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6 Min
15/09/2025
You don't need to turn your kitchen into a Japanese bento art studio or spend your precious morning minutes crafting edible masterpieces that belong in a museum. It’s a fact that kids eat with their eyes first, their emotions second, and their actual hunger somewhere around fourth place. We're talking about quick, genius hacks that transform ‘don't want breakfast’ into ‘need second servings’. Read on for tips and tricks.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the morning battle with your kids and the almost impossible quest to get them to down their breakfast in a jiffy. Start by asking yourself: What grabs eyeballs? Here’s a hint: cartoons, animals, bright colours, silly faces, characters from their favourite stories, use those as inspiration. Breakfast doesn’t have to look like a boring canvas to a kid; you have to create an illusion. It can be a bear, a rainbow, a rocket ship, or even a smiley face. If it looks like play more than the tedious daily task of eating, they’re more likely to enjoy it.
If you are artsy, then you will love this one, but even then, you need not spend much time on a colourful spread. Take your pick from colourful rainbow pancakes dyed using fruits or vegetables. Or, you could make a rainbow toast using coloured cream cheese (beetroot for pink, turmeric for yellow, spinach for green). Use fruits like kiwi, mango, blueberries, and strawberries to top yoghurt parfaits. Add a few edible flower petals (like pansies or marigolds), which are safe to eat; they are also pretty, and kids will love them.
Shapes make boring food feel special, think chicken nuggets, smiley fries and rabbit-shaped cookies. Use cookie cutters to cut toast into dinosaur footprints, stars, or their initials. Cut cheese slices into lightning bolts (for the Harry Potter fans). Carve watermelon into hearts, cucumber into flowers, or use a crinkle cutter for carrots. It might seem like a tiny effort, but it will have your kids lap it all up. If you don't have cutters, use bottle caps, straws (for mini circles), or even the rim of a glass to punch out shapes.
Do your kids love the beach? Then recreate it with a slice of toast as the sand, a banana for the waves, and a sunny-side-up egg for the sun. How about creating a planet? Pick porridge with oatmeal and use a kiwi slice for the moon, blueberries as stars, and peanut butter as the meteor trails. The colour hardly needs to make sense; it’s supposed to be fun. You could also go for mini animal pancakes (think rabbit, dog, cow, pig, cat), with apple fences and scrambled eggs as hay.
These will get a giggle from the younger lot, for a face made with berries or fruits is always fun. Try a banana pancake with blueberry eyes, a strawberry tongue, and whipped cream hair. Or, an oatmeal porridge bowl that looks like a bunny: banana ears, raisin eyes, and a yoghurt blob for a nose. You could also make a monster toast: green avocado spread, olive eyes, and jagged cheese teeth. Turn it fun by encouraging your child to name the character!
If all of these seem like way too much effort, then there’s a simple solution: let the kids be the architects of their breakfast. This is a marvellous idea for the kids who love their LEGO, Jenga and building blocks. Offer a bowl of fruit bits, a few pieces of toast, cream cheese, and nuts, and let them build their snack plate. You can encourage them to turn pancakes into a face decoration activity with chocolate chips, berries, and seeds. If using rice cakes, they can easily use nori strips or cheese to create funny faces.
Kids love variety as much as that sounds like a nightmare to a parent. But it need not be that crazy, think tiny tasting menus. You can make use of what you have lying around: a plate with a mini muffin, two berries, a cheese cube, a boiled egg half, and a small toast triangle. Use a muffin tin to serve 6 different items in little portions. It’s breakfast bento! Your child gets the nutrition and also feasts with their eyes, like the Japanese love to. You could also opt to make a morning snack board with crackers, yoghurt dip, fruit, veggie sticks, and a sweet.
Growing up, kids tend to be attached to a particular bowl, serving plate or even spoons and forks. It does not take much to please a child, and you should invest in fun plates, cups and spoons. Swap the plain white plate for one shaped like a car, an animal, or even a superhero mask. Some spoons and forks function like a wand, a dinosaur’s jaw and also the ones that change colour with heat. Add tiny flags, googly-eyed food picks, or even a reusable animal-shaped food pick and dividers. These little touches trick the child's brain into thinking, ‘Wait, this isn’t breakfast!’ and have them happily munching away at their breakfast.
All you need are a few tools, some food dyes, and a little creativity with your breakfast spread for the ultimate fun kiddie breakfast. Kids are smart; appeal to their senses by letting their eyes feast on their breakfast before it reaches their nose or mouth. With a few tweaks here and there, even the most boring porridge or toast will make your children look forward to breakfast.
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