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The Craft Train

Crafty ideas for kids and parents

You are here: Home / Crafts and Activities / Art ideas / Healthy Food Art activity for kids

Healthy Food Art activity for kids

September 6, 2018 By Kate 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no cost to you.

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Sometimes it’s not so easy to get your kids to eat healthy food. In fact, if you have a picky eater it can be very hard!

Here is a simple healthy eating activity for kids that they can actually eat, and because they are in control of exactly what goes on their plate, there is no encouraging, cajoling or bribing required.

They’ll be having so much fun making edible art with their food that they might even forget that it’s healthy (we can always hope anyway).

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

Fussy eating has been just about the no.1 difficulty I’ve faced as a parent. I know exactly what sorts of food my girls should be eating but buying those foods, preparing them in an appetising way and putting them in front of them doesn’t always mean they are going to eat them. In fact, with one of my kids I know there is a 99.9% chance they are going to be rejected no matter what I do. 

I’ve waited patiently (or perhaps not so patiently) for her to outgrow her picky eating, but it’s not happening. 

This is one thing that has been helpful because although she may not eat everything she puts on her plate, at least she is touching the foods and getting used to the smells and textures of them. It also means because she is choosing exactly what goes on her plate she is not feeling as pressured to try new things. Additionally, because she is in a creative mindset whilst putting an artwork together, she’s more relaxed and also more likely to need food of a particular colour or shape to add to her picture that she wouldn’t ordinarily touch.


You don’t need a fussy or picky eater to do this activity though. This healthy edible art is great for all types of eaters. If you have one of those mythical kids (about as rare as unicorns) who eat everything, they will love this too! 

make healthy food appetising for kids with this healthy edible art activity. Perfect for fussy or picky eaters ir generally encouraging healthy eating habits in a fun and creative way #healthyeating #cookingwithkids #edibleart #fussyeating #pickyeating

We’ve all seen pictures of those too-good-to-eat lunches made in the shape of cartoon characters and other fancy things, and while they look pretty amazing I suspect that my kids wouldn’t be fooled, they know that a plate of veggies dressed up as a cute little puppy is still a plate of veggies. It’s not going to convince them to eat it, but when they are the creators of their own masterpieces it’s a whole different story.

On the day I set this up for them they ate two healthy food artworks each, which is impressive for my two. Sometimes playing with food is a good thing!

Taking the time to put this together is worth it, I promise. It keeps your kids busy with a creative and open-ended art activity which they can eat so you’re killing two birds with one stone. If you have older kids, they can also help with the chopping and preparation work.

How to make healthy edible art

You will Need

• Assorted chopped fruit and veggies – obviously this will depend on what’s in season where you live and what you have on hand in the kitchen
• Crackers – we used wholegrain rice crackers and jatz crackers
• Nuts and dried fruit – we used pistachios, almonds and sultanas
• Cheese – we used mini babybel cheese wheels and some apricot and almond cream cheese
• White plates to use as a blank canvas – ours are paper plates
• A small chopping board and knife to cut the fruit and veggie shapes smaller if need be (if you are comfortable with your kids using knives, obviously this needs to be supervised)

A general tip is to use lots of their favourite healthy foods to make up your platter but also include some things that are a bit more adventurous for them. For Miss R the carrot and cucumber sticks are adventurous and for both of them the Apricot and Almond cheese was a new thing entirely (neither actually tried it but I like to think that they’re one step closer for next time)

How To

Arrange your healthy goodies on a platter in the centre of the table and allow the kids to do their thing – no rules necessary. My kids needed no direction in what to create, they both really enjoyed making art with food (and I loved it too!).

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

Miss K created the funny face (the mouth is made of squashed cheese).

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

Miss R made the strawberry toadstools and also the raincloud with pistachio nut raindrops.

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood #mandala

I made the fruit and veggie mandala and rainbow because you should eat a rainbow every day.

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

This one is Rapunzel by Miss K. She was very tasty!

Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

Next time your stuck in a rut of the same old same old when it comes to kids’ snacks why not allow them to play with their food? Maybe they’ll discover a new favourite.

You might also like

• Healthy eating printable activities for preschoolers
• Create earth art outside using nature
• Make your own construction set using items collected from nature
• Salted nut-caramel popcorn cups (the healthy version)
• Set up a tadpole to frog observation tank

You can also find lots of healthy food ideas for kids on our for the lunch box board on Pinterest.

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Healthy edible art activity for kids. This is a great way to encourage fussy eaters to touch and try new foods. Making art on their own plate is calming so picky eaters will be more open to trying new things. They end up with a fabulous and healthy artwork they can eat! #healthyeating #fussyeating #edibleart #kidsactivities #cookingwithkids #kidsfood

 

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Comments

  1. 1

    Lee @ Dragon's Eye View says

    April 24, 2018 at 12:49 am

    Dragons from fruit and veggies!! I LOVE the idea and plan to serve some up tomorrow! Thank you for the brilliant and tasty suggestion!

    Reply

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