Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Gingerbread Man Bubble Bath

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Is there a cookie that is more Christmas-y than gingerbread?  Here at Creative Kid Snacks, we like to play with our food.  We like to keep our snacks healthy, educational, and fun.  Today’s snack is a Christmastime treat, so we will put it in the dessert category.  While you’re here, you might enjoy checking out some of our other fun Christmas creations!

Gingerbread Man Bubble Bath

Everyone likes a relaxing bubble bath, including gingerbread men.

To make this creation, my girls and I first followed the Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie recipe, and used our gingerbread man cookie cutters to cut them to size.

Next, we used this recipe for royal icing to pipe the sleepy eyes and smile on our gingerbread man’s face.  We chose to use royal icing because it stays put much better than a buttercream.

Once cooled and dried, we placed our gingerbread man into a mug filled with milk.  We used cold milk because we like to eat our cookies with nice cold milk.  If you like, you could also heat up the milk for a real “warm bath” for your gingerbread man.  You could even add a bit of fancy peppermint flavor syrup like you’d get from the coffee shop if you had some on hand!

Making the Bubbles

Next comes the fun part for the kids – making the bubbles!  To make the bubbles, place a straw into your milk and blow!   Blow until you have lots of beautiful white bubbles for your happy gingerbread man’s bubble bath!

Hot Tubbin’ It

You may also like the idea of letting your gingerbread man take a dip in a hot tub of warm cocoa.  Follow all of the same directions as before, but this time, add some hot chocolate mix or chocolate syrup to your warm milk before serving!

Helpful tips:

Make sure the cookie cutter you are using for your gingerbread man has his arms out to the sides as opposed to down closer to his body.  The ourstretched arms help the gingerbread man to rest comfortably in the mug as his arms hang over the sides.

Choose your mug carefully.  Allow enough room for his body to submerge but not too much room or else his feet will float in the milk and he will look like he is ready to fall out backwards from the mug.  If this happens, simply brace your gingerbread man with a straw or even a spoon before serving.

Blessings to your and your family this Christmas season!

Did you enjoy today’s snack?  Don’t forget to check out our Christmas snacks along with some of our other favorites.  You can learn more about this blog HERE.

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Ladybug Apples

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My oldest daughter checked out a great book at her school library recently.  It is a great book all about ladybugs.  The book goes into great detail about ladybugs’ life cycle, body structure, defense mechanisms, uses as natural pest repellants in agriculture, and much more.  I learned a lot after reading this book with her!  In honor of learning all about ladybugs, we decided to make a special treat to eat after lunch.

Ladybug Apples

Ingredients:

1 apple (we used Honeycrisp)

4-6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cheerios

Directions:

Slice the apple into two halves, just outside the core.  You will have two halves to make into little ladybugs.  Place chocolate chips into a small glass bowl and microwave for one minute, stirring with a rubber spatula at 20 second intervals.  Once chocolate is melted, spoon into a plastic zip baggie and slice a tiny corner off of the bag to use for piping the chocolate.  Pipe a “T” across the back of the ladybug’s back – one central line along the back, and one line to divide what will look like the back from what will look like  the head area.  Fill in the head with chocolate, drizzling it in with the piping bag, then smoothing with a knife, then add little dots around the rest of the back.  Add two cheerio eyes, repeat for the other ladybug, and chill for 10 minutes in the fridge.

Easy, fun, and delicious dessert to celebrate learning new things!  Enjoy!

If you liked these little guys, you may also want to check out our other animal creations.

(Sharing HERE)

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

 

Santa Party Poppers

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Meet our cute little Santa Party Popper.

I’ve taken to calling anything on a short stick a “popper” because you can pop it into your mouth and enjoy in one or two bites.

These guys are a dessert for the kids to help make after dinner one night or in preparation for a little party.
*Note:  Santa Party Poppers should be assembled within an hour of when you plan to serve them, because the bananas will brown being out in the air too long.
To make 10 Santa Poppers you will need:
10 regular sized marshmallows (not minis)
2 additional regular sized marshmallows cut into eights (for puff on Santa’s hat)
10 one inch tall banana chunks
10 red mini M&Ms
1/2 cup chocolate chips (for melting)
10 strawberries cut to appropriate size for a hat

 

Before assembly, slice each full sized marshmallow in half lengthwise.  You will need 2 halves per Santa.
To assemble, slide the small marshmallow bit (from those cut into eights) to the top of a decorative toothpick.  Next, slide the strawberry (flat side down), one half marshmallow, the banana, and lastly the other half marshmallow.

