• Whoever said you shouldn’t play with your food clearly wasn’t a fun person. Remember the old ‘plane coming in for a landing’ trick to get them to eat? Sometimes my picky eaters just eat better when given the option to play with their foods. That occasionally means more work for me. Cutting their sandwiches into the shape of a house does take a few extra seconds. The ends justify the means in this situation.

    One of my kids is the pickiest of picky eaters. And he sometimes doesn’t even eat the stuff he likes. It’s infuriating to me, but it’s who he is. We are working on it. I’m not one to make him his own special meal, he is served what everyone else gets. It is just that sometimes I take the extra effort to make the food more appealing for him. At least once a day we have a playful meal. Something I know he will eat, and served in a fun way that will keep him eating.

    He is my little artist, so I love to let him paint his food and turn it into art work. To make your paints, mix sweet evaporated milk (or regular milk for a thinner paint) and some food coloring. Grab a paint brush and get painting!

    We first painted our sandwiches. Bread make a great canvas. We like to grill or broil our sandwiches after they are painted so they aren’t too soggy!

    Next we moved to popcorn, and rice cakes. You can also paint apple slices, and bananas.

    Of course, let’s not forget the classic painting of sugar cookies. Roll out your dough, cut it out, paint away. When you bake the cookies the paint color designs remain.

    Less sugary than a frosted cookie, but just as much fun to make and eat!