You know kids should eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. However, if your youngsters think a good meal consists of chicken nuggets and chips with cookies for dessert, getting them to eat anything that grows is a challenge.
If this sounds familiar, try engaging your child’s inner artist. Channelling kids’ natural love for making things is a fun way to get them to discover the delights of healthy food.
Here are some projects that are guaranteed to turn the young people in your life into fruit and veggie lovers.
Potato Art
Slice baked potatoes in half. Use diced carrots, cherry tomatoes, pepper slices, shredded zucchini, green beans, peas, sliced celery, and chickpeas. Have kids make faces or designs on their potatoes. Ask the artists to name their works of art–and be sure to photograph them.
Yummy Butterfly
Celery or carrot or cucumber sticks make a good body. Add thin slices of apples or pears for wings. Stick them to the body with peanut or (if your kid is allergic) almond, cashew, or sunflower butter. Grapes and cherries cut in half, pieces of pineapple, and dried fruit are pretty and tasty decorations.
Rice Cake Portrait
Provide a variety of goodies: sliced peppers, diced cucumbers, pieces of chicken breast, raisins, olives, different kinds of pasta, and a little mayo to hold everything in place.
Veggie Soup
This is ideal for kids of any age. If it’s a project for the preschool set, use prepared vegetable broth and precooked carrots, celery, rice, whole grain noodles, and crackers. Place each in a bowl with a spoon. Give children bowls with heated broth and encourage them to add spoonfuls of the additions of their choice. Involve older kids in the soup-making process and provide a variety of ingredients to broaden their culinary horizons. (Think fruit if this is a summer project.)
Once you awaken the inner artist that lives within every child, you’ve started your kids on the delicious road to healthy eating. Bon Appétit!