Salad People

Our preschooler has always been pretty good about eating vegetables, especially salads. But she's also going through a slight "elimination" phase. Things she used to eat and enjoy she now decides to reject--just cuz. But she still has a pretty wide range. She got a kid's cookbook for her birthday (thanks Auntie A!) that has a recipe for "Salad People" in it. I'm finding these are a reliable way to make salads more interesting/edible for her. Here's a "salad fairy" I made:


Lettuce wings, grape tomato head and arms, celery stick legs, red pepper body. Right before eating we stuck some sunflower seeds into the red pepper to make buttons. It worked! She ate everything except the fairy's left wing.

About dressing--she does like it sometimes, but she also likes to apply it herself. This can be a disaster if a large, semi-full bottle of dressing is involved. (Most gets dumped on her plate before she stops pouring.) We now give her dressing poured into a shot glass and set next to her plate. She can pour it herself, but there's not enough to cause much of a mess.

What tricks do you use to get little people to eat? I'm looking for more reasons to use my cookie cutters for example, besides polenta.