A simple sandwich blooms with cheese, fruit and veggies cut in flower shapes with cookie cutters. Pack open-faced and let your kiddo put it together at lunch time. Cut veggie slices with a smaller cutter. Press a flower cutter into an apple, just hard enough to score the peel, then slide a paring knife under the scored edge to remove the flower shape. —Cristi Messersmith 

Kelly’s Tip In a perfect world, “kid-friendly” would mean a lot more than tater-tots, mac ’n’ cheese, PB&J and pizza. Some children are adventurous eaters; some, not so much. But most children will eventually eat everything their little bodies need over the course of a week. So offer up a wide variety of natural goodness, and if your child turns up her nose at something, keep trying! It can take a few tastings of a particular food before they’ll actually like it.