How To Get Kids Eating The Healthy Stuff In Their Lunchbox

By Samantha Taylor

As a parent, you need to find creative new ways to get your kids eating healthy foods. Some children love fruit and vegetables and will eat just about anything you give them. Then there are those who will always leave the healthy items in their lunch-box, sending back the apple or banana you packed in for school. The rebellion has begun…

One trick that tends to work every time is using your imagination.

Children respond better when you approach them from a visual angle. Have you noticed that when something is made to look like their favourite cartoon character, it’s instantly better than the standard look? When kids are surrounded by images of their favorite animals, cartoons, heroes or actors, they tend to be more pro-active and inspired.

Therefore, the trick here, is to turn ordinary healthy food or boring sandwiches into creative new ones, therefore getting your kids to eat just about anything you give them, except maybe for broccoli and spinach of course!

HOW TO MAKE DECORATIVE LUNCH-BOX SNACKS WITH VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

Play around with the different decorative ideas to see which ones your child loves the most.

The idea is not for you to wake up an hour earlier to decorate food and make it look like art work.

Always keep in mind that whatever you create, will have to be able to withstand some tossing and shaking while being carried around in a school bag. Using a few basic shapes and some toothpick sticks, it only takes 10 minutes more of your time, but at least you can be sure that your child will love eating healthy foods from a young age.

When using fruits and veggies, the easiest would be to use pineapple, watermelon, carrots, cucumber, grapes, citrus fruits. Also pears, apples and bananas, but just be careful not to cut out too much because kids don’t really like it when their food turns brown. Make sure it’s exposed to the least amount of air which would speed up the colouration process.

Instead of just giving them normal vegetable or fruit pieces, cut out easy shapes like circles, stars, hearts, triangles and squares, in various sizes. (You can also use decorative cutters or cookie cutters to make other easy shapes) Pack these fruits or vegetables in their own compartment or skewer them on a stick to form a picture.

With a whole fruit like an apple or a pear, give it a face. Cut out a big smile and round out a big enough circle in an apple and push a cherry in for the nose and grapes or berries for the eyes, it’s that simple. With a whole banana, draw a face of a pirate or princess on the outside with a black marker. You can even dress it with some material or lightly cut it into the banana peel.