Realistic play food for the toy kitchen

Our toy kitchen has easily been one of the favourite toys in this household. So much so that it inspired me to write a whole blog post about it - our beloved toy kitchen! But before we had this gorgeous play area we had to make do with a small Mini Sizzlin' Kitchen from Early Learning Centre. It was ideal at the time as it doesn't take up too much space and everything fits neatly inside.

I gave the children dried pasta and rice to play with, but I really wanted to find a fun way to increase the number of dishes that can be cooked, and so I came up with a way to make some simple play food inserts for the saucepans and plates.

All I did was to search Google images for some close up pictures of different types of food (of course, only use images from other sources if you are making this play food for personal use only). You could also use pictures from cookery magazines or it might be fun to take your own photographs of the food that you normally cook for the family. Print them out in full colour and cut them out into a circle slightly smaller than the inside of the pan. If you want them to last a bit longer you can laminate them or back them with thin cardboard.

I'm really pleased with how well they turned out, they were super quick to make, and they take up next to no space to store! I can see me making a whole range of different food - soups, pasta dishes, desserts, and all sorts!

If you are making play food you might also like some of my other posts:

Homemade salt dough and felt pizza
Felt cookies and party rings
Felt sandwich