I think toddlers are a misunderstood culinary demographic. “Picky” they say. Well, what you call picky, I’ll call “discerning”.
It goes back to love again. You have to love your customer. Really understand what drives them, what motivates them. I think for toddlers, that’s fun. You gotta love fun to feed toddlers. That means presentation is key here. You can’t just slack off and serve some slop and get off because it “tastes good”. Not the point. It needs to be enticing. Exciting. You gotta work for it.
You need some silicone muffin cups. Rainbow. Glitter if you can get them. Or with rocketships. And some of these:
Deconstructed Sandwich with a Side of Rainbow:
Bread (we have Dave’s good seed right now)
Deli honey ham
Colby Jack cheese
Strawberries
Rainbow carrots
Yellow grape tomatoes
Snap peas
Blackberries
For each serving:
Toast bread lightly and cut into quarters.
Cut a slice of ham in thirds and roll.
Cut two small cheese squares (1x1x.25 in)
Slice each strawberry carefully and fan it out like so:
Cut coins from carrots and make flowers with your stamps.
Halve tomatoes.
De string peas and pop them open like this:
Count out 6-8 blackberries.
VERY IMPORTANT. During prep and while serving, do not allow the components to touch! If you do you WILL ruin the dish and will have to start over. Don’t do it!
Put each component in a silicone muffin cup, and arrange attractively in a bowl or container. toast can be served on the side.
Note: this recipe can be adapted to whatever is on hand, but remember, presentation is key!
2nd note: in case anyone is a silly adult who doesn’t understand this… Serving suggestion is not to make sandwiches. That would make the food touch. The point is to eat and appreciate each ingredient in isolation yet harmony. Thank you.
Great question. As a parent the perfect dish is one they will eat that delivers some of the nutrients they need. But as a foodie cooking show host, I need the perfect dish to push the boundaries of children’s cuisine.
Are these two wishes diametrically opposed?
Or can our talented contestants craft a dish that delivers both?
Hi viewers,
To recap the dishes so far - we have had:
Gdogg’s buttered noodles and nuggies
Beep_boop’s mini pizzas
AllHat 's Four Colored Gnocchi with Marinara and Alfredo Dipping Sauce
Elle’s 3 or 4 different meals
Galliver’s Deconstructed Sandwich with a Side of Rainbow
Quack! Wow there were some ruffled feathers in that last round. I’ve seen “toddlers”. Nothing like my ducklings who are all good at eating their slaters, worms and snails. Sticky, snotty, completely unable to follow their dada and mama in a line. I normally see them eating sand, mud, my snails, leaves, anything other than what their caregivers offer.
So my recipe is based on their desired cuisine.
Lady Duck’s Muddy Pie Ingredients
Cooked spaghetti noodles (worms) and spiral noodles
Baby spinach (leaves)
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Mashed potato & sweet potato
BBQ sauce
Method
Mix mashed potatoes and BBQ sauce until a nice brown colour. Variation in colour is welcome.
In a kid safe bowl, layer noodles, mash, noodles, mash.
Top with leaves and the cherry tomatoes, be sure to put the tomatoes so that they look like little bugs.
Offer whole bowl to toddler to find the worms and pasta bugs inside. As they like to explore with their mouths, some should end up inside the toddler. May need to be served outside so it is easy to hose down toddler afterwards.
Well it seemed like the judges were noooot too enthusiastic about my sugar rush last time. But isn’t that the perfect food for kids?
I gotta tone it down, gotta tone it down.
The other thing I know, being a kid myself is that we loooove to play. So I will have healthy foods carved into various shapes!
Behold, the meal:
Apple halves carved into airplanes!
Zucchini carved into cars!
Baby carrots carved into tiny swords!
Toast cut into the shape of unicorns and dinosaurs!
Then I made a slightly sweet dip out of yogurt and honey. I separated it into various containers and put juice of different kinds and colors in each. Then I put the various colors of yogurt in a bowl side by side and stirred it very carefully just slightly so the colors swirled, but didn’t blend.
Serve some of each to each kid and you have TOY FOOD WITH UNICORN DIP!
Toddlers huh? Those top heavy germ vectors are an accident waiting to happen. Good thing they’re resilient and bounce. Luckily, I was a toddler once I remember a few things. One of them is excitedly jumping up and down next to a culvert and shouting “subterranean waters” over and over because I could hear the run off from the recent rain. The other is trying my father’s patience by being picky, and learning that you will in fact eat whatever is given to you if you get hungry enough.
So, what weird thing from my childhood will I serve your children? How did kids get into my brewpub in the first place? Though apparently we have story time for the kids from 4-6 in a corner of the main room so parents can get wrecked in peace.
Mix all of it together in an oven safe bowl. Cook at 350F for 25 minutes, or until warmed through with cheese melted and bubbling. Serve with tortilla chips, toasted pita bread, and sliced veggies.
If the kids don’t like it, remind them there’s plenty of fried raccoon back in the kitchen.
idk, based on my recollection, family stories, and seeing a variety of niblings pass through this stage, there seems to be an awful lot of green here.
the smoked fish, mayo, cream cheese and cheddar seem on point though. you must have observed what a toddler can do to a smoked salmon platter when left unattended.
Great! Welcome to the judging team. The process from here is to discuss your thoughts with the other judges (probably via message thingy) and choose the best dish and two weakest dishes. The best dish will win our admiration and adoration while the weakest dishes will proceed to the ELIMINATIONING!
A rapid fire cook off to decide who goes to bed with no dinner and who gets to stay up late and watch a movie with the other contestants.
Tough choice! Lots of noodles, aka the wiggler’s favorite thing in the world. But then again, “whatever mama and dad don’t want him to eat” may be his real favorite thing in the world, meaning @Elle pulls ahead on sneaky points. I’ll confer with my fellow judges.
AND welcome back to OMD Top Iron Master Chef. Can I just say, you all should be very proud of yourselves and the dishes you presented in the toddler round. I know my toddler would eat at least 1 or 2 of those dishes. That’s on him though, not the dishes.
Well, lets just say there has been some heated discussion amongst the judges, with one dish in particular dividing opinions.
But first, my favourite dish was the multicoloured gnocchi served up by @AllHat. Wow, this judge was blown away by the effort put into making it interesting for a toddler - and also by the taste. Yum. You’re definitely safe this round. I’ll the other judges discuss their favourite dishes in a little bit.
But first the unpleasant matter of who goes to the eliminationing.
Please step forward: @brute @galliver @Greyweld
After these messages from our sponsors we’ll find out who is safe and who is going to the ELIMINATIONING!
Thank you.
