Continuing on with the rainbow food theme after yesterday's rainbow fruit sundae recipe, today I'm sharing a fun rainbow food idea aimed at temping picky eaters to try new foods - a pretty rainbow tasting plate for toddlers.
I made this for Small Baby recently, (who incidentally isn't so small any more - a change of nickname is probably overdue!). He has always been a great eater, but recently I've noticed he's gone from eating everything in sight to what appears to be the beginning of the dreaded toddler picky eater stage. Having already been through this stage with Small Child, who seemed to drift through his toddler years subsisting on toast and yoghurt and not a lot else, I'm trying to be fairly relaxed about Small Baby's recent refusal to eat several of my lovely home cooked meals, but in the meantime it doesn't hurt to keep offering him new and interesting foods in the hope that he'll eat at least some of it!
For this rainbow tasting tray, I presented a range of foods in a small silicone muffin tray, with silicone cupcake cases in a rainbow of bright colours to hold the food. I picked three foods that I knew he was guaranteed to eat (grapes, blueberries and cherry tomatoes), two foods that he tends to refuse (raw carrots and sugar snap peas) and one new food (fresh mango). With the two foods his has refused in the past, I presented them slightly differently - by using purple carrots and cutting them into small chunks and by cutting the sugar snap pieces into small pieces. My hope was that he might try new and previously rejected foods if presented attractively alongside old favourites.
I matched the foods up to the colours of the silicone cups, mainly because I thought it looked pretty, but it had the added bonus of making me find a rainbow of coloured foods, in order to provide a great range of different nutrients. I finished the platter off with some fun bento picks in matching colours - the giraffe and elephant fork picks are a particular favourite of his!
I was pleasantly surprised that Small Baby tried everything I offered him. Although he didn't eat all of it, it did taste both the carrot and the sugar snap peas, eating a couple of pieces of carrot and about half of the sugar snap pea pieces. The tomatoes and all of the fruit vanished pretty quickly!
He also had a few mini bread sticks and some cubed cheese (not shown) afterwards to make this a more balanced meal for his lunch, but this tasting plate would make a fun healthy snack too.
Do you have a picky eater, and do you have any fun ideas to encourage them to try new foods? Do share in the comments below!
Grace
If you enjoyed this fun idea, please pin it so you can find it again! For more healthy rainbow food ideas and recipes, check out the rainbow food ideas section here on the Eats Amazing blog or follow my Rainbow Food Pinterest board for fun rainbow ideas from all over the web!
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