Hellobee

Are you looking for a way to add a little fun to your toddler’s lunch? Try making a picture on her plate!

I normally serve pretty plain meals when my boys and I are home for lunch, but sometimes it’s fun to play around a little and arrange the food to make a picture. Today I made this cute outdoor scene for my little guy using just a few special techniques.

I started off with a slice of soy cheese and two pieces of bread cut with a 2-inch circle cutter. Next, I cut the cheese — which is about 3 inches square —  into a 2-inch square, two 2 x 1 inch rectangles and a 1 inch square. The way I’m describing this sounds ultra-precise, but I just eye-balled it when I did the cutting — it’s truly not fussy at all. You can use whatever sized cutter you have on hand, but you’ll want the main square of cheese to be the same width as the bread circle.

Layer the cheese on the bread so the corners hang over the edge as pictured above. The 1-inch square of cheese was leftover, so I just stuck it in the middle of the sandwich where it wouldn’t be visible. Put the second circle of bread on top of the sandwich to finish it off.

Next, cut a thin slice of watermelon and use a cookie cutter to cut an animal shape. I used a squirrel cutter here, but you could use any cutter you have on hand. A bear or a cat would be a great substitution. I had watermelon on hand, but another kind of melon or even apple slices would have worked nicely as well.

I cut grapes into quarters and used those for the leaves on the tree. The trunk was made from a few slices of marinated tofu. If you don’t have marinated tofu just sitting around in your refrigerator, you could make the trunk out of pretzel sticks, strips of bread or even pieces of graham crackers. Finally, I put down a handful of peas and called those the grass. Easy peasy and my son was thrilled with his special lunch!