Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Thanksgiving PB Apple Turkey

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Thanksgiving is coming up quickly.  Holidays are such a fun time to make a creative, healthy snack for kids to celebrate the season.  There are tons of amazing ideas out there for Thanksgiving food for kids, and today I’ll add one more to the mix.

Thanksgiving PB Apple Turkey

Kids Thanksgiving Turkey Snack

Ingredients

2 T creamy peanut butter

1 stick celery

1 small apple

1 almond

Directions

Place the peanut butter into a zip top baggie and snip a piece off of the corner of the bag.  Pipe the peanut butter onto the plate as shown for the turkey’s body and legs.  Slice an apple and arrange slices around the turkey’s body to look like feathers.  Add some celery “grass” below the turkey by placing some cut up celery there.  Finally, slice the two ends off of an almond and place into peanut butter for turkey’s eyes.  Use remaining almond to slice a triangle shape and place beneath eyes to look like a beak.

Simple and fun.  The best part is that the kids can dip the celery and apples into the peanut butter to eat.  My girls cleaned their plate!

Alternative serving suggestions:

Almond butter in place of peanut butter

Raisins for eyes and beak

After you serve this guy to your kiddos as a snack, try this turkey for lunch.  Your little turkeys will love it!

Read the preparation instructions for this lunch.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

5 loaves and 2 fish

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Today’s lunch is going to be used to teach a bible story.  John 6 tells the story of Jesus teaching a large crowd, 5,000 people.  It became late in the day, and the disciples told Jesus to send the crowds home because they would need something to eat.  Jesus said, “Let us feed them”.  A boy was carrying 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish and offered them to Jesus.  Jesus prayed and thanked God for the food, then started to break it up into pieces to put into baskets for the disciples to pass out to the people.

After everyone, all 5,000+ people had eaten their fill, there were 12 baskets left over!  This is one of Jesus’ awesome miracles and today’s lunch celebrates that.

Teach the 5 loaves and 2 fishes story

1.  Read the story aloud to the kids.

2.  Talk about how the disciples must have felt, what the miracle showed them about Jesus, and some of the things they think the crowds of people might have said as they watched this happen and ate the food.

3.  Pray and thank God for showing us his supernatural power through miracles like this one.

4.  Act out the story together.

5.  Make this lunch.5 loaves and 2 fish lunch and learning activities by creativekidsnacks.com Create the fish by combining 1/2 of a can of tuna with several tablespoons of mayonnaise or miracle whip.  Here is a great recipe for homemade mayo made with much less fat and far better ingredients than store-bought.  Shape two little fish using your fingers.  Add a little raisin eye to each.

Serve with 5 “loaves” of bread.  Shown are garlic chips, but you can serve any kind of bread that will be easy to eat with the tuna.  I wanted something onto which the kids could spoon their tuna and eat.  Also perfect on the side are celery sticks.  The kids can spread tuna on the celery sticks to eat as well.
5 loaves and 2 fish lunch and learning activities by creativekidsnacks.com

One can of tuna was plenty to make two plates like this, one for each of my girls.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed this meal.  They have not eaten much tuna, as it’s not something I regularly buy.  However, tuna is perfect for making a fish, thus the “5 loaves and 2 fishes” lunch.

And now it’s time for the Weekly Kids Co-op!

As moms, we are constantly on the lookout for great teaching tools and resources to use with our children.  I know I always benefit from seeing the creativity of others as they share lessons, activities, crafts, food, and more in their various blogs.  Mommy bloggers have become popular for a good reason: information is power.  Right, ladies?

The Weekly Kids Co-Op

The Weekly Kids Co-op is one of my very favorite such resources.  I have been linking my snacks to this link party for months now, and I am excited to be able to co-host it here at Creative Kid Snacks.

If you are a blogger, link up your kid related posts to share with all of us eager beaver mommas.  If you are a mom, take some time to look through all of the great ideas for teaching and playing with our kids.  Pin what you love.  Like I said before, information is power!

