How to make healthy food fun and actually get the kids to eat it!

By Anna Barrett / April 01, 2021

We have a passion for healthy food, and we love to share it with our kids. Many parents ask how they can get their kids to try new healthy food and we believe one of the answers is to present it in an appealing way.

We know kids can be picky eaters but there are so many healthy options out there and we believe every child is born with a curiosity to try new food if it looks appealing and exciting.

It is such an advantage if a child is exposed to healthy eating habits at an early age. It’s not always easy but by making it fun and exciting, half the battle is won. The rest is a continuous exposure to all the options that are out there.

My journey started many years ago, before our kids were born. I always had a passion for food and decided to pursue a plant-based diet. There was a lot of learning involved and it became even more important when we had kids, as it was now my responsibility to make sure that they got the right nutrition. That was the first step.

The second step was a little harder (irrespective of diet), because as kids grew older, their eating requirements changed. As all moms know, this is when you need to become a little more creative…

It just wasn’t enough with purees and some fruit; it now had to have the right texture and look as well!

I now became a master of hiding food in smoothies, waffles, muffins and in just about anything. It does work but at some point, kids also need to know what healthy food looks like and get used to it in all shapes, textures and colours. I had to become even more creative!

My top tips!

Get your kids involved. Let them experiment, let them make their own waffles, smoothies, grilled veggies and healthy cookies. Kids are more inclined to eat what they have made themselves.
Try to make healthy food available at all times.
Try and be more firm with eating habits and gradually get them used to new food.
Instead of mixing food, try and present your food in small bowls on the table so that they can pick and choose. Don’t get disappointed if they don’t eat everything, just be persistent.

This also stems down to your own eating habits, which can be a hard realisation. As we all know, kids do as we do and not what we tell them. If you can lead by example they will follow, even if it takes time.

The rest of the journey

So, after all these years of staying home with the kids, my urge to follow my passion and turn it into a little business grew stronger.

I met my husband many years ago in South Africa, but I am originally from Sweden and I have never really been following my passion through my studies or work (its not always so easy to figure that out either).

I have a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and our first company in Sweden was a high tech start up.

We then moved back to South Africa and started (and are still running) another technical company here. It’s been a great journey that has humbled and taught us a lot.

When kids grew older (and there was a little bit more structure in our lives), I decided to follow through with my real passion and started ordering in different products that I believe could make my food making easier.

I tested many products over the years and found my favourites that have worked for our family. Lots of challenges later, with products getting stuck in transit because of Covid etc, I could finally kick it off. When we finally got our website up, had our first stock ready, we were very excited to see how other parents would welcome it.

Over the years I have realised that as a Swede, I do look at things a bit differently and my judgement and thinking is not really in line with what South Africans think, but you have to throw yourself out there at some point. I had a little inner voice telling me that things usually turn out all right if you believe in it and that is what I had to go with.

A company was formed.

Although it’s still at the beginning of our journey, my little side business is starting to move slowly forward and the encouragement from other mothers has been amazing to say the least. I feel humbled that I have finally found my niche, to get the message out there about healthy eating and to help other moms make their lunchboxes a little more fun, exciting and organised.

Our products are easy to use, easy enough for both kids and moms and its not hard to make a lunchbox look neat if you have lots of little compartments and some tools to add some colours and fun to it. I have always been against the standard sandwich and a bag of chips only, as the lunchbox they bringing to school is what should sustain them until dinner, most of the times.

But it’s hard to add a variety of foods if you don’t have the compartments to separate them. In the early days I used to send them a cooler bag with lots of little jars and boxes, but it was really frustrating when they got back from school with none of the lids on, half eaten lunch and half spilled out in the bag. It was a waste and a lot of work!

It has helped us immensely by taking the decision to join Mommy Mall and it’s so great to see how other moms are following their passion in life.

Let’s make healthy food fun for our kids and please feel free to have a look at our FB or Instagram page if you need to get inspired!