A Movie and Some Fun Food

Meet Tim. Tim was very tasty. Last Sunday the kids were recovering from a cold, so we had to stay in (because they like to take it upon themselves to build other children's immunity by licking walls and nibbling furniture). We watched "Turtle: The Incredible Journey", and made some fun food.

I think there is a misconception that kids who eat healthy foods are missing out. Yes. They are. Missing out on chemical flavorings, preservatives, and food dyes that can all have scary side effects (including allergic reactions in our family) on their little bodies. Missing out on fun? Never. Sure, I may have to be more creative. It takes a little more work to make fun foods from scratch. But we still do have fun. We don't sit around moping about what we can't eat in this house, we make it work for us. Like Mr. Turtle here. He is simply a double crust recipe of pizza dough, formed into balls, and then shaped into a turtle. I baked him for about 20 minutes at 350, then I pulled him out and brushed him with garlic, and olive oil. I sprinkled him with a little salt and stuck him back in the oven until he started to brown. Then we slathered him with pesto and my daughter ate his head. Good times. I think I probably would have made Tim here even if I didn't have kids because he is a.) tasty, and b.) I have the maturity of a five year old, things like fun food just make me happy.

Mommy Tip Monday: Fun Food, and Questions

When I look at bento boxes and the other fun lunches that my friends make for their children I get inspired. I don't know that the inspiration will ever lead me to as awesome of a creation as the ones they make, but it is there none the less. It often results in a smidge more effort on my part put into the little ones lunches.

When my daughter was younger, she could not be tricked or persuaded into eating. All my attempts were fruitless (haha get it, we are talking about food). She was a 42 year old New York City food critic trapped in a non verbal 23 month old body. Her looks said it all...."will not touch it, do not like it, don't even think I believe that pancake is supposed to be Mickey Mouse....because I'm not fooled". The look was often followed by a grunt and a tossing of food....sigh. Now that she is older I believe there is a direct correlation between the amount of food she eats and how cute/cool it is. So even if this method has not worked on your little one in the past, I encourage you to try try again.

I made this for her as a play on one of her favorite shows, Blues Clues. In one of the episodes Steve and Blue are shape searchers. I thought it would be fun to look for shapes in our lunch. Circle olives, circle pizzas, triangle cheese, square pretzels. Ohhhh and what's that I see over there.....
A clue!!! A clue!!!! What....you don't see it...that is clearly a paw print made of blueberries in a blue berry yogurt smoothie...aaah ok, now you get it. Good. My daughter was quite delighted to have a shape searchers lunch.

The smoothie is simply vanilla yogurt, blue berries, and lemon juice. It was thick enough to plop five blueberries on top and give it enough of a paw print shape that the kids were very excited to find it. I may have made some subtle subliminal suggestions to aid them ....."Oh look, a clue!"

Along these same lines, we also took a shape searchers walk. I let my four year old take her camera on the walk so we could take pictures of all the shapes we found. Also a blast....and also (if not food related) health related, because it got us out of the house and moving.

Do fun shapes encourage your kids to eat more? Any flops? What has worked to make your kids excited about food?