Need to get rid of leftovers?
Want your kids to be excited about their meal?
Fun Lunch (or its crazy cousin, Fun Dinner) may be the answer you've been looking for!
Here's how it works: collect 4-7 things that you want the kids to eat. This can be leftover greenbeans, one last spoonfull of yesterday's chicken casserole, the few remaining chicken strips from a meal out, one yogurt cup, a handful of cereal, cheese slices, fruit, spaghetti, whatever!The KEY is presentation, to put it on the plate in a fun way. Today, I built the peanut butter & jelly sandwiches into a teepee, and the cheese slices became a restaurant that all the "cars" (Cap'n Crunch) were parked around. Work in a few healthy choices and make sure they know the rules: (1) you have to eat at least a bite of everything on the plate, and (2) enjoy yourself! :)
I always make a really big deal about the unveiling of the plates and telling them what each thing is (if I've made a design out of it... boats, houses, cars, animals... whatever you can think of!), and the boys love it!
Let me know if Fun Lunch (or for that matter, Fun Dinner) ever strikes at your house!
6 comments:
It hasn't come to our house...yet, but now that I have actually heard about...it may visit! I'll make sure to take pics, too!!
~~emmyj
Our boys favorite lunch is tortilla face...tortilla spread w/ peanut butter, whole banana for the smile and raisins (or other dried fruit) for the eyes and mouth. Then they pick at it or roll it up and eat it like a burrito.
I like your idea of getting rid of leftovers though. That's always a plus!
at one of my waitressing gigs, part of my job was to make sure that my boss's kids ate their vegetables. that's when i learned about the power of sprinkles. kids will eat ANYTHING if you put sprinkles on it.
Fun Lunch or Dinner is always easier to pull off (at our house anyway) when Dad is gone! I can get away with a lot when it's just the kids.
At our house sprinkles rule, however, we've always called wheat germ "sprinkles". I know we're wierd. But my kids really like them and they transform an ordinary banana or yougurt into something special. Plus wheat germ is really good for you.
I hope you have a great Valentine's Day with your kids. I'm praying for you!
What a fun idea! It reminds me of a game we once played for dinner at a Guide camp. We were given menus that had odd code names for different foods and you had to pick say three things for starter, six things for main course and three things for pudding, without really knowing what you were getting! It made for a really funny meal and let everyone try some new foods and some weird combinations.
Great idea...I am regularly trying to get rid of leftovers...I think the whole presentation idea will work wonders :)
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