Making food fun for kids
Weekly Menu Ideas
General Hints and Tips

Here are some ways to make meal times fun.

Meatballs and Veg

• Baby marrow and fresh or canned pineapple
• Baby tomato and peppers

SPAR Freshline Potjie pack will provide a variety, all in one bag. Add a few SPAR Freshline Carrot Hearts.  Click here for the meatball recipe.

Toasted Sandwiches

A filling such as shredded tuna with a little mayonnaise is nutritious, delicious and satisfying. Transform an ordinary toastie by creating a cats face using:

• One slice of ham for the face and ears
• One carrot, sliced into stick’s for the whiskers
• One pineapple piece for the nose
• Two cranberries for the eyes.

You can use other things like nuts, raisins, blob of mayo or tomato sauce for nose and/or the eyes.
Another simple way to present a toastie or fresh sandwich is to cut them into different shapes.

• Using a cookie cutter, cut out two slices of wholewheat bread before filling and toasting.
• Place the filling in between the two shapes and toast in a non-stick pan or sandwich toaster.

When using peanut butter on a sandwich, rather opt for the SPAR, no sugar added jar – look out for the yellow lid.

Fish fingers, butternut chips and veg

This train may look complicated but is in fact easy and simple to assemble. Try this version of the traditional ‘fish ‘n chips’.

• Place two grilled or baked fish fingers together, on the narrow side
• Place one fish finger on top of these two, but this time on the broader side
• Slice a baby marrow (which can be grilled with the fingers or steamed with the peas and potato) in two thinner slices and one thicker slice. Place the two thinner slices on each side of the fish fingers to create the front small wheels. Place the thicker slice on the top fish finger, in the front to create the exhaust pipe.
• Take a steamed baby potato and slice into three equal parts. Use the two end slices as the bigger wheels at the back. Trim the third slice into a square to create the coachman’s carriage on the top fish finger, opposite the baby marrow exhaust.
• Arrange the butternut chips, for the track, in front of the tractor and scatter some blanched SPAR frozen garden peas around for grass.

Left over dinner always makes for a perfect yummy lunch the next day, which is easy for mom too!

Chicken Pita Pocket

Use this fun clock face as an education tool as well

• Slice a brown pita bread in half and fill with shredded, cooked chicken.
• On the surface of the pita bread, write the numbers 3, 6, 9 and 12 with tomato sauce, using a plastic ‘squeezy’ bottle or even a syringe.
• Thinly slice some carrot and place two slices in between each number, to represent the other numbers on a clock.
• Use two slices of avocado or cucumber for the arms of the clock. Place in the centre of the numbers and add a block of SPAR plain feta cheese on top of the arms.

 Sausage and Mash Snowman

Sausage, mash and veg can be fun and exciting by building a snowman!

• Make two balls using the mashed potato, one the size of a naartjie (for the body) and the other the size of a lime (for the head). You can do this by either using your hands or using a spoon to shape it. Remember that, less amounts of liquid and moisture added to the mash will ensure a more defined rounded shape.
• Use cocktail sausages for the arms or slice larger sausages in quarters, length ways.
• From the frozen mixed vegetables, use a green bean for the nose, carrot pieces for the eyes, corn for the mouth and peas for the buttons on the body.
• Scatter some veg around the base of the snow man as well as some extra slices of sausage.