahoo.com
I would like to try and drive less but it's hard since I work 16 miles away. I've just joined freecycle.org to try and trade stuff that I have instead of throw it in a landfill.
I am worried about the amount of trash we are throwing away. We have been buying more fresh food (comes in less packaging) and recycling more.
egreca [at] hotmail [dot] com
I started saving all my kitchen waste for compost over the last few months (in a bucket on the deck!) and now I'm looking forward to building a compost bin for it for the summer. Thanks for the giveaway!
Wow, I love the looks of this. Going to look for it even if I don't win!
I have been worried about the food crisis lately. We just bought a diesel car and will be buying a processing set up to convert waste veggie oil to biodiesel. Lots of small stuff too, but I think this is the biggest step we have taken!
I recycle the usual paper, cans, bottles, etc and donate useable stuff to organizations
I buy energy efficient appliances when I have to replace one. garrettsambo@aol.com
I'm worried about everything, but lately, particular, about bananas and honeybees. We try to do as much as we can as a family to reduce our carbon footprint and support the environment - buying organic, farmers market and local purchases, public transportation, recycling, etc.,
I use fabric bags for groceries.
I've never tried Fruitabu, but I'd like to. I'm trying to use reusable bags when I shop.
I haven't tried these but both my kids love fruit! Thanks.
I do alot of differant things but one thing I will start doing is making my own cleaning products, laundry powder and shampoo.
I recycle.
donna444444@yahoo.com
I just made my own grocery bags, the kind that fold into themselves and I store one in my purse, cuz I keep forgetting the stinkin' reusable ones!!! Now I don't forget anymore!
Well I'm learning; First we have learn to cut off the computor to save on carbon emission; fine tune the car to save on petro; recycle totes into every store we go; energy efficienct electric hot/cool pumps; efficiency termostats on everything possible. Oh we even have utilized this Christmas recycle paper/bows/tissue.
Fruitabu is awesome...
my grandsons would like to try these.
I carry a reusable canvas bag when I go grocery shopping.
Post a Comment