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My son’s preschool had its year-end party last week, and parents were asked to bring something food-wise. We were just about to move apartments so I decided to limit myself to no-cook contributions, and in the end decided to go with a veggie platter to balance the cake, ice cream, and fruits that had already been volunteered.

We love vegetables in our house. My son eats the salad from his plate first before starting in on anything else, and lately he also steals from whatever veggies I’ve got on my plate. But I know it isn’t like this for all kids and that getting kids to eat a variety of vegetables can be a battle, so I wanted to make something fun. After browsing Pinterest for a bit, I decided on a “Veggie Peacock” (or turkey, or any number of other birds), and the kids thought it was hilarious.

What is great about these types of veggie platters is that you can really work with whatever veggies you have, and they surprisingly don’t take that much time to prepare. I finished this off in about 10 minutes while prepping my son’s lunch box, which is totally doable. For my veggie platter I used different coloured peppers, cucumbers, and carrots, chosen for the colourful effect it achieved together. If I’d had a larger platter I would have loved to make some grass with cherry tomato and radish flowers, etc.

I definitely think veggie platters are one of those things where if I get carried away making it, the kids will get carried away eating it.

Cutting the pieces small enough that they are easy to eat is also important. The key to getting kids to gobble down veggies, at least at the beginning, is that they can’t be too hard to eat. Start with a dish of bite-sized pieces and gradually increase the size. Once you hand them a full red pepper with the confidence of knowing that they will simply take and eat that pepper, you know you’ve hit the mark!