This party will take place every Thursday at Creative Kid Snacks.  You will find it hosted on several other blogs, but the days the party goes live will vary from blog to blog.

Get ready for all the great ideas!  Link, share, and enjoy!


Easter Morning

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The resurrection of Jesus Christ is, in my eyes, one of the singe most important events of all time.  On Easter, we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, conquering sin and death, and paving the way for all who believe in him to have forgiveness and everlasting life.

After Jesus’ death, his body was placed in a garden tomb by a couple of his disciples.  Three days later, Mary Magdelene went to the tomb to anoint the body with spices and oil, and saw the stone rolled away from the tomb entrance.  As they entered the tomb, they saw an angel who said to them, “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mark 16:6 NIV).

Resurrection day proved that Jesus was who he said he was.  The son of the most high God, able to defeat even death, so that we who believe may live!  Amen!

This Easter snack will help you to teach the story of Jesus’ resurrection to your children.  Read the story from Mark 16 or John 20, (or read it from the Children’s Bible – here’s the one we use), and then make this snack together.

Teach the story of Jesus' resurrection and the true meaning of Easter with this snack by creativekidsnacks.com
To make this snack, start with the tomb.  Slice an apple near the core on one side so you have a nice large chunk of apple.  Then slice that in half so that there is one round “stone” piece and another that looks like an empty tomb.  Easy!  Next, thinly slice a baby carrot and place the strips around the tomb to look like beams of light.  Add some celery grass underneath the tomb.  (After all, the tomb was in a garden)!

Next, slice a hard boiled egg in half to use as the angel’s body.  Carefully pop out the yolk of one of the halves and place it on top as the angel’s head.  Slice two small traingles off of the half of boiled egg you didn’t use for the body, and place those next to the body as arms (well, sleeves).  Add some pretzels as wings, and use a small almond for his smile and tiny brown sprinkles for his two eyes.  I normally use raisins for eyes, but this guy’s face was too small for that!

You now have a delicious, nutritious, and educational bible story for lunch.  Enjoy!

Teach the story of Jesus' resurrection and the true meaning of Easter with this snack by creativekidsnacks.com

If you enjoyed this Easter snack, check out our other biblical snacks like Jesus’ birth, Jesus on the cross, Jonah in the big fish, and more.

Porcupine

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Who doesn’t love peanut butter?  A peanut butter porcupine is even better!  Make this snack for your peanut butter-loving child and he will be delighted to dip every part of the snack into the yummy peanut butter.

My girls love to make snacks that reflect nature.  Things that they see around them every day.  Some examples of our nature snacks include Solar System, Flower Garden, Dragon Fly, and others found here.

Pocupine peanut butter dipping snack

This guy is super easy to make and the kids love dipping everything in the peanut butter.

First, spread a tablespoon or two of peanut butter in the center of the plate.

Next, give him some spikes using mini pretzel sticks.

Cut several slices of banana into circles and slice two of those circles in half to lay flat on the plate.  Now place a head and a tail on each end of his body.  Add a tiny dollop of peanut butter for his nose, and break off a small end of a pretzel stick to stick into the banana for his eye.

Finally, add some celery as the grass he’s playing in, and you are done!

When I made this snack for my girls, They loved dipping everything in the peanut butter to eat.  This snack is definitely a winner!

Pocupine peanut butter dipping snack

Make sure to check out our other nature and everyday scenes snacks!

(I’ll be sharing this HERE)

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

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)

Creative Birthday Party Food: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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Today’s party ideas are for Amber’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Party.

 
Do YOU have a kids birthday party coming up soon?  Would you like some creative kid snack ideas for your party?  Please let us know on Facebook!  I’d love to help you come up with some unique foods to serve!  Tell me the theme, and let’s get creative together!
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One of our Facebook friends, Amber, asked for some cute food ideas for her son’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles birthday party.  I hadn’t realized that the beloved Ninjas had made a comeback and have lately become popular for the kids!

