We understand picky eaters! Ollie, who is the star of our TV show and storybooks is the world’s PICKIEST eater. But when he tries a bite of his food, he get’s quirky food superpowers! See him here – Ollie The Boy Who Became What He Ate.
Here at Ollie HQ, we have come up with a few tasty ideas to help you give your kids some fun veggie superpowers!
1. Food Creatures. Have fun by making food creatures, monsters or animals. With bagel or piece of bread topped with cream cheese or hummus – add olive eyes, a sweet pepper mustache, carrot whiskers and tomato nose. Who can make the silliest monster or cutest cat?
2. Try to DIP it! Cutting up strips of sweeter veggies like cucumbers, carrots, sweet peppers and putting out a variety of dips like hummus, guacamole, tzatziki or yogurt can put a new taste to normal veggies.
3. Ollie Superpowers! Want to add some adventure to your meals? Try to make up stories about what superpowers your kids will get from their veggies, or read one of our storybooks to see how Ollie-POP’s and turns into a super-powered, food hero! There’s adventure in them-there veggies!
4. Rainbow challenge: You can try a rainbow challenge [1] and see how many colors they can try – even to touch, smell, lick or take a tiny taste. It can take over ten attempts [2] to get a child to try something new, even a lick or tiny taste can be a path to liking a new food.
5. Tasting Chart! (free download below!) While experts agree that using food itself as a reward system tends to backfire in the long run [3], a great idea is a food chart to show, share and celebrate kids’ expanding food tastes. Download our Food Superpower Tasting Chart and get your kids tasting and celebrating these lovely fruits!
Top Tip – Think of ways to make food an adventure. Kids love a game; so make the broccoli into tiny trees that the dinosaur needs to eat up. Your child is the dinosaur – how many trees can they eat?
Join the fun and download your Free Food Superpower Tasting Chart HERE
Tell us about your kid’s food chart wins (and how you did it!)! Share it with our Ollie Club on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #ollieclub. Our favorite pictures will win this week’s contest and personally signed Ollie Storybook!
Making every meal an adventure!
Have fun! Sheena x
[1] [U of I study describes behaviors, preferences of picky eaters]↩
[3] [Habit formation in children: Evidence from incentives for healthy eating]↩