How to Make Mealtime Fun & Nutritious | Tips for Picky Eaters
This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx on behalf of Arnold Organic Bread.
If you’re looking for a way to ensure your picky eater is getting the best nutrition while still enjoying their food, try making mealtime fun and nutritious with Arnold Organic White Made with Whole Wheat Bread!
Like most moms out there, I too struggle with making sure my kids get the best possible nutrition while still making sure they actually want to eat the food I make. My little ones are picky eaters and they can make mealtimes difficult! If you have a picky eater, trust me when I say I know how you feel. Luckily I’ve found a mom hack that works almost every time: making my kids’ meals fun so they are excited to eat!
How to Make Kids’ Meals Fun
When finding meals that my kids love, I usually look for two things:
- it tastes flavorful, and
- it has some sort of theme behind it.
Finding flavorful food can be subjective. Basically I include food that tastes good that I know my kids like. That is usually fruit, peanut butter, cheese, and other healthy go-to foods that I know they will say “yes” to eating.
Adding a theme to the meal is a small way to make food time fun time.
For Valentine’s Day, I may serve all pink or red foods or cut strawberries into hearts. At Christmas time, eating a red and green meal is one of our advent calendar activities that we love. It’s fun to find a way to make meals exciting, and our May the Fourth snacks might even be our favorite!
One of the easiest ways to make mealtime fun without a lot of prep or extra thought is to make a picture with my kids’ food.
Yes, I said it. It’s totally ok to play with your food!
We like to make faces, mountains, gardens, and even sailboats with our food. Sometimes I surprise the kids with my own artistic creations, and sometimes we have fun creating our food scenes together!
Preparing our meals together is great for two reasons: it’s a great opportunity for bonding time, and kids are much more likely to try new foods if they are part of selecting foods and putting their meal together.
Open Faced Sandwiches for Breakfast
For an easy everyday breakfast, we like to make open faced sandwiches with my kids’ favorite fruits. You could say we make open faced “faces”!
I use Arnold Organic White Made with Whole Wheat Bread to give my kids a delicious taste that I know they will love. Arnold Organic White Made with Whole Wheat Bread is perfect for the picky eaters in my family, as it has a soft and smooth texture that they prefer. The best part about it is that it features Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse – our family’s favorite characters.
Arnold Organic has multiple flavors of bread that are all plant-based, USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, and their Organic Kids White made with Whole Wheat also provides a good source of vitamins A, D, and E.
My kids have no idea they are eating organic bread made with whole grain and getting great nutrition, but this mom knows!
Arnold Organic also uses sustainable baking practices (like baking with renewable wind energy), which is important to us as we try to follow a more sustainable lifestyle. 1% of the bread’s revenues are donated to support environmental causes through 1% for the Planet, which I think is pretty amazing!
After lightly toasting our bread (just to warm it a bit), we smooth a bit of creamy peanut butter on top. Then using fruit, we create a funny face on top. They enjoy their meal so much that they always eat every bite!
We don’t limit our fun sandwiches to just breakfast. It’s super easy to make fun faces and scenes with meat and cheese, eggs and bacon, or even avocado and tomatoes! No matter what sandwich combination, my picky eaters enjoy their meal, and I enjoy watching my kids have a nutritious boost to their day.
