We are so inspired by real mom Heather Hawthorne from @Hawthornefamilyeats! She creates fun food art for her 3 littles to enjoy! We came across her instagram feed while following the hashtag for #toddlermeals and instantly became hooked! She focuses on healthy food but at the same time making it fun. She actually started a series with her yogurt art where the theme starts with a letter from A to Z. For example she just finished with the letter U and created a fun Unicorn with yogurt, fruit and nuts. See below…
In honor of this Easter season Heather created a darling little bunny just for mom’s best! Thanks Heather…we love it! Go check out her feed to see more of her yogurt art plus awesome toddler and family approved meal ideas, some gluten-free, dairy-free, and even vegetarian!
Photo credit: Heather Hawthorne from @hawthornefamilyeats
photo credit Juneberry Photo
We asked Heather to share a little bit about herself and how she became inspired to create her fun food art.
“I’m Heather, a San Diego momma, married to my love for 7 years. We have three littles, Addyson (5), Sawyer (4) and Capri (21 months). I’m a stay at home mom that owns my own small business on the side ( Raving Tans – spray tanning here in San Diego) and recently started homeschooling my crew! We are about to finish our first year of Kindergarten. My goal in our family is real food. I have a growing passion for the way that our bodies can benefit by eating real food. I want my kids to have a healthy outlook on food, yet not be consumed by it. We don’t pass up a cupcake on birthdays by any means. hehe. I started my insta blog @hawthornefamilyeats to help my own meal planning, and to start tracking our food because my 4 year old son has been dealing with what the doctor thought were toddler migraines the past year. I really had no clue it would be anything that many others would have an interest in. I quickly realized that there is a wonderful community of people that really do want more ideas when it comes to real food and feeding the little ones. Meals that I thought were just basic to us, became inspiration to others. I was quickly humbled by the amazing response to my feed. I really do love creating meals that my whole family loves! We also talk about how to deal with picky eaters, food allergies, and intolerances as well.
The yogurt art, well, that just happened one day. We had a busy week and I woke up wanting to make something fun for my daughter for breakfast. Her favorite is Hello Kitty right now so I looked in the fridge and the only thing white that I could use for the face of Hello Kitty was the Greek yogurt! I just freehanded a hello kitty face with the yogurt and added blueberries for eyes, strawberries for the bow, a banana for the nose and sliced Lara Bars for the whiskers. It was honestly completely random and not thought out. I always tell my friends, I’m the farthest thing from crafty. I just used what was on hand. The kids thought it was so funny! I loved seeing them light up at the breakfast table over something silly like food art and the fact that it was REAL food! This kind of started a series of Greek yogurt art that was starting to catch on. What I love about it is that it only takes me about 5-10 min to create. I only use what I have on hand. The smiles and joy it brings to the kids is what I love the most. It’s become a little tradition for us. Every week I usually create one thing. I got the idea from a friend that I should do an A to Z with yogurt art, and I loved that idea! It gave me a little direction. So now I’m working on that. I just finished with U u – Unicorn. I know someday all too soon the kids won’t care if their yogurt looks like a kite, but I think this is just one of those things that is a fun way to cherish the wonderful toddler years.”
