Bento Family Life

Fun ways to enjoy British piccolo tomatoes

Simple food fun with British piccolo tomatoes

I don’t know about you but sometimes it can be hard to make sure my children have a balanced diet. Now my youngest has started Junior School we decided she could join her brother in having packed lunches every day, so I feel under more pressure than ever to give them a healthy lunch. Like most schools, theirs promotes a healthy lunch and we are allowed to send a healthy snack for morning break time too.

Little Sis has totally embraced her packed lunches and loves nothing more than helping to make and pack it every morning! As a working mum I try to stay organised by doing a weekly food shop, usually online. This means I can plan ahead for the week, and make sure there is plenty of choice for lunch boxes!

Fun ways to enjoy British piccolo tomatoes

I’ve shared packed lunch ideas before on my blog. You all know how fond I am of a little pots of fun and food picks to encourage my children to eat! Even though they are growing up quickly they still love to have fun with their food. Have you even tried piccolo tomatoes, the smallest and sweetest type of tomato grown in the UK? Last week we received a box full of British piccolo tomatoes which were supplied by Glinwell, a British tomato nursery. We get through a lot of fresh seasonal vegetables each week so I was excited to try these. They were bright and colourful and still on the stalk, which my children just loved.

British piccolo tomatoes which were supplied by Glinwell, a British tomato nursery

Piccolo tomatoes are small and sweet, which makes them great for one of your 5 a day. My daughter loved washing them, picking them off the stalk and filling a small pot of them for her packed lunch. This is the easiest way to eat them, but my son wanted to see what else we could make.

We turned to Pinterest for some inspiration and the first thing we made were simple cucumber and tomato flowers. These were so easy to make, using sliced cucumber with half a tomato on top of the cucumber ‘petals’. We then picked some tomatoes which we turned into tomato caterpillars, by pushing them onto cocktail sticks. We decorated them with candy eyes and used black icing for the smile. The caterpillar was turned into a beautiful butterfly with the addition of cucumber wings.

fun finger food with piccolo tomatoes

The final thing we made was a sweet little tomato ladybird. We cut a Babybel in half, placing one half onto a Ritz cracker. My son cut some tomatoes and olives in half, placing them onto the cheese. He finished the ladybirds off with candy eyes and black icing dots on the tomatoes.

tomato ladybird for kids to eat
We soon had a huge plateful of snacks for after school. My kids are always hungry when they’ve finished school and this was a fun way to enjoy delicious piccolo tomatoes. Let me know if you try them!

Disclosure – this is a paid partnership with Gautier Semences, who provide the seeds to Glinwell.

9 Comments

  • Reply
    Oliver Long
    September 26, 2019 at 11:11 am

    Great tips! We grow our own tomatoes in the allotment and we make spicy tomato jam out of them… not as fun for the kiddies, of course, but it’s delish!

    Oliver x

  • Reply
    Kara
    September 26, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    OMG, this is so cute – I love making food fun for the kids, although tomatoes are still work in progress for them

  • Reply
    Jemimah J. Essa
    September 26, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    This is awesome! This would be great for kids parties at church, healthy and cool to look at. I will look forward to trying <3

  • Reply
    Rebecca Smith
    September 26, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    What a fun way to serve Piccolo tomatoes! We do love tomatoes in our household but struggle to think of different ways to have them.

  • Reply
    Rhian Westbury
    September 27, 2019 at 7:50 am

    These are so cute, and I’m such it’s easier to make the kids eat them when they look like this. I use these tomatoes in pasta bakes and they taste so good x

  • Reply
    Kacie Morgan
    September 27, 2019 at 11:38 am

    I love Piccolo tomatoes, they’re so flavoursome and juicy. I love the idea of making little ladybirds with them – these would be ideal for a kids’ dinner party.

  • Reply
    Yaya
    September 28, 2019 at 8:01 pm

    Our littles love baby tomatoes so this a fun way to get them even more involved in the food they eat

  • Reply
    Lauretta at Home and Horizon
    September 28, 2019 at 8:05 pm

    Oh, this is just lovely! Who won’t be enticed by these presentations? Kids would definitely love them too.

  • Reply
    Playdays and Runways
    September 30, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    I love piccolo tomatoes, unfortunately I am the only one in our house. I’m thinking if I got the boys to decorate them they might try them, it’s worth a shot. Thanks

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