{"id":827,"date":"2011-08-18T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/?p=827"},"modified":"2011-08-18T08:37:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:37:42","slug":"lunch-is-more-fun-on-a-tray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/?p=827","title":{"rendered":"Lunch is more fun on a TRAY!"},"content":{"rendered":"

A super simple but effective little meal time tool I\u2019ve used over the years is the \u2018cafeteria tray\u2019.  I bought these fun colored ones at my local Target, I see them in each seasons new set of colors every time I\u2019m there so I suspect you can still find them.  My kids love their trays for meal time and the fun benefit to using them that I\u2019ve found is that it instantly encourages more variety in the meal, both for whomever is preparing and in the kids eating and trying more things.  Its like they get a special satisfaction out of seeing every compartment has an item in it.<\/p>\n

Take today for example: <\/p>\n

kids-\u2018Mom, is it lunch time yet\u2026.?\u2019<\/p>\n

mom- \u2018yep, what do you guys want to have?\u2019<\/p>\n

kids- \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019<\/p>\n

mom (in the middle of some paperwork and wondering how on earth noon came so fast)- \u2018um, can you go check what we have?\u2019<\/p>\n

kids- \u2018there is nothing\u2019 <\/p>\n

mom- \u2018oh come on guys\u2019<\/p>\n

kids- (enter here a long list of their many culinary desires, none of which do we have ingredients, time or interest for)<\/p>\n

mom- \u2018ok let me look\u2019 (when I enter the kitchen I stare blankly for a few minutes, then find some leftover PB and honey sandwiches in the fridge and a watermelon- there, that should do it)<\/p>\n

The kids watch as their culinary desires are dashed in favor of stale leftover sandwiches.  <\/p>\n

Suddenly<\/strong> I remember the long forgotten food trays, the ones we haven\u2019t used since before the move!  The heavens part and rays of light fill the kitchen, the children rejoice and dance with glee, inspiration arrives as I look at the many adorable little tray compartments and options flood my mind- string cheese! raisins and craisins! yogurt! graham crackers! a quick micro zap of that refrigerated sandwich to make it more appealing and voila!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_3982\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Happy kids munch away at their feast!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_3983\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now if you\u2019d like to be about a million times cooler than me, or if you just happen to have a day where you can do a bit more pre-planning (as I hope to have throughout the school year), you can take lunchtime to a whole other level with these great links! <\/p>\n

Lunch trays and muffin tins and bentos- oh my!<\/p>\n

Muffin Tin Monday<\/a><\/p>\n

Pirate Muffin Tin Monday<\/a><\/p>\n

Food Art<\/a><\/p>\n

More Food Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Bento<\/a><\/p>\n

More Bento<\/a><\/p>\n

May your meal times be happy, and healthy and fun \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A super simple but effective little meal time tool I\u2019ve used over the years is the \u2018cafeteria tray\u2019.  I bought these fun colored ones at my local Target, I see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamhadjes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}