avocado

Paleo Kid Friendly Flower Power Snack

August 19, 2014 by Amy Hudson

Flowers are one of the easiest ways to present whole food in a way that children will love. Today’s Flower Power snack contains protein-packed egg and raw almond butter, as well as fresh red bell pepper, avocado, and apples for fiber.

You may have noticed the little bit of blue color on our egg – we used up our Easter Eggs to make this snack. (I know it’s August now, this photo was taken several months ago!) Use eggs as a healthy and colorful center to any flower. Then, add sliced veggies all around to build a beautiful plate!

Raw almond butter tastes great! We buy either Trader Joe’s or Maranatha brand, which are both made of only raw almonds! No hydrogenated vegetable oils or added sugars like regular peanut butter!

What is Paleo?

A paleo diet refers to consuming the following kinds of whole foods: lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats from sources like fresh fish, olive oil, avocado, etc. The word “paleo” is short for “paleolithic“, which refers to early prehistoric time when our ancient ancestors had access to certain foods available in nature as opposed to the Standard American Diet full of food options with lots of ingredients, additives, etc. Consuming these “basic” foods and avoiding highly processed stuff has been proven to lower blood sugar, increase an individual’s energy level, and provide anti-inflamatory benefits. Learn all about the paleo diet here. Although we do not live exclusively by this type of diet in our home, the more meals and snacks I can prepare for my kids using the best kinds of foods available for us, the better!

Fruit and Veggie Ingredient Substitutions for Flowers

celery

sugar snap peas

peaches

strawberries

nectarines

bananas

clementine orange slices

grapes

. . . and the list goes on. Be creative!

If you liked this snack, check out our other flower snacks, and then take a look at some of our other paleo friendly kid snacks:

Mr. Peacock

Breakfast Made Beautiful (would be paleo sans the cheese in the eggs) 🙂

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

May 1, 2013 by Amy Hudson

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is one of the most fun children’s books to read aloud!

Written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, and illustrated by Lois Ehlert, the story is told of alphabet letters who mischievously climb a coconut tree and tumble down. The rhythmic way it is written makes it fun to read with the kids, bouncing them on your knees all the while.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Lunch

We created this lunch using leftovers a combination of leftovers from this yummy meal made the night before and fresh ingredients. Spoon rice (or an alternative listed below) onto the bottom portion of your plate as a ground. Next, use fresh pineapple chunks to build a palm tree. Slice an avocado and place sections above for the palm branches. Slice a meatball in half and lay onto the plate to look like coconuts. (Note: I microwaved the portion of the leftovers I was going to use before assembling this lunch).

Finally, using string cheese, add the letters of the alphabet heading towards the “coconut tree”. You’re done!

Variations:

Ground: oatmeal, hummus, cheerios, black beans, (or any other beans), turkey, or basically anything brown or black!

Tree trunk: banana, mango, peaches

Palm leaves: sugar snap peas, kiwi, green grapes, green apple slices

Coconuts: cereal, crackers (like Ritz), red or dark grapes, even sliced baby carrot wheels or banana wheels

Letters: pipe yogurt onto plate to make letters, Alphabet cereal

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Learning Activities

1) Act out the story using alphabet cards (use store-bought or make your own on index cards).

2) Dance to the story, make up moves to go along with different phrases in the book.

3) Put in order the alphabet letters: spread alphabet cards all over the floor (like the pile of letters in the story), and have your child put them back in order by lining them up on the floor. (Make your own alphabet cards if you don’t have your own).

More Book-Inspired Snacks Ideas:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes by Margie Palatini

Blackout by John Rocco

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

(Sharing HERE)

Did you enjoy today’s snack? Learn more about this blog here.

Under the Sea

April 8, 2013 by Amy Hudson

“Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid is one of our all-time favorite movie songs. It just gets stuck in our head every time we listen to it!

We’ve been in a bit of a whirlwind in life lately, so Sunday night we decided to veg and have a family movie night. Our movie of choice was The Little Mermaid.

Today’s snack is inspired by Sebastain’s famous song “Under the Sea”.

Create these fun little sea creatures using the following ingredients:

1/2 cup cooked oatmeal

1/4 avocado, sliced

1 strawberry

1/2 slick string cheese

3 grapes

goldfish crackers

1 teaspoon yogurt

Assemble:

Spoon your oatmeal onto the bottom of the plate for the ocean floor.

Next, arrange your avocado slices to look like a beautiful ocean plant.

Slice your strawberry in half so it lies flat on the plate and slice again into 6-8 thin strips to use as the crab’s arms and legs.

Slice 1/2 of your string cheese from the bottom into several small sections. I think this little guy looks like one of Nemo’s little classmates. (Now we are cross-referencing Disney movies!).

Slice grapes in half to lay flat onto the plate, and create little tails by slicing remaining portion of grape in half.

Add goldfish crackers.

**Optional: add little eyes to some of the creatures using a food marker

You are now ready to draw your waves at the top of the plate to complete the “Under the Sea” look. I love to use the following technique:

If you enjoyed today’s snack, you’d also probably like our other Disney inspired snacks as well as our Nature themed plates!