A mother has discovered the best way to get her son to eat his lunch is to turn boiled eggs into sheep, melons into easter chicks and sandwiches into trains
The Angry birds lunch made by mum Grace Hall for her son
A creative mum has become an online hit by turning her son’s daily packed lunches into hundreds of pieces of art.
Former accountant Grace Hall, 32, has now posted photos of more than 300 different lunches on a blog which is viewed by thousands of fans every day.
Mrs Hall goes to incredible lengths to delight her six year old, turning sandwiches into Spiderman, Santa and the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Other characters include Elmer the Elephant, the Gruffalo, Thomas the Tank Engine, Goldilocks and the Funny Bones skeletons.
She spends 15 minutes a day using fun cutters, egg moulds and food picks to turn the meals into tasty, colourful and healthy treats.
The full time mum ****s her lunch box creations on everything from Lego to Roald Dahl’s books, stories like The Three Little Pigs, songs and animals.
Mrs Hall, from Winchester, Hants, said brightening up her son’s lunches has turned an everyday chore into something she looks forward to.
So much so, she actually misses it during the school holidays.
Mrs Hall, who blogs about her efforts to 7,500 followers, said: "I started making the lunches when my son started school last year.
"I had already spent a year struggling to come up with interesting packed lunches twice a week for pre-school.
"I could see years of endless lunch-packing stretching ahead of me.
"I also wanted to make sure he was getting a healthy meal every day and putting them into trendy bento style boxes seemed the perfect solution.
"I soon found they were a great outlet for my own creativity – as a full time mum I get very little time for myself.
"So making lunches is a way for me to turn an everyday chore into an opportunity to get creative."
Mrs Hall, who’s married to Jamie Hall, 30, was inspired to switch to ‘bento’ lunch boxes after reading praise for them online from a mum in Canada.
She asks her son – nick****d ‘Small Child’ in her blog – for ideas and requests.
The full time mum also looks to books, favourite songs, colours, animals, events, the seasons and school topics for help.
His current favourite lunches feature Angry Birds, dinosaurs and cats and will now happily polish off veg including striped beetroot and purple carrots.
A set of themed lunches, like those ****d on her son’s favourite tales for World Book Day, St George’s Day or Comic Relief, requires extra thought.
But Mrs Hall says she doesn’t buy in special ingredients, just always keeps a good variety of fresh fruit and vegetables in the house.
A list of food ideas stuck on the family fridge helps ensure each lunch has at least one portion of vegetable, fruit, dairy, carbohydrates and protein.
Leftovers such as spare tortilla wraps or potatoes from a dinner are put to good use in the lunchboxes, and sweets and crisps are kept to a minimum.
She fashions snails from a bread roll decorated with cheese for eyes, carrots carved into flowers and a cheese and ham toastie that looks like a pig.
Other examples include jacket potato boats, pasta, rice salad and cous cous.
Mrs Hall added: "Making up the lunches doesn’t usually take long at all, between five and 15 minutes.
"Occasionally I give a lunch a little extra time if it’s a special theme or occasion but I truly believe it’s not much more than ‘traditional’ lunches.
"My son really loves the lunches.
"I make them while he is eating his breakfast and he is always peering over my shoulder, interested in what I am making for him each day.
"I know I’ve made a good one if he says it’s cool.
"My son was never a big eater before.
"I used to worry about the amount of food he ate, or rather didn’t eat, but since I started making bento style lunches, his appetite has grown.
"These days he is much more enthusiastic about his food and will eat pretty much everything except celery."
Mrs Hall remembers her own mother using fruit to make faces in the homemade bread that formed her childhood lunches.
Mum turns lunchbox into daily work of art to tempt son – Telegraph