Make Healthy Lunches Fun

If you have a picky eater at home, you know how difficult it can be to get them to try anything that isn’t a chicken nugget. Some kids are afraid of trying new things, but if you make their lunch a fun experience, they may be open to trying something they’ve never had before.

You’ve probably seen pictures of cute food ideas on Pinterest–pancakes with a fruit-made face and elaborate sandwich creations–use these ideas to inspire and urge your young one to try new things.

  • Butterfly Baggy. Get a ziplock bag and separate the fruits in one side of the bag and veggies in the other, Use a clothespin to separate and cinch the bag in the middle. Add some googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae and you have a healthy butterfly snack. Pack some peanut butter or yogurt to help ease them into eating fruits and vegetables regularly. Ranch dressing is also great with veggies.

  • Cookie Cutter Fun. Use various cookie cutters to shape their sandwiches into their favorite animals or cartoon characters. If you want to make them a unique mid-day snack, fill a small tupperware container with crackers, use a leaf-shaped cookie cutter to cut various cheeses and pepperoni slices into leaves and make a fall back-to-school edible-leaf pile.

  • Fruit Caterpillar. Use pastry bags, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, zip ties, green grapes, and cherry tomatoes to make a cute caterpillar inspired by your child’s favorite book–Very Hungry Caterpillar.

  • Tomato Soup Pond. For your small sportsman, go fishing into a tomato soup pond.  Fill a Thermos with warm tomato soup and add Goldfish crackers to fish out.  Tomato soup is not complete without a cheese sandwich, which adds much-needed protein to the meal.

When creating fun lunches for your child, get as creative as possible. These are just a few ideas of how to incorporate healthy foods into your child’s lunch in a fun and engaging way. Creating fun-food creations is not easy and it does take some time. If you don’t have the time to make a fun lunch every day, make it a once-a-week event–you can have Fun Food Friday!

It’s so important for students to have a healthy lunch every day they attend their Orlando school. How do you motivate your child to eat healthy foods? Do you use fun food creations? Share this post and tell us what you do to inspire your child to try new things.

 

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