Hope Mason of Spiritual Books gave me the following ideas for garnishing food so that it is more interesting to children. They make food more fun to look at and them more fun your food is the more likely your kid is to eat it. Use your cookie cutters for something other than making cookies.
Small cookie cutters can be used to press shapes (heart shaped for instance) out of carrots, cucumber coins, apple slices and any other vegetable that can be sliced thinly or flatly.Â
Having trouble getting your kid to eat green or red peppers? To add a special touch to a pasta dish take a star shaped cookie cutter and press it into the flesh of slices of red or green pepper. Then place the stars on the plate of pasta to add visual interest.Â
To make a vanilla or tapioca pudding more interesting consider drooling a spiral shape on the top of the pudding made out of some kind of fruit puree. Mango puree goes particularly well with tapioca pudding. Mango is also good for kids because it has lots of vitamin A in it.Â
To give a glass rim an usual 'frosting' try dipping the wetting the rim of a glass and dipping it in Jell-O powder. This looks especially nice on cocktails. It can also tempt a kid to drink a glass of juice if the rim is sugared with a bright color of powdered Jell-O.Â
To add charm to a drink, alcoholic or not, that has pineapple in it try rimming the glass with finely flaked coconut for a unique effect. This look also suits a bowl of chocolate pudding.Â
Cucumber balls are a nice surprise in a salad and make a delicious departure from the ordinary. In order to make cucumber balls simply slice a cucumber in half and then use a melon baler to scoop out the contents into ball shapes (exactly the same way you would a melon.Â
To make a strawberry fan, use a paring knife to slice thee strawberry from a point slightly below the top stem to the bottom. Continue making thin slits from one end of the strawberry to the other. Gently spread the segments of strawberry apart to create the strawberry fan.Â
To make a tomato rose simply pick a tomato of any size. Make sure it is a gel variety like a Roma tomato. Take a very sharp knife and start peeling it like you would an apple. Keep peeling until you have the longest length possible and then coil the peel into a rose shape. Using pink, red and orange tomatoes can create a lovely bouquet for a centerpiece.Â
To make carrot curls simply use a vegetable peeler to cut a long strip off of the carrot. Spear each curl with a toothpick and then chill them in hot water until they are ready to use Can't get a kid to drink his milk? Try garnishing it with a red licorice stick and see what happens. Red licorice goes well with milk.