Fun veggie garnishes

Yes, these are little flowers made out of carrots, zucchini, green onions and bean sprouts. While I’d love to say that this was all a terribly creative tactic to get my kids to eat healthier, well, it’s not really. I just think it’s fun. My kids do too.

But hey, that’s not to say they don’t enjoy eating their greens just a little bit more because they look even more appealing. You want to give it a try too–don’t you?

Here are some of my favorite plate dress-ups featuring an assortment of greens:

Green onion flowers:

Using the end of the green onion stem, cut in straight from the end to about one-inch. Work in a circle to make several of these slits. Press the cut ends onto a flat surface so that they spread apart.

Carrot & zucchini flowers:

I have mini cookie cutters for making Linzer cookies that I’ve found also work to make veggie shapes. Press carrots, zucchinis, cucumbers, even green peppers or other sturdy, relatively flat veggies into different shapes. Even if you don’t have mini-cookie cutters as long as you have a big enough veggie slices you can create whatever shape you want (I have a tree shape for Christmas, a heart for Valentine’s Day and even a cactus for Southwestern meals).

Spinach backgrounds:

Chicken Parmesan topped with pesto, cream & spinach, veggie flowers

Make those flowers even more dramatic on the plate by adding a dark spinach leaf as a background. My kids don’t even ask what the decorations are made of anymore–they just smile and eat ‘em up.

Check out more ideas on how to get your kids eating more veggies and other health foods through games, tips and other tricks on Motherboard.

Your turn–are you a veggie decorator? Or do you have ways you decorate your plate (well, and your kids’) with a few greens?