Make sure you slice your banana into chunks evenly and straight to ensure that they do not lean or tip over once assembled.

Tip:  Sliding the bottom marshmallow on with the sticky side down will allow it to stand up better on the serving plate because it will stick!
Next, melt your half cup of chocolate chips in the microwave.  I melted mine for a total of 45-50 seconds on high, stopping to stir every 20 seconds.
Once melted, spoon chocolate into a Ziploc bag and snip a TINY triangle off one of the corners.  You will pipe the chocolate out through this hole.
Pipe two eyes and dot for his nose on every Santa.  I placed the nose dot right above the bottom marshmallow.
Place a red M&M on each chocolate dot and press to stick down for Santa’s nose.
Once this step is complete, refrigerate for 10 minutes and serve (see *note above)
The kids will love this dessert, and you can feel good knowing it is mostly fruit.  The only refined sugar they will be getting is the equivalent of 1 1/8 marshmallow and a tiny bit of chocolate.

(Linking up HERE)

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Grinch Party Poppers

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The Grinch is one of Dr. Suess’ most beloved characters, and at Christmas we love to watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.
Just like we love to make Christmas trees, wreathes, snowmen, Santa, and reindeer for snacks this time of the year, we also love Mr. Grinch.

Today’s snack is a perfect finger food to put out for the kids at a Christmas party.
These would also be perfect for a Christmastime sleepover, featuring popcorn, the Grinch movie, and these scrumptious little poppers.
Healthy, cute, and super fun, you know these little guys will be a hit.
Here’s how to make them.

Step 1: Collect your ingredients and assemble Grinches

 
(Depending on how many Grinch poppers you would like to make, you will need that many of the following):
 
-slice of white string cheese (at least 1/3 inch thick)
-strawberry
-banana slice (at least 1/3 inch thick)
-green grape (with bottom sliced off so it lays flat)
-melted chocolate. (1/2 of a Hershey’s bar, broken into pieces and microwaved until melted, stirring at 20 second intervals will be plenty to make up to 25 poppers)
 
Assemble each Grinch by sliding each piece up a plastic toothpick.  I get mine from the dollar store.  They come in a package of assorted colors with little hearts on the top.  They are the perfect size, and not too sharp for the kids to eat off of.
 

 Step 2: Melt Chocolate

 
 Depending on how many poppers you are making, melt the appropriate amount of chocolate.  I used a simple Hershey bar in this recipe.

1/2 of a Hershey’s bar, broken into pieces and microwaved until melted, stirring at 20 second intervals will be plenty to make up to 25 poppers.

  Step 3: Pipe Grinch faces

Place your melted chocolate into a piping bag with a very small tip attachment; 
or do it the easy way by using a ziploc bag with a tiny snip off of one corner to pipe your faces.
Make 2 eyes with frowning eyebrows above them.  Next, make a wide smile with bumps and a little point at the bottom middle.

Step 4:  Chill, serve, and enjoy!

 
Chill in the refridgerator for at least 15 minutes.
 

 My little girls LOVED these guys.  I made about 10 of them for today’s post, and they had to be cut off after 4 each!  (They still hadn’t had their lunch yet)!
 
TIP: Pipe Grinch faces onto grapes and chill in advance if you want to work ahead and prevent the rest of the ingredients from being out in the air too long.
 
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Ladybug Dessert

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I’ve been needing to add more deserts here, so it’s time for you to meet the little ladybug!
Slice a watermelon into a circle shape about 6 inches across.  You could make it smaller if you wanted.  Slice a small section out of the middle starting the cut from the back and slicing almost all the way through but not completely.

Next, add brown peanut or pretzel M&M’s for her spots.
Slice a piece of toast into a “D” shape as shown and spread with Nutella.
Add two cheerio eyes, and your ladybug dessert is complete!
My little girl LOVED this one (although, she loves all the desserts)!

(linked HERE)

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Healthy Dessert: Airplane

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This is a dessert.  Make an airplane by slicing a banana in half lengthwise, then taking one of the halves and slicing it at a slight angle about 2/3 of the way through.  Arrange the pieces to look like a plane.  Add halved brown M&M’s for the windows, half a strawberry for a tail, and whipped cream from a can for the jet stream and the clouds.  The kids won’t be able to resist!

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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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