🥔 Food People, Parent Picks: Jennifer's Favorite Things
The founder of Kids Eat in Color shares the feeding tools, pantry staples, and mindset shifts that help families feel successful at the table.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
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In our Order Up! interview, Jennifer Anderson talked about building the hugely popular feeding platform Kids Eat in Color and why her work focuses on helping parents move past guilt and confusion around feeding kids. And guess what we’re really excited about? Jennifer’s new book, Feed Them Well, is available for pre-order now! Pre-orders play a big role in helping books reach the best-seller list, support authors, and reach more families, so if her work has supported you, this is a meaningful way to support her right back. We love cheerleading the amazing parents in our community!
For Parent Picks, we asked her rapid-fire questions about the practical side of feeding families: the tool she recommends most for picky eaters, the snack that works across ages, and the simple reminder she hopes every parent hears before their next meal.
Is there one tool you recommend over and over because it genuinely helps picky eaters?
One tool I’ve seen get picky eaters to actually interact with new foods is the Constructive Eating utensils. They’re designed like little construction equipment—forks and spoons that look like bulldozers and forklifts. For some kids, that playful element makes a big difference. Suddenly the food becomes something to explore rather than something stressful.
Are there a few pantry or fridge staples you suggest families keep on hand for easy, balanced meals?
It really depends on the family. Some families are a beans, rice, and tomato sauce household. Others are more of a pasta, pasta sauce, and frozen broccoli family. Those can both be great foundations for quick meals. In our house we tend to keep versions of all of those around so we can mix and match depending on the day.
Is there a food parents often feel guilty serving that you think is actually incredibly helpful?
Frozen vegetables. I don’t know where the guilt around frozen vegetables came from. They’re not a compromise. They’re just vegetables.
I’ve heard many parents say, “I can only do frozen vegetables right now,” and I always tell them there’s nothing wrong with that. Nutritionally, they’re essentially the same as fresh vegetables. They’re convenient, affordable, and they help families get vegetables on the table. That’s a win.
When a child is extremely selective, is there a type of food you often encourage parents to lean into?
When kids are very selective, they might only eat 10 to 15 foods, and those foods can be completely different from child to child.
If there’s one area that’s often helpful to focus on, it’s protein. Many selective eaters struggle most with protein foods, so if your child has a protein source they accept, that’s often a good one to lean into while you continue offering other foods alongside it.
What’s a snack you often suggest because it works for so many kids?
Apples and peanut butter. It’s classic for a reason—it’s filling, simple, and works for a wide range of ages.
For babies, you might shred the apple and drizzle a little peanut butter. For toddlers, you can slice the apple very thin so it’s easier to chew and spread the peanut butter lightly. The concept stays the same across ages, you simply adjust the texture and presentation.
Your book is coming out this fall. What are you most excited about?
I was honestly worried the book might end up feeling like a big encyclopedia of how kids eat but it’s not like that at all.
It’s written for parents right now, who are dealing with so much conflicting advice and so many demands on their time and energy. One of the parts I’m most excited about is a framework we call the “six tiers of health impact.” It helps parents prioritize what actually matters most depending on their capacity.
If you have tons of energy, there are ways to do more. But if you’re exhausted and just trying to get through the day, the book helps you focus on the few things that matter most to keep your kid nourished and okay. That perspective shift can be incredibly freeing.
If parents take away just one thing before their next meal, what do you hope it is?
I hope they feel successful if they simply put a meal on the table.
When parents feel successful, everything else gets easier. You have more energy, more confidence, and more willingness to keep trying.
And the truth is, if you’re feeding your kids, you’re already doing a great job.