Photo by: Julia O’Connor Food Styling by: Ailish O’Connor
Give them a project, let them shine. Empowering your kids to delve into recipes fosters creativity, food-sense and confidence in the kitchen. Encourage healthy eating by giving your kids the the go-ahead to create their own snacks.
My girls are in the kitchen these days more and more. Not just eating everything in site. Though they actually have good appetites for such tiny girls. They are creating their own snacks and putting together their own lunches. And if I suggest a food (such as a fruit or vegetable), they will come up with a whole combo of ingredients for a colorful, fun and tasty dish.
Yesterday I gave them a can of peaches and they decided they would build a peach parfait with some yogurt and crunchy granola. I whipped up a batch of granola and they assembled the parfaits so neatly. Today we thought we’d have some fun with canned Sweet Peas and Mandarins. So again, we reached into the cupboard and then got to work (well they did it all from assembly to photo composition – Yep, Julia took the pic below). It was my concept, but entirely their creation.
This is a great project for my girls who love the art of everything from painting and drawing to styling their recipe combos. And I even think Julia has a knack for photography. She grabbed my camera and snapped both food photos. Don’t they look good! : )
Sweet Pea Mandarin Cheese Toast
Photo by: Julia O’Connor Food Styling by: Julia O’Connor
Sweet Pea Mandarin Cheese Toast
Ingredients
- 1 slice whole grain toast
- 2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
- 6-8 Mandarin wedges packed in light syrup, drained
- 1 Tablespoon Sweet peas drained
- 1 tsp sliced almonds toasted
- Optional: chopped basil to garnish
Instructions
- Spread cream cheese onto toast.
- Layer mandarins, sweet peas and almonds on top.
- Garnish with basil.
Here are a few photos I snapped of their process. These girls put a lot of effort and concentration into this piece and they deserve a toast for their efforts!! And they sure enjoyed eating it.
