4 minute read
Making Healthy Food Fun and Appealing for Children by Raizy Fried
HOME & FOOD CENTER Making Healthy Food Fun and Appealing for Children
By: Raizy Fried “You eat with your eyes first”
A well-known adage among chefs is, “You eat with your eyes first.” What this adage alludes to is the fact that foods that look unappetizing often are not eaten. And vice versa when food looks pretty, it automatically lends to a tastier experience…
Although presenting healthy food in an appealing manner is important for both children and adults, somehow, we tend to take this topic more seriously when talking about children. I’m not sure why…
Think about it. Imagine the title to this article would read “Making Healthy Food Fun & Appealing for Adults”. For some reason that doesn’t ring well… Maybe because as adults it should be a given? Maybe because as adults we are expected to know better… We should want and crave healthy food no matter what shape it’s served as… To be perfectly honest, teaching kids to eat healthy food is probably as difficult as teaching adults to avoid unhealthy foods. And between me and you, when fresh veggies are presented beautifully, cut with precision and arranged in a bowl with a sprinkle of spice, it gets me excited… When it looks pretty, I’ll eat it all. (see photo of breakfast bowl) When it’s in the refrigerator, it’s often time not enticing enough.
Both children and adults entertain the common misconception that healthy eating is blah and boring. While this might be the case if you choose to eat the same food in the same way every single day, there are alternative ways to get your natural vitamins without becoming bored. Here are some ideas of how to get children (or adults) excited about healthy food choices without bribes:
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Plate your veggies. It might take a long time before they eat it, or even allow it to remain in their vicinity, but presenting vegetables in a consistent way will eventually help kids accept them as familiar and acceptable foods. Having veggies, or fruit nicely cut up and plated, ready to grab n’ go, has definitely proven to make them more grabbable and move faster.
Offer fruits and veggies for the first course.
This is one way to take advantage of hunger to develop lean eating habits. Fruits and veggies are brimming with nutrients but low in calories, so a first course of produce makes sense. I always loved the idea of serving a fresh salad as an appetizer versus as a side dish. Also try offering different fruits and veggies samples while you’re cooking supper, to keep them happy in a healthy way, till supper is ready.
Face Plates. Fred’s Food Face plates are a great investment and can be found on amazon.com. Each plate has a cute simple face outline of eyes, nose, and mouth. Kids will have endless fun playing with food designs on the face, they’ll create a hat out of peas, glasses out of cucumbers, a beard out of scrambled eggs and carrot earrings.
While I originally purchased these plates for a fun activity at a Chanukah Party, I have utilized them in many ways since. Face plate provides entertainment that helps even the fussiest eaters make it through a meal. It's where healthy-eating meets imaginative play and innovation. Where dinner meets dress up. It's deliciously fun!
Healthy Shish kabob.
Make it interesting. It’s all in the presentation. Make healthy food visually interesting by making shish kabob fruit, all you need is wooden skewers. Arrange fruits or vegetables by slicing or chopping them and then threading them onto skewers. This is a great way to serve vegetables fresh or grilled.
You can grill veggie shish kebobs on medium-high flame turning and brushing with a mixture of olive oil and spices or your favorite marinade for 10 minutes or until cooked.
For an appealing dessert, you can thread a combination of fruit, like berries or melons and serve alone, or alongside melted chocolate or a dipping sauce.
Healthy versions. I love creating healthy versions of junky dishes. For example, creating a play on the traditional ice cream “banana split” using fresh bananas scoops of Greek yogurt topped with fresh berries, granola and cocoa nibs. (see photo)
Create a food story. Make veggies and healthy staples exciting by creating fun characters and objects or offering a variety of foods cut up into shapes that they can mix and match.
To me, there’s just nothing as satisfying as making those intelligent little eyes light up. Vitamins aside, I always like to get those creative young minds working. Demonstrate possibilities and enlighten their imaginations!
SNACK Apple & Cheese boat. These are easy to make, delicious, and super healthy.
What you will need:
Apple Peanut butter Crisp rice cereal Mozzarella cheese Toothpicks
How To:
Cut the apple in half, removing the core. Spread peanut butter on top of the lower half of the apple. Sprinkle with rice crispies. Cut a sail for your apple boat from a thick slice of cheese and attach with a toothpick.
