Imagination Parenting: Food Tips -

How Imagination Parenting© helps you cook more creatively

Growing up, I was a really lucky kid.

My parents were always looking for ways to get us to eat a wider variety of foods, specifically vegetables, of course.

But in this process, they started getting creative.

Old Fashioned oatmeal wasn’t just oatmeal, it was Sugar Loaf Mountain. Whole Wheat Wagon Wheel pasta wasn’t just pasta, it was Little House on the Prairie pasta!

Get the idea?

They took something we loved and added it to something we disliked thus REFRAMING the food into something that was literally more palatable.

Now that I’m a mom, I do the same and I’ve incorporated this technique into the Parenting with Imagination© formula.

Problem + Something your kids love + Think like a Kid = Creative Solution

Girl drinking a smoothie wearing straw hat

Let’s look at an example:

Here’s a real-life example that I’m sure you can relate to.

Problem: My younger was a very unmotivated reader. Getting her to open a book was a daily struggle.

Something my kids love: She loves to bake.

Think Like a Kid: Wouldn’t it be fun if we could eat our bookmarks?

Solution: I made a deal with her that if she read for 20 minutes every day then we could make cookies, BUT not just any cookies—Bookmark Cookies!!! (as seen in the picture at the top of this page).

Well, as you can imagine, my daughter read every day that week, and even the next–so we made yummy Bookmark Cookies!

Another Tip

I love to use kid-friendly cookbooks. Not only does help teach math (fractions) and encourage kids to read, but it gets them excited about cooking as well as builds confidence in the kitchen and ownership over their cooking creations.

This Healthier Peach French Toast Casserole was inspired by a recipe we found in a Disney cookbook.