Monday 5 March 2012

Picnic on a Plate

How difficult do you find it to coerce the wee ones into eating vegetabley goodness? Whatever happened to the days of pureeing everything up & cunningly disguising the good stuff in a mush of rice or porridge?

Sometimes I find it incredibly taxing - "Eurrgghh, I don't liiiiiike iiiit!" YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TRIED IT! - but I've found an incredibly simple trick that works for us.

We call it our Picnic on a Plate & sometimes we even eat it with our legs crossed on the floor! It consists of whatever veg is to hand, some fruit too, maybe a sandwich or some breadsticks with dips, a yoghurt or jelly on the side if we are really lucky & a hard boiled egg always goes down a treat too!

The trick works better if we are sharing (she tries to eat more up before I scoff the lot) & we try different combinations, build carrot stick castles (okay so playing with your food only works if supervised!) & take our time, but inevitably it all goes down the right way!I can't wait 'til baby girl is old enough to join in with us too, the beauty being that as soon as they're on proper solids it can be a part of their diet!




Yum yum! Happy Monday all!


6 comments:

  1. This is a winner with my girls too. We call it a 'Picky Mix' tea. Looks pretty much like yours maybe with a bit of hummus to dip and a few raisins always work too.

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    1. Yes! Eldest loves her houmous. I have a good houmous recipe actually, I'll have to dig it out & share!

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  2. Now THAT is brilliant ! I'll definitely try that with my brood this week!

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  3. Our version is called a bits and pieces lunch, which is a bit of a fridge emptying experience, as it sounds. Getting kids to eat well is a real chore, but ultimately has to be worthwhile, I suppose. However it's hard to keep the novelty going when you start to feel like a short order chef in your own home, as I said here - http://hackneyholiday.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-with-kids.html

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  4. Thanks Mischa!

    Mr. Hackney - I agre with what yyou say on your blog about kids & convenience food. It certainly takes a lot of perseverence but it's worth it. We had a spanish style risotto last night & daughter loved it. I also think it's how you present it. At the moment our Eldest daughter loves to think she is being 'grown up' so we sell her food as just that!

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  5. Oooo you have given me inspiration now - indoor picnic tomorrow it is!
    Fingers crossed it'll be nice enough to do outdoors soon!

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Well, hallo! How nice of you to say!