I am always amazed at how much more delicious my meals are when I slice, dice and serve them up with a new twist. Years ago I discovered that if I baked my meatloaf in muffin tins, making mini-meatloaves, my family gobbled them down. But make a traditional in-the-loaf-pan-meatloaf? I'd be lucky if they each ate one full serving. Same recipe, different shape. Can you really take a lump of ground meat, mix in all the mixin's exactly the way you always have, and then pass it off as something really delicious just by changing the shape? Go figure. Who knew? It really does work!
For lunch for my younger crowd one day recently, the creative juices started flowing. I cut PBJ sandwiches into 4 small triangles rather than 2 boring rectangles, sliced the apples into pac-man shapes showing a flower at the center of each instead of ordinary wedges and crinkle-cut the carrots (much more tasty than traditional carrot sticks). Added a few chips, and the boring 'Usual' for lunch became exciting, adventurous, and extra-ordinary!
Mom's reward was seeing their large-eyed faces grinning ear to ear, shouts of 'cool!' accompanied by comments about her awesome culinary skills and questions like 'who is Pac Man anyway?' soon followed by 4 clean plates. YES!
Who knew peanut butter and jelly for lunch could be so good? Guaranteed to entice even the pickiest of eaters!
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