Valentine’s Day is a fun time to celebrate the power and positivity of love. Little ones are often enchanted by the cuteness of Valentine’s Day, with its traditional shades of reds and pinks, hearts of all sizes, balloons, candy, ribbons, and flowers. Share the love with your kids and make them smile at mealtimes with these easy Valentine’s Day recipes, perfect for a preschooler’s packed lunch.
Vegetable Snack Plate
This vegetable snack plate idea from Sweet Sunny Days conveys your care in more than one way … delight little ones with the heart-shaped meal when they open up their lunchbox and help your growing kids stay fit and healthy when they eat their five a day. Making sure it won’t move in the container, create the outline of a heart using baby carrots. Fill with your child’s favorite raw veggies, such as cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, sweet peppers, sweet corn, and so on. Veggie-friendly on its own, you could add in lumps of cheese or ham for a protein boost too.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Eat Cho Food’s chocolate-covered strawberries combine healthy fruit and sweet indulgence for a lovely Valentine’s treat. Serve alone or as part of a fruit box with plenty of Valentine’s color—think watermelon cubes, red grapes, raspberries, and pomegranate seeds.
Mini Heart Pizza
Show your love at lunchtime with a mini heart-shaped pizza, courtesy of Sarah Hearts. Cut ready-made pizza dough to shape using a heart cookie cutter, add sauce and cheese and finish with your kid’s favorite toppings. We think it would also be cute to create your child’s first initial using, for example, this strips of pepper or ham. It takes less than ten minutes to bake and is deliciously served cold.
Love Bug Fruit Cup
Get crafty and create adorable love bug fruit cups, ideas from Crayons and Cravings, for your preschooler’s packed lunch. Quick, easy, and affordable to make, you just need pipe cleaners, craft foam, pompoms, googly eyes, and glue, along with an upside-down fruit cup. You can also swap the fruit cup for another favorite snack or drink, such as yogurt, a carton of juice, or a cup of pudding.
Lip-Shaped Cookies
Swap hearts and send your child kisses with this Valentine’s Day recipe from The Soccer Mom Blog. The lip-shaped cookies are a delightfully sweet treat and sure to make your little one beam. Use a lip-shaped cookie cutter to cut cookie dough into shape before baking and then ice with bright red royal icing for a lip-smacking snack.
Cupid’s Arrow String Cheese
Adapt a common lunchbox item with this cool Cupid’s arrow string cheese idea from Arts & Crackers. Write a personalized message on the plastic wrapper and create a heart and arrow tail from a colorful card. Without the message, we think this could be a great way to add Valentine’s fun to breadsticks too, using a blob of jam or cheese spread to hold the card to the breadstick.
Heart Fairy Bread Sandwiches
It’s super quick and easy to use a cookie cutter to change your child’s favorite sandwich into a heart. If you want to take it up a notch, these heart fairy bread sandwiches from Eats Amazing are perfect. Complete with shimmer and shine! In addition, you could also make sprinkles from bread crumbs and food dye for a more savory taste.
