The Poppins Perspective: Play with Your Food.

The first thing I ever told my parents I wanted to be when I grew up was a food designer.  No, not a chef, a food designer.  I couldn't have been much older than six or seven when I found myself flipping through one of those huge coffee table books about food.  I just kept thinking how pretty it all was!  I wanted to grow up and design aesthetically pleasing food because I couldn't imagine resisting edible art on a plate.  It's a fact that high-end restaurants and world famous chefs everywhere know.  It's all about the presentation.

Well, who says that adults get to have all the fun?  I say, if you're around kids, make their food interesting!  They take joy in the little details that we are often too busy to think about and their giggles are contagious when you make their meals silly.  Here are some of the lunches I've put together for the little ones lately.

Thomas inspired train.

Flower forest.

Mouse.

Heart.

Dolphins.

Whale, boats, and fishy friends.

My meals certainly won't get me any acclaim or land me a spot on Top Chef, but I still feel they are close enough to my food designing childhood dream that I can feel like I've made my seven-year-old self quite happy.  (Does this mean that flying a paper airplane is enough to fulfill the dream I had of being a pilot?)

Now that you've expressed yourself artistically, why not help the kiddos learn to be little artists while they're eating your creations?  Deborah Zemke has a brilliant idea out called Doodle at Dinner.  It's a pack of 36 tear-off placemats that teach kids how to draw something different at each meal.  From lemurs to ostriches to sheep to machines, your little ones can be scribbling while they're nibbling.  (I should do the advertising for these things.)  You can find it at Target, Amazon, Anthropologie, and plenty of other places!  Check it out and have fun!