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I Trick My Kids Into Eating Healthy Foods By Turning Them Into Their Favorite Characters (24 New Pics)
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My name is Laleh, I have a son Jacob and a daughter Charlie. Sometimes we like to turn our healthy meals into art pieces!
In May 2015, I turned my son's pancakes into a lion for a bit of fun and he loved it! Every few days he would ask if I could make him a character from a movie, book or toy that he had seen. Jacob and I would get creative in the kitchen and discuss the ingredients that we were using and the benefits. For example, when he was 3, we would talk about how kale was a superfood. He would ask why, and I would say 'because superheroes love eating it' - that was a winner for him!
I started posting our creations on my personal Facebook page and had such a positive response that I thought I would create an Instagram account to inspire other parents to get creative in the kitchen.
Within a month our page went viral and gained media attention from all over the world with media coverage from Time Magazine, Huffington Post, The Today Show USA, The Today Show Australia, Sunrise, ABC TV, Disney Channel Australia, and shoutouts from celebrities, such as Martha Stewart and Ashton Kutcher, to name a few. Ellen DeGeneres has even shared an artwork that I made of her on her show!
We would never in a million years have thought that our little kitchen creations would turn into a full-time business but we love every minute of it!
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Spongebob From "Spongebob Squarepants"
Ravioli with mushrooms and cream sauce.
All the meals are edible - some are made to be eaten, others commissioned and others as art pieces. They are made from scratch and dyed using only natural ingredients! We love to use fresh, healthy products and no refined sugar or preservatives.
Jessie From "Toy Story"
Mashed potato, red lentil pasta, flatbread, eggs.
This looks marvellous. But I would debate how healthy it is, because I don't see enough salad or vegetables!
Monkey
Braised lamb shank with mash potato, tomato and broccoli.
I started making these meals for a bit of fun, Jacob at the time was 2 years old and his excitement was priceless.
There isn’t really a difficult part to the process - the most enjoyable part is creating the piece as I zone out.
Genie (Will Smith) From "Aladdin"
Mashed potato dyed using blue spirulina, black bean noodles, egg, yellow capsicum and wild rice.
Gloria From "Madagascar 3"
Poke Bowl (rice dyed using activated charcoal and tamari sauce).
My kids love these meals - a lot of it is not content - they are so supportive of what I do. Charlie, my little girl, is my harshest critic - she will let me know if the character didn’t turn out right.
Each meal is different - if they are made for eating i.e. fruit/pasta they can take between 25-40 minutes to make. It’s all about time management - whilst the hot elements are cooking I make all the features and then plate everything.
The creations that are sculpted (mashed potatoes) aren’t made for eating. They can take anywhere between 1 hour to 6 hours!
Patrick From "Spongebob Squarepants"
Wild Australian Salmon with couscous, spinach, corn, red capsicum and salmon skin shells.
Anger From "Inside Out"
Pasta with Napoli sauce.
I don’t make these kinds of meals every day - just a few days a week.
During Covid, our creations brought so many smiles to people's faces during such a hard time. I would get so many messages so that our creations had made their or their children's day - and that’s what makes it all worth it!
Queen Grimhilde From "Snow White"
Mash potato, black Funghi, vermicelli noodles, apple, egg, peas, capsicum.
Krusty The Clown From "The Simpsons"
Noodles with honey and Tamari marinated chicken, eggs, tomato and broccoli.
Winnie The Pooh Dressed As The Easter Bunny
Whiting with sweet potato mash, tomatoes, parsley and capsicum.
Woody From "Toy Story"
Chicken with mashed potato and vegetables.
Forky From "Toy Story 4"
Turkey mince, egg and vegetable burrito bowl.
Tyrion Lannister From "Game Of Thrones"
Mashed potato, wild rice, jasmine rise, pasta, lettuce, kale.
Mickey Mouse
Melman From "Madagascar"
Organic Hokkien noodles with honey soy chicken, sautéed mushroom, radish and broccolini.
Jafar From "Aladdin"
Mash potato, lentils, black fungi, black beans, wild rice, red capsicum and tortilla wrap.
Cyborg From "Teen Titans Go!"
Cocoa spelt pancakes with chia seeds, cream cheese (dyed blue using blue spirulina) strawberry and plum.
Minnie Mouse
Gnocchi with Napoli sauce.
Dumbo
Mash potato (dyed using activated charcoal) flour, beetroot juice, black funghi, rocket, lemon, cucumber.
I believe this is just dumbo from the live action movie - he is just wearing makeup 5beddae048...50-562.jpg 
Peter Rabbit
Rice, ham, flat bread, olives
Mei-Mei (Panda) From "Turning Red"
Vermicelli noodles, eggs, olive, apple
Mei-Mei From "Turning Red"
Mashed potato, eggplant, apples, flatbread, eggs, cucumber, watermelon
Bruno From "Encanto"
Mashed potato, funghi, rice
I can't stand those titles. Who on earth really believes it's a mom doing it for their kids so they eat their food? It's an artist, doing it for artistic reasons. Sure that artist can be a mom, and I bet kids would love it - but that's not the reason. It just sounds more quirky.
Not to mention that most of these plates would taste kind of strange as food.
THANK YOU!!!! 1 a lot of these sound like they would not go together 2 you're gonna serve your kid cold ass mashed potatoes because you spent 2 hours sculpting it into The Genie?? Nope no uh huh I dont believe that for 1 second
Exactly!!!
Exactly. These look awesome but not very healthy or edible. Because of the title of this article I could barely go through these as this wasn't believable :/
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I doubt any artist without kids would even think of this. Before I had kids I had NO idea feeding them would be so difficult...
I don't for one second believe you do this for your child. For the picture maybe.. Well stop it! We've seen it before, it has been done, nobody cares.
Plus the Minnie Mouse gnocchi would quite literally kill you if those are indeed poppy seeds...
And here I am, eating my ravioli off of a paper plate.
You know you can eat them out of the can, right?
That would be the ideal thing to do, unfortunately I buy my raviolis at the farmer's market and they come in paper boxes :'(
Then why not use actual plates?
I can't stand those titles. Who on earth really believes it's a mom doing it for their kids so they eat their food? It's an artist, doing it for artistic reasons. Sure that artist can be a mom, and I bet kids would love it - but that's not the reason. It just sounds more quirky.
Not to mention that most of these plates would taste kind of strange as food.
THANK YOU!!!! 1 a lot of these sound like they would not go together 2 you're gonna serve your kid cold ass mashed potatoes because you spent 2 hours sculpting it into The Genie?? Nope no uh huh I dont believe that for 1 second
Exactly!!!
Exactly. These look awesome but not very healthy or edible. Because of the title of this article I could barely go through these as this wasn't believable :/
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I doubt any artist without kids would even think of this. Before I had kids I had NO idea feeding them would be so difficult...
I don't for one second believe you do this for your child. For the picture maybe.. Well stop it! We've seen it before, it has been done, nobody cares.
Plus the Minnie Mouse gnocchi would quite literally kill you if those are indeed poppy seeds...
And here I am, eating my ravioli off of a paper plate.
You know you can eat them out of the can, right?
That would be the ideal thing to do, unfortunately I buy my raviolis at the farmer's market and they come in paper boxes :'(
Then why not use actual plates?