Toddler’s Mom Turned Fruits And Veggies Into Animals And Instagram Is Loving It

A mother of a 2-year old has come up with a creative idea to make her toddler eat healthy food that includes fruits and vegetables. She started out by cutting strawberries and bananas one morning and found her talent which is now driving Instagram crazy. “It looked so boring, so I thought, if presentation matters to adults, it probably matters to kids too,” Mindy Zald explained to Delish. “I made a banana snail for him, and when I presented it to him, he started laughing so much that I thought, okay, I’ve got to do this more often.”

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Zald not only made the food interesting and appealing to her son but also turned them into lessons. “I realized it could be an educational moment, so I started making them and asking him questions like, ‘What animal do you see? What foods do you see? How many pieces are here? What sound does that animal make?'” Zald said in an interview with Delish.

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Along with that Zald started putting up pictures of her creative food animals on her Instagram account on an occasional basis. On seeing the response of her friends and family she made a different account called The Plated Zoo and gained a lot of followers. They started making requests as well and that gave Zald a boost to try different characters too.

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Her son loved the new characters like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mickey, Curious George, Man With The Yellow Hat’s BFF and many more. And with success there also comes a few failures but Zald isn’t giving up. “I attempted Mama Bear from Berenstain Bears for Mother’s Day, and that was a disaster, so I’ll try that again one day. That wasn’t even picture-worthy,” said Zald.

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Zald’s creativity has also put her into hilarious situations. She recalls an incident at the supermarket, “One time, I was making a yak and I was standing in the produce aisle for a very long time. This guy came over to me and was like, ‘Do you need some help?’ and I just said, ‘Does this kiwi look like a yak to you?'” she said. “He had no idea what I was talking about. At that moment, I was like, I need to get out of here. Clearly, I’ve been spending way too much time thinking about this.”