Friday, May 30, 2008

Face Food

If you have young kids, you know it can often be frustrating to find things they'll eat.  The thing that drives me most nuts is the mind-changing that goes on. After much waffling they finally decide on what they want, only to change their mind again right as I get it fixed. I know that Bud quite often refuses to eat because I called it "lunch" and he only felt like a snack. 

Over the years, I have developed many methods to try and solve the problem. I have used all shapes and sizes of cookie cutters to cut out sandwiches to make them more appealing, I have made homemade "Lunchables" placed in divided containers, and sometimes the hors d'oeuvres lunch (where I cut everything up into bite-sized pieces and serve it with a toothpick) is a big lifesaver. We're the only family I know that eats rainbow colored pancakes.

The other day my sister-in-law, Aunt Jazz Hands, posted a blog about what she has been doing to combat her own troubles with her children and food. It has been a fun thing for us to explore the past few days and has made mealtimes a bit more fun. It also allows me to get slightly healthier foods in their bellies than they might ordinarily be willing to eat.

Here are two of the faces I've made (terrible pictures, sorry):

Bud's lunch, consisting of cottage cheese eyes, cheese eyebrows, bagel ears, banana nose, apple mouth (with more banana and apple on the side).


Pen's dinner of tuna/Frito hair, bagel ears, orange and grape eyes, apple nose, sugar snap pea mouth with a ranch dip soul patch.

We'll see if I can come up with enough food face ideas to last the summer. Hopefully they'll allow a few repeats. The idea is so fun, I kind of want someone to make one for me!

I was also busy in the kitchen last night making Orangettes. Ginger's teacher loves orange sticks so I made some using the recipe I saw on Smitten Kitchen, a great food blog I have been enjoying. Her pictures are fantastic! If you like cooking and love eating, you might want to check it out.  Rophone also loves orange and chocolate together so will have no problem eating the leftovers.

Now I just have to think of what to fix for dinner.  Food face, anyone?

No comments: