Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Superbowl Snack

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Looking for a cute, healthy Superbowl Snack you can make with the kids?  I’ve got a Superbowl inspired veggie tray you can make with the kids before the big game.  This is not too fancy, but I’m sure people will get a “kick” out of extra effort you put into it!

Superbowl Snack

First, lay celery along the center of your platter for the field.  If you have a big crowd, you could use two layers of celery.

Next, create the lines across the field.  I used white string cheese sliced into thinner sections and just laid them across the celery.  An almond football goes down right onto the line of scrimmage.

To make the “fans” I used several serving cups to stand some red bell pepper and baby carrots in to look like they are slightly elevated from the field.  I filled in the extra areas with some cashews.

As a finishing touch, I just laid some pretzel sticks down to look like a goal post.  (I tried to make them stand in the air, but it was just too much work – even for me!)

What are your plans for the Superbowl this year?  What Superbowl Snacks are you ready to chow down on?

Check out a few of our other Sporty Snacks:

Downhill Skier
 
 (Sharing HERE)

Downhill Skier

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Do you love skiing?  Have you taken a family trip to Colorado to hit the slopes this year?  Even if you haven’t gotten to go in person, celebrate the fun of winter sports with this cute little lunch.

skiier

Cottage chesse is a favorite in our home.  Any lunch with cottage cheese as one of the elements is sure to be gobbled up quickly!

To create this lunch, take a baby carrot and slice it in half lengthwise so it lies flat on the plate.  Chop off one of the rounded edges from the bottom.  This will be your skier’s body.  Next, slice the other half of the carrot you didn’t use for the body into small sticks to serve as the arms and legs.  Create the look of bended knees by cutting what would be one leg in half and laying on the plate to look like it is bent.

Take some thinly sliced celery and cut to desired length for skis.  Add two small pretzel sticks for the poles.

Now, take a spoon and spread the cottage cheese onto the plate to look like it is sloping upward on one side as a mountain would.

I decided to add a fun touch in the background by using some string cheese for a chair lift.  Use a small rounded edge of a carrot for a little guy, and give him one leg (that you are seeing from the side), and one ski.

Give each skier a cap to keep warm.  I used turkey breast cut to shape with a little puff of cottage cheese on top.

Your kids will love this protein and fiber filled snack.

Check out some other winter snacks:

Cottage Cheese snowman, Snowman Popcorn Cups, Snowman Milk Chugs, Snowman party poppers.

(Linking up HERE)

Angels we have heard on high

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This healthy and fun little snack celebrates the birth of Jesus as recorded in Luke 2:8-14.  Read the story of the angel choir appearing in the heavens to announce that baby Jesus had been born, and then make this snack to continue the celebration!


“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.  And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”  

Luke 2: 8-14

 

Ingredients:

2 hard boiled eggs
2 baby carrots
1 t cottage cheese
2 raisins
1 strawberry
1/s banana
1 slice white cheese
1 t miracle whip or mayo

Directions:

Slice hard boiled eggs in half lengthwise.  Carefully remove yolk.  Place one half yolk onto top corner of plate for moon.  Place remaining yolk from the 2 eggs into a small bowl and mix with mayo.  Spoon mixture into a zip baggie with a corner sliced off, and set aside. 
Slice bottom off of egg white halves.  Use sliced off section to cut triangular arms/wings for the angels.  Arrange all on the plate as shown. 
Slice baby carrots in half lengthwise.  Slice in half again width-wise.  Use for shepherd’s bodies.  Slice one of the carrot quarters into thin strips for the shepherd’s arms and legs and arrange on the plate as shown. 
Slice little rectangles with tiny triangles sliced out for sheep’s legs.  Top with 1/2 teaspoon of cottage cheese each to look like sheep bodies.
Top angel’s bodies with banana slices for heads, then add raisin eyes and thin strips of strawberry for a smile.  Now take piping bag with egg mixture in it and pipe hair and halo for each angel. 
Use a pizza cutter to slice remaining slice of white cheese into lots of tiny pieces.  Sprinkle around the plate to look like stars.

