Kids Lunch: Making it fun

Kids love eating their favorite things every day. Just ask my daughter…

Me: “What do you want for breakfast?”

Hannah: “Cinnamon toast.”

Me: “Noah, what do you want?”

Noah: “Oatmeal with raisins!”

Almost every morning. Like clock work. There are definitely days when I just make something and don’t give them a choice. Eggs and bacon, english muffin w/ peanut butter, etc, etc.

But what’s a mom to do when you give them a good lunch that you know they like?

Chicken breast with real honey to dip, roasted broccoli, strawberries.

Or maybe a salad, Greek yogurt and some almonds.

And sometimes, you could put that same meal in front of them the next day and they won’t touch it.

I’ve found that if I get creative with some of those same meals, it’s as if they’ve never eaten them!  While Pinterest is definitely my go-to place for finding cute ways to dress up foods for kids, I’ve come up with some standby options that I use a lot.

1. Create characters. As you can see here, I opted for the Angry Birds pig… throw 2 marshmallows and 2 chocolate chips and the kids will eat anything!  Animals, movie characters and cartoons are big hits.

2. Skewers. Put anything on a skewer (or toothpick) and it immediately becomes fun!

3. Mix-ins. Give them a “base” item (like yogurt) and make little bowls full of mix-ins… berries, raisins, nuts,  apples, etc. Flour tortilla shells work well… you could do fruit and nut butters, eggs, cheese, bacon, etc. (like a breafast burrito), or turkey/chicken, lettuce, veggies, etc. Mix-ins and make-your-owns make them feel like they can pick their own!

4. Dips. Whatever their lunch is, give a variety of dips to choose from… dressings, honey, yogurt, whipped cream.

Many times, I use these tactics to get them to try new foods (who knew my kids would LOVE brussel sprouts?).

Make the most boring meals fun again for your kids.  What do you do to keep them from getting bored of the same old?