In case you need a refresher, here they are!

 
 
 (source) 
 

Following are some ideas for this Cowabunga-mazing party!
1)  Serve PIZZA 
You have to have the turtles’ favorite dish as one of your main courses!
2)  Donny’s drink
Super easy to make and more festive than regular drinks, these turtle beverages are sure to get a comment or two from your guests.  There’s even a cute little tie in the back.  The best part?  You can write the kids’ names on the construction paper mask once they are handed out!
See how they are made HERE.
3) Ninja Turtle Party Apples
These guys would be adorable to either serve along with all of the party food, or even to wrap up in cellophane and send home as little favors.  See how they are made HERE.

4) Leonardo’s Sword

Option 1:  plain celery
Option 2: peanut butter swords
I found these tiny skewers at the dollar store.  Slice celery, making some small and some long pieces.  Slide a small piece horizontally down the skewer.  Next, slide the long piece on vertically.  They hold up and look just like a little sword!
5) Donatello’s Bo
Pretzel rods look just like Donatello’s bo.

If you wanted to jazz these up a bit, you could buy some peel-able Twizzlers and wrap some around the middle for the grip.

6) Turtle Shell cake (or Rice Krispy) pops
A friend of mine got the above cake pan on amazon and made adorable cake-sickles for her girl’s birthday.  We’ve all seen the round cake pops that look like a ball, but I had never seen one like this.
For the TMNT party, make cake, rice krispy treats, brownies, or cookies in the pan and frost with buttercream frosting to look like a turtle shell.  Use brown and green and make something like the following pattern:
(source)
Spread the brown frosting all over the surface first, then pipe the green frosting on in this pattern.  Practice on a piece of wax paper first.  You can even add some green or chocolate sprinkles over the top for some texture!

 

 

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)

 

ABC Lunch

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Is your child learning the ABC’s?  How about their vowels?  Today I have a lunch for you that is inspired by a story and that is perfect for teaching the ABC’s, practicing vowels, and spelling.

Slice a banana into 21 sections, and then find something else, like celery or perhaps apples or graham crackers, to use for your vowels.  Next, find a plastic bag, snip off a tiny piece of the corner, and fill with several tablespoons of peanut butter.

Before piping the letters onto each space, work the peanut butter around in the bag using your fingers until it softens a bit.  It will come out much easier that way.
Before eating, here are a few things you can do with your child:
a. Sing the alphabet song, of course!
b.  Ask him to point to the first letter in his name.
c.  Ask her to spell her name by pointing to each letter.
d.  Ask him which letter makes the sound __(fill in the blank)___.
e.  Point out the vowels and explain that there is a vowel in every English word.  (“Y” is also used as a vowel in certain cases)
f. Sing the “I like to eat apples and bananas” song to practice your vowel sounds.
g.  Use your imagination.
Now, read and play!
Screen shot 2013-01-22 at 2.05.44 PM
How Rocket Learned to Read is an adorable book about a dog who meets a little bird who happens to be teaching a class right in his favorite napping spot.  Rocket and the bird meet up every day, and the bird teaches Rocket his letters, reads him stories, and inspires him to love learning.  When winter comes, the bird flies south for the winter, leaving Rocket to practice his letters and wait for the bird to return.  They develop a beautiful friendship, and Rocket finally learns to read.
PLAY.
Take a few moments and practice your letter sounds with those magnetic letters that most of us have on the fridge.  Right now, my daughter is at the beginning stages of reading and knows her letter sounds well.
Use a simple word like “cat”, and practice moving new letters in front of the “at” and ask your child to sound out the new word.  Since they will be so similar to each other, it will be fun for your child to successfully read so many words in a row.
Try the same thing with different word endings, or by moving vowels in and out of the middle of simple words.
Kids will love this tasty alphabet snack!
(Sharing HERE)

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)

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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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