Nutritional Benefits of this Snack:

Eggs are full of benefits, including being rich in protein, vitamin B, and omega-3’s.  See more about health benefits of eggs here.
 

 
 


3 Creative Christmas Veggie Trays

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Today is all about creative veggie trays for the holidays.  Transform your traditional relish tray with these three vegetable platters that rock!

This year, volunteer to bring the vegetable platter to Christmas dinner!
Create an awesome veggie tray that everyone will love!  The kids will LOVE to help you!

 Use a large round serving platter.  Start with the celery, and create several zig-zaggy rows going accross.

Next, fill in the yellow peppers, saving one for the “hook” on top, then carrots, then cherry tomatoes, and you are all set!

I got the idea for this Christmas present veggie tray when I found the following little boxes at Walmart.

I bought the boxes with the inspiration for this veggie tray, but knowing I could eventually use them as gift boxes down the road.

What I did to create the present was to place all four boxes onto a larger platter, tie a nice thick ribbon around them to make them look like a present and then LINE them.

To line each box, simply open a baggie, roll the top zipper part over so it lays on the outside of the bag, and fill with the veggies.  This will ensure the boxes stay dry and, the best news of all, the veggies are easy to put away once the tray is done being used!

Try this fun and popular idea with the kids this year!

For this tree, I first created the outside branches of the tree with cut celery.  It is just the perfect shape and look to go on the outside.
Next, add sliced cucumber to fill in the middle of the tree.  This cucumber layer can be 2-3 layers deep if you have a large crowd to serve.
Add broccoli to fill in any gaps between the cucumbers and celery, and place some nice red cherry tomatoes to look like ornaments.
To ensure the baby carrots used to make the tree’s “trunk” stand up, cut them in half so they sit flat on the tray.
Finish with a yellow pepper star, and you are all ready to dig in!
Variations:
Use deli meat for the trunk by placing thin rolls next to each other in a vertical pattern.
To feed a bigger group, use celery for the entire bottom layer, cucumbers for a second layer on top of that, etc.

To me, the very best part of making these fun trays with your kids is the fact that they are munching on veggies the whole time!

Check out more Christmas food!
(Sharing HERE)

 

Baby Jesus in the Manger

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“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6
The true meaning of Christmas is awesome story of God sending his son Jesus to be born into the world, in a humble stable, to save the world from sin.  
I’ve always loved the way Linus tells the story in the Peanuts Christmas special!

 

 

I’ve already shared some of the festive Christmas snacks I’ve made for my kids to get them excited about the season (as if they need any help with that)!  However, the real reason we celebrate Christmas is because Jesus was born!  The miracle of His birth and the story of God’s amazing love for mankind still blows me away. 
Luke 2 tells this awesome story.  Read that or read about the birth of Jesus in the Children’s Bible.  
After that, make this lunch together.

Baby Jesus is a baby carrot sliced in half to lay flat.  He is lying in a manger made of a peanut butter sandwich.  He is wrapped in swaddling clothes of string cheese peeled and wrapped around him.  His eyes are raisins.  The stable is made of carrots sliced to lay flat, and the hay and the star are made of organic colby jack cheese.  I use a pizza slicer to create the thin strips of cheese to look like hay.  The support for the manger is celery shaped like an “x”.

As a finishing touch, Grace and I sang “Away in a Manger” together right before she ate!

(Linking up HERE)




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Joshua and the battle of Jericho

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Joshua 6:1-27 tells the story of the great city of Jericho with walls so high and fortified that no adversary could break through.  God called the Israelite leader Joshua to march around the city with the priests blowing their trumpets of ram’s horns in front of the ark of the covenant for six days.  On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times and all of the Israelite people were to shout.  When this happened, God told Joshua, the great walls of the city would come crashing down, and, in this way, the Lord would give the city over to His people.
Read this story with your child, or read the story from the children’s bible (HEREis the one we use), and then create this story for lunch!
Build walls using grapes sliced in half, laid flat side down onto the plate.  Next, slice baby carrots in half lengthwise and lay a couple of them down to be the Israelites.  Thinly slice the other half of the baby carrot and cut to shape for arms and legs.  Complete the scene with some green celery grass below the city walls and add two small triangular slices of pineapple for the priest’s horns.  A nice sun in the sky completes the picture.
(By the way, once I saw the photo, I realized that the Jericho guy looks like he’s smiling . . . oops!  That was supposed to be a round mouth saying “oh no!”)
Once this lunch was complete and we retold the story, Grace “tore the walls down” as they fell in the story.  She had fun with that!
Finally, I sliced up the “grass” below the city for her to dip into her peanut butter.
Variations:
Build the wall with other fruit like strawberries, bananas, or blueberries.
Use pineapple for the sun, or cheese for the trumpets.
Enjoy!
Check out our other bible stories HERE.
(Linking up with these fine parties)

