Breakfast Fun: 1/30/2011

I've tried encouraging my son to try different types of food, especially vegetables, while also teaching him that even though he may not like certain items in one form, he may like them in another (like he may not like steamed carrots, but he may like diced carrots in his stir fries).  I'm happy to see that he's been more receptive of late.  I am also trying to make some of his meals cute, especially with food items he may be hesitant about or may have tried once and wasn't willing to try again.  I'm actually impressed by how many things he has been willing to try and even likes (more often than not, anyways).  The breakfasts below were inspired by my efforts.

This is the breakfast I made for my son.  The star flower was actually inspired by the Sunflower Egg idea I found on Cute Food For Kids.  I used small smoked cheddar weiners and a fried egg star mold for the flower, ketchup for the stem, and a sugar snap pea (lightly sautéed and cut diagonally) for the leaves.

He wasn't sure how to eat it, but seemed to like how it looked.  When my husband cut it up for him, he gobbled it down.  He tried the sugar snap pea, and left only some of the tougher fibers (which he has trouble with for some fruits and vegetables).  All in all, a pretty good success.

My husband and I had an omlette seascape.  I made basic omlettes with american cheese, sliced mushrooms, and minced garlic inside, topped with a small home-grown scallion.  Sliced sugar snap peas, sautéed in in the oils from cooking the weiners, were the sea plants and some mushroom slices (also cooked in the meat oils) were subterrainean rocks.  Each plate had one octopus  made from smoked cheddar weiners with sour cream eyes.  All our meals were delicious, and my son ate some of our mushroom omlettes.

By the way, the bananas a the top of the page were decorated using a tooth pick and a fork tong.  All you do is lightly draw your design on using a tooth pick (or fork tong, or whatever else you think may work), and the drawing will show up within a few minutes.  The messages on the above bananas were a day or two old.  :-)