Anyone with a toddler knows they are as curious as can be and they love being with you in the kitchen trying to help prepare meals, at least my daughter does. She loves being the pancake mixer!! It’s a great way to spend some quality time with your little one. The healthy food experts at Sprout Organic Foods created these five fun and easy food recipes for parents and toddlers to do together. Enjoy!
5 Cute and Creative Food Ideas for Toddlers
1) Cookie Cutter Sandwiches
Use cookie cutters to create “toddler-sized” sandwiches in a variety of cute shapes! This is an inexpensive and easy way to give your child’s PB and J a little more pizazz. It is also a great way to get your toddler excited about holidays and seasons, i.e.: Snowflakes and Santa cut-outs in December, hearts in February, Apples for back-to-school!
Another option is to buy custom-made crust cutters that come in a variety of different shapes. These tend to be pricier than cookie cutters, but may conserve more of the sandwich as well.
2) Breakfast on a Stick
Take a wooden barbeque skewer and alternately stack whole-grain mini pancakes or waffles with fresh fruit, such as banana slices, apple slices, and strawberries, yum! Once you have stacked the skewer with yummy and healthy choices, use a sharp knife or kitchen scissors to cut off the pointed end of the skewer so your little one doesn’t poke themself! Popsicle sticks and wooden coffee stirrers also make great, child-friendly skewers.
3) Fruity Faces
Arrange different fruit pieces on a plate to make silly, smiley faces that your toddler won’t be able to resist! You can also provide your little one with their own bowls of fruit and have him or her create their own funny faces. They will have a blast testing out all the different kinds of fruit as they make their own designs. Blueberries, chunks of cantaloupe, sliced bananas, kiwi, and apples as well as raisins work particularly well!
4) Panini’s
A Panini maker is a great, low-cost investment, as everything looks (and tastes) better as a Panini! There is no end to the kind of recipes you can make in this sandwich pressing gadget, such as gooey grilled cheeses, toasted peanut butter and jams, pizza melts and more! Each sandwich comes out perfectly browned with lines across it, which can be very appealing to a discriminating toddler!
5) Eggs in a Nest
Do you remember this one from your own childhood? Take one piece of whole grain bread and cut out a circle in the middle. Melt some butter or olive oil in a pan and place the bread with the hole in it, along with the circle-shaped cut-out, into the pan. While the bread is grilling, crack an egg and drop it right into the circular hole in the bread. Flip the egg/bread half-way through until cooked well on both sides. Top it with the circular bread cut-out and call it the egg’s “hat”. Definitely good for one toddler giggle!
- See more at: http://www.sproutorganicfoods.com/our-community/parent-place/five-cute-and-creative-food-ideas-for-toddlers#sthash.7vRxhczm.dpuf
