How to make fun child-friendly Christmas sandwiches

When I turned up at cooking school L’atelier des Chefs in the City the other weekend, I thought I would be making Christmas canapés that would probably be too difficult to do at home and include too many different ingredients. But instead, it turned out we were making toddler-friendly food, which could easily put a smile on a little one’s face and would most probably make a fussy eater much more likely to finish a healthy meal.

I had been invited to the fun event by GrowingUpMilkinfo.com, a toddler specific nutrition resource for parents, and the course was led by food artist Mark from Funky Lunch. Mark is a dad, who started his business after making unique sandwiches for his own children, and it was really inspiring to see what could be done with healthy food to make meal-time more exciting.

Baby Girl is used to having a simple slice of bread with cheese or ham and no smiley faces in sight, but Mark showed us how a tuna sandwich could be turned into a penguin, and how an apple and cheese sandwich could be made to look like a Christmas pudding. We also made a Snowman rice cake with cream cheese, raisins and a piece of carrot, and a Polar Bear strawberry with chocolate and coconut.

Cookie cutters made it easier to get the shapes right, and Mark said even clean PlayDough equipment could be used.

For anyone who has a fussy eater in the house, I think smiley snowmen and penguins are definitely worth a go, and I would also love to serve cool sandwiches like these at a festive play date. Food made fun!

Tags: Being a mummy, Christmas, Cooking, Family food, Funky Lunch, Growing up, GrowingUpMilkInfo.com, Lunch, Nutrition, Recipe, Sandwiches