Healthy Halloween Snacks

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Healthy Halloween Snacks are hard to come by sometimes.  For those of us who are into providing healthy Halloween Snacks, here are two to try.
Create a spooky spider in his web!
Peel string cheese and lay it on the plate in a pentagon shape starting on the outside layer.  Move inward, creating another smaller pentagon within the first, and so on.  I ended up with four layers of pentagons.  Next, lay additional string cheese at the junctions of the different corners, and anywhere else you’d like, until you have what looks like a web!
Next, slice a grape in half for the spider’s body.  Thinly slice the other half of that grape plus half of another one to create the spider’s legs.
Finally, add some raisin eyes, and he is finished!
This is the second of two snacks for the season I’ve shown you.
Here is the other healthy Halloween snack for you to try!
Read all about him HERE.

 

Read.Play.Eat: Blackout

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I’ve mentioned the awesome series going on at Sugar and Spice (my personal blog) on Learning and Literacy.  Each day, one of three cool bloggers share a kids story book along with an activity to go along with it.  Since I can’t resist making creative snacks, I’m also sharing those in each of my posts in this October series.

Here’s a little “teaser” for you to see the lunch I made.  Click the link below to see the great kids’ book that goes with it, along with a learning activity you and your child can try today!

Read
(Click here to see the book)
Play
(Go over to the post to see the learning activity!)
Eat
 
Re-create the rooftop scene by making a building out of a peanut butter sandwich, cutting the crusts into cubes for windows.  Next, slice 2 baby carrots in half and in half again for the main part of the bodies.  Thinly slice the remaining portions for the arms and legs.  We are seeing the people from behind, as shown in the cover of the book above, so no eyes are needed.  
I almost used a full banana for the moon, but it was way too big for the scale of the plate, so I cut a banana to shape.  
Create the stars by using your star icing tube attachment in the corner of a plastic bag.  Fill the bag with a little plain or vanilla yogurt as shown.  If you don’t have a star attachment for icing, just make little dot stars!
 
 
I hope you and your child have fun with this READ.PLAY.EAT activity.

(Did you go see the whole thing?  DO IT) 

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A Pair of Pair Snacks

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Have a play date coming up?  Need a 45 second snack for a crowd?  Try one of these snacks!

Create two little flowers by peeling a clementine and arranging it as petals.  Next, slice some green grapes in half to make the stems, and finish with a ground of cereal.  I used Kix.  Easy and fun!

For something a bit more filling and nutritious, create little people out of a slice of cheese (I used organic Colby Jack from Costco), add blueberry eyes and a red grape mouth.  Place carrots on either side of the cheese to make their arms.  Use some sliced bananas for some funky hair, and finish with two little turkey legs.
There you have two fun little snacks that each take less than a minute or two to make!

More Play Date Snacks

Camp

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Have you had a memorable family trip like this one?  Why not re-create it?
Camping scene:  Tent is made of a peanut butter sandwich, the tree trunks and ground are made of Triscuit crackers, the leaves on the trees are made of cucumber and the campfire is made out of a base of walnuts and flames of carrots and yellow pepper.

My husband and I are off to the Great Smoky Mountains for a little getaway, so this also reflects a little of my anticipation for our trip!

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Copyright Note

Please feel free to use any of these ideas with your children at home, school, church, or anywhere you are inspired to make fun of lunch. If you would like to share a post on a blog or site, you may use one picture so long as you include a link to the original post. Please do not re-post the whole article or distribute printed-out content without written permission from the original author.

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