Food Face

Yesterday, I was reminded of a very fond childhood food memory. Although I was never a terribly picky eater, every child needs some encouragement to eat sometimes. So, my mother came up with a fun and creative spin on serving food that did just that. We made faces out of food. Most often, we'd cover a plate with cottage cheese, and then decorate it with things like raisins for the mouth, olives for eyes, apple slices for ears ... you get the idea. It can be done with lots of different foods.

I'd forgotten about food faces until my mother came for a visit yesterday and made one for my daughter. She loved it so much that she asked for another one today for lunch. So, this is what we did:

Eyes - Hard-boiled egg sliced in half
Nose - Cherry tomato
Mouth - String beans
Cheeks - Potato rounds
Hair - Shredded carrot

Note: The tomato, string beans and potatoes were all taken from the potato salad that I was planning to serve her for lunch.

For younger kids, you might need to make these for them, but as kids get older, they can make them for themselves. It can really get them interested in cooking, and eating. Even a 3-year-old, like my daughter, had some input. It was her idea to shred the carrot for the hair.