Every mom seems to have issues with their child not wanting to eat at some time or another.  I am in the midst of a major battle right now with Riley not wanting to eat her food.  First of all, she's almost two and isn't very jazzed about eating any more.  And to make matters worse, last week, she was pretty ill, which meant that she REALLY didn't want to eat!

What's a mom to do?  We know that nutrition is critically important to our children's health, so how can we make eating more alluring?  By making the food we feed our kids more FUN!  I wanted to see if the Disney 5-in-1 Princess Tasty Baker from PopArtToasterStore.com could do the trick and make Riley excited about eating again.

The Pop Art Toaster was created by mom-entrepreneur Linda Carlish in 2005. After hearing from other mothers that they were cutting their childrens sandwiches into shapes with cookie cutters and pairing knives in order to get their young picky eaters to eat, she decided there must be a better way. Linda's patented toaster uses removable and interchangeable image stencil plates that slide into slots in the toaster and toasts words or pictures onto your bread, pancake, muffin or any toastable product.

A kid at heart, Linda decided children shouldn't have all the fun so she created several versions of the toaster to please adults, teens, brides, romantics and children of all ages. Not in the mood for picture toast today? Simply remove the image stencil plates and you have your regular, every day toaster. Who says you can't play with your food?

With Riley being sick and not wanting to eat ANYTHING, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to put the Disney 5-in-1 Princess Tasty Baker from PopArtToasterStore.com to the test.  Riley really likes eggs and I wanted something fast and easy, so I read the directions on the Tasty Baker and got started.  First, I had to spray the nonstick plates with cooking oil, as shown in the first picture below.  Next, I cracked open one egg and scrambled it up in a bowl.

Then, I used the bonus batter scoop, included with the Tasty Baker, to scoop my egg out of the bowl and pour it carefully into the princess shapes on the Tasty Baker.  Being left-handed, I found this a little difficult to do since the scoop only has a spout on one side and is obviously made for someone who is right-handed.  In my opinion, the scoop could be easily improved upon by making a spout on both sides to accommodate lefties too!

So, as you can see in the upper right-hand picture, one egg almost filled up all five of the princess shapes on the Tasty Baker.  I wasn't able to fill the crown shape at all and the rose shape was only partially filled.  Next, I simply closed the lid on the Tasty Baker and set the temperature to 3.  The instructions say to let the egg cook for 4 minutes, but check on them periodically.  I did exactly that and they came out beautifully.

Because the plates are nonstick, you are instructed not to use any type of metal utensil to help remove the cooked shapes from the pan.  Unfortunately, you are not given anything to help you remove the treats from the pan.  I searched around trying to find something small that wasn't metal and finally used Riley's baby spoon to do the trick.  I would suggest adding a small plastic spatula of some kind or turning the end of the included cleaning brush into a small spatula so that removal of your baked items would be much easier.  As you can see in the third and fourth pictures above, the eggs came out wonderfully and were cooked all the way through!

Now came the real test.  Would my most finicky eater be lured into eating her meal without a fight?  Just look at the pictures above and see for yourself!  The shapes were small enough to be bite-sized and kid friendly.  She also didn't make a mess and ate her meal without much fuss!  YAY!  The Disney 5-in-1 Princess Tasty Baker came to my rescue!  :)

All that was left now, was the cleanup.  I'll have to admit that this part wasn't much fun.  Although the eggs didn't stick AT ALL to the Tasty Baker, I had a lot of cooking oil and grease from the eggs that I had to clean off of the nonstick plates.  This product does come with a handy little brush which helps to clean the tiny crevices in some of the shapes on the pan, but the hard part was that you couldn't really get the Tasty Baker wet.

I tried holding it over my sink and letting water run over the plates without getting the cooking element wet, but this was no easy task.  I slammed my fingers once in between the plates and managed to get water everywhere.  I really wish that this product had removable nonstick plates so that I could thoroughly and easily wash the plates without the mess or worrying that I am damaging the whole unit by accidentally getting it wet.

Even though there are some minor things I would improve upon, I still highly recommend purchasing the Disney 5-in-1 Tasty Baker.  This product helped make meal time more fun for my daughter, which always makes it more fun for me!  There are a ton of yummy recipes that are also included for use with the Tasty Baker which I can't wait to try too.  Maybe now, I've finally found the secret weapon in getting a feisty toddler to eat!