Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups -- Chapter 3 @ BlueberryPress.com

Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups - Sample Chapter

Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups -- Your essential guide for family fun and good health. Chapter Three of Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups is available online as a sample of the content offered by the book. For a complete listing of chapters, please refer to the Table of Contents.

Chapter 3. Preparing and Presenting Fun Foods

By Linda Davis Kyle

One of the purposes of this book is to show that "good-for-you" foods do not have to taste bad. These tasty dishes can help you to introduce good nutrition to your youngsters and to establish good eating habits that can last a lifetime.

When you invite youngsters to help prepare nutritious foods in the forms of fun food natural meal accompaniments their work becomes play. Yet, these hands-on activities should not interfere with learning and following the established rules of dining etiquette.

Try some of these quick -- but nutritious -- fun food naturals or allow them to inspire your own imagination. Delight in observing those aspiring young athletes, artists, writers, actors, musicians, doctors, scientists, astronauts, firemen, bankers, store managers, and future political leaders -- to mention just a few -- develop the health habits that will carry them from their dreams through the realities of life.

Finding Fresh Foods

Because our country enjoys year-round availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, you can make many of the following Smart-Start Recipes and your own nifty variations of them throughout the year. You can brighten the greyest day with colorful fresh fruits and vegetables. Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups recipes make every day a celebration.

Controlling the Serving Sizes and Saving Money

You control the number of servings and the sizes of the servings by modifying the number of the required individual ingredients used and the sizes of the portions of the fruits or vegetables used. For example, you can cut an apple into halves, or quarters, or eighths and use one or many more apples to suit your serving needs.

In the preparation of these dishes, nothing will be wasted. Many of the foods used are divided into halves--just right for two small servings. When only a portion of a fruit or vegetable is needed for the "art-on-a-dish" meal highlight, be sure to save the other portions. The spare pieces can be used for seconds. A clever way to use the remaining ingredients is to cut them into cubes and mix them into a colorful fruit or vegetable "scramble."

After the fun food naturals work their magic to invite children to eat the nutritious fruit or vegetable, youngsters often will be more receptive to the foods in their most natural forms without a novel presentation.

Preparing the Ingredients Safely

You can serve carefully washed, organically grown foods with their peelings on whenever you choose. For safety, an adult should prepare any ingredients that require peeling, cutting, dicing, chopping, grating, steaming, cooking, baking, broiling, or microwaving, or any other potentially hazardous action.

Also for safety, no devices such as toothpicks or cocktail spikes are used as any part of the constructed fruit or vegetable recipes shared in this book.

Determining the Preparers

The preparers are suggested on each recipe, but you will determine at what age you will allow your youngsters to help with the preparation.

Creating an Atmosphere

Youngsters can observe your safe practices and learn. Young puzzle lovers can share in the fun by looking at the illustrated recipes and putting the prepared pieces together to construct the treats. Young readers can feel empowered as they read and follow the instructions, to create the unillustrated, easy-to-imagine, easy-to-assemble highlights.

Even though most of these dishes can be prepared quite effortlessly and expeditiously, be sure to choose the time for your first fun food natural when you can do it leisurely whether you prepare it for the youngsters or let them join in the preparation. Later, you and they can fix the foods in a flash, but give yourself the best chance for a favorable outcome when you first introduce these fun foods. You will be glad you did!

How many times have you heard someone say, "Well, maybe I was just hungry, but that was the best meal I've ever had"?

Anticipate the time that your family will be hungry based on when they last had a meal or snack and have your introductory fun food ready when they are hungry. Upon first use, timing is a crucial ingredient for your successful efforts with what this book offers.

Timing the Preparation of Fun Food Naturals

The approximate time needed to prepare these fun meal accompaniments is indicated on each recipe. The estimated time includes cooking time and ingredient preparation. The time required to prepare these fun foods ranges from about five to 10 minutes for the simplest one- or two-item dishes such as Apple Autos or Cucumber Flying Saucers. Even the more elaborate multi-item dishes like the Grapefruit Sun or the Rice Haystack can be prepared in less than an hour. Your speed increases as you become accustomed to these dishes.

On the other hand, you can encourage children to take time to enjoy preparing and putting together their tasty "food puzzles." Preparing the modest little dishes is a great way to help youngsters learn to plan ahead, to organize, and to complete a useful course of action.

Presenting the Foods

Presentation has a lot to do with the acceptance of foods. Remember, above all, do not mention to your youngsters how good these little dishes are for them. Chuckle, if you will, but it seems as if "That food is good for you" translates to mean -- "That food tastes bad!" You can have the whole meal to yourself after speaking those words. Children and adults will shovel food from one side of their plates to the other side and back again. They will nibble a bit, chat a bit, and even listen attentively to your conversation anxiously awaiting cleanup time after the meal. Later, they will be raiding the refrigerator for any snack they can find.

So when you prepare these treats, you may choose just to serve them without a word until after you know how receptive your family will be. Even if the reception is good, proceed with caution. Just continue to allow your youngsters to enjoy these tasty, nourishing naturals.

If you prefer to prepare the ingredients and then offer them to your youngsters to assemble, be equally gentle with your presentation. For example, offer to let them "solve" the Grapefruit Sun puzzle, or "build" the Apple Airplane, or "create" the Apple and Pear Robot, or "fill" the Pepper Treasure Chest. Above all, keep the conversation lighthearted and the activity fun!

Helping to prepare these foods encourages youngsters to plan, to organize, to learn to follow instructions, and to recognize logical sequences. It also nurtures a cooperative spirit toward worthwhile goals. In addition, it helps to widen children's interests and to enhance their curiosities. Also, they will enjoy consuming the fruits of their labor!

Enjoying the Simplicity of Natural Foods

Remember, the instructions for these dishes are mere guidelines to make beautiful memories with your youngsters. You can follow them as rigidly or as loosely as you like, or you can allow the recipes to stimulate your own imagination to create a new generation fun food natural.

If a dish doesn't look quite as you had expected and your youngster made the dish, honor the child's creativity. If you made the dish, honor your own imagination and creativity. Never fret over a mislaid piece of fruit or vegetable. Try not to allow perfectionism to spoil your fun time with the children. Just see the "new" dish as a whimsical variation of the original recipe, chuckle about it, and enjoy its luscious flavor.

For example, if you are about to make a Pear or an Apple Volcano and either the pear or apple splits as you core it, simply take those two halves and turn them into Pear or Apple Boats, and spoon on the peanut butter as cargo.

Your youngsters will learn from what you model. They will see experiences from multiple points of view. They will be empowered to be flexible and to persevere. Your youngsters will learn to take experiences that some people might view as negative and turn those experiences into useful, positive adventures. You will help to free them from imposing limits and the trap of trying to be perfect. You will help them to feel that they can reach, explore, strive for excellence, and succeed from many different avenues -- not just one "perfect" path.

This is a good time to stop and give your youngsters warm, gentle hugs. Enjoy getting along with your children and modeling a positive attitude.

I hope that Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups will encourage and enhance great family times for years to come. Use in good health and joy!

<< Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups (Home)

This information is provided for the purpose of general reading. It is without warranty of any kind whatsoever. Blueberry Press and the authors thereof shall not be held responsible or liable under any circumstances for any damages resulting from the use or inability to use the information within. A privacy policy also is available for your review.

Home | About Us | Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups | Change Your Life with Martial Arts | Freebies! | Buy Now! | Links | Contact

Fun Foods for Kids & Grownups - Sample Chapter