26 Jan Eat Well, Spend Less: 5 Ways to Make Food More Fun (For Kids)
Meet Katie Goodwin, author of GoodLife Eats, a website where she shares her life, including lots of fabulous recipes, adventures and great reads…
From personalities, to interests, to eating, my children are two very different little people.
Logan is an incredibly picky eater and always has been, though in the past two year’s he’s made tremendous progress in the right direction (how many 6 year old boys will eat a plate of baby spinach?).
Madeline was the chubby baby who put everything and anything in her mouth. She started out with no preconceived notions about any of her food, yet is now experiencing a slight picky phase and is mostly too busy to be bothered with meal time. Yet every once in a while she surprises me.
Kids don’t know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. In fact, it seems that my kids often form opinions about food that they’ve never even tasted! Moms, how many of you have had a conversation like this:
“Yuck – I hate [fill in the blank food]!” (gagging noises and disgusted faces commence)
“Have you ever tried [said offending food]?”
“Well … It looks [insert negative adjective].”
“But what does it taste like?”
Thanks to some sort of cruel and ironic twist of fate (or more than likely, my need to learn patience), meal time and feeding kids has been quite a stressful experience for this food loving mom. I’ve learned a lot about feeding kids and dealing with picky eaters. I’m not an expert, and my kids aren’t perfect eaters, but I thought I’d share a few of the ways we’ve learned to make food a little more exciting.
5 Ways to Make Food More Fun
1. Focus on Color.
Not only are bright, colorful foods naturally more appealing to children, but they’re also better for them. Eating a rainbow a day will help your child’s body get the wide variety of nutrients that it needs to grow strong and healthy. And it’s fun.
rainbow fruits from I Am Baker
Need ideas? Check out this list of fruits and vegetables by color.
Make a game out of it: see who can eat a rainbow first each day.
Try purchasing different colors of more ordinary foods: purple cauliflower, yellow tomatoes or blood oranges.
2. Maximize Their Interests
What is your child’s current obsession? Incorporate that into their food.
For Logan it is geography. He loves learning about different countries and cultures. I emphasized the “Canadian” aspect of “Canadian Bacon” and his ears instantly perked up. The verdict? He decided to try a slice.
Madeline has always loved fun shapes. It takes me about 30 seconds extra to cut lunch meat, cheese, fruits, or vegetables into fun shapes using cookie cutters.
3. Use Fun Names.
Though it might seem silly to the child-less adults out there, calling food by crazy names can instantly change the attitude about a new food for someone under the age of 8.
I most definitely teach my children the proper names of fruits and vegetables, but we have fun calling food by fun or silly names.
Broccoli is “baby trees.” Milk is referred to as “delicious” and now that Logan will eat spinach I’m planning to introduce green smoothies and call them “monster juice.” For Logan’s Solar System birthday party a couple years ago, grapes were “alien heads.”
4. Serve it Differently
A change in presentation can make all the difference, and doesn’t take much extra time.
Tired of sliced pears or apple wedges? Make fruit kebabs instead. Sticks filled with cubes of brightly colored fruit are always fun. Include a healthy dip option as well, such as yogurt. Kids love to dip!
Fruit and Cheese Kebabs from My Baking Addiction
You can even make vegetable kebabs. In the summertime, cherry tomatoes and bite-sized pieces of mozzarella are delicious treats.
When fresh fruit options seem dull in the winter, prepare smoothies using frozen fruits. I have taken to preparing a large batch once a week and per Food for My Family’s suggestion, storing them in the freezer in freezer compatible jars. Madeline calls these freezer smoothies “ice cream!”
In the spring and summer, fresh fruit posicles are fun different options.
5. Involve Them in Food Selection and Prep
I’m one of the first to admit how much I dislike taking my kids to the grocery store. But I know taking young kids grocery shopping and involving them in the food preparation process are both important ways to teach them about good food choices and make food more fun.
Personally I can only handle bringing one child at a time on a trip, but when I do, I like to keep them involved in the process. I’ll let them pick one or two new things each trip that they think they would like to try.
With younger kids, point out the names of the produce. Use produce to practice colors since there are so many different colors and types. With older children you can talk to them about why a certain fruit or vegetable is good for you in a non-threatening way. (i.e. carrots are good for your eyes). Appeal to their developing reasoning skills.
This post is part of the Eat Well, Spend Less Series where, along with a few of my friends, I bring you suggestions for how you can eat delicious, tasty meals without wrecking your grocery budget.