Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Paleo Kid Friendly Flower Power Snack

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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) 🙂

Shapes Lunch

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Lunch and snack time are an important part of the day which can be used for purposes beyond simply providing sustinance for our children.  Why not use this time as an opportunity to teach your child new things?  At Creative Kid Snacks, we are about leveraging meal time to connect with our kids on a deeper level, while serving super healthy food in a fun and engaging way.

Today’s snack can be used to help your child learn to form shapes.  This skill goes beyond simple recognition, (which would be great for a younger child), and extends into the area of fine motor skills.  Read on to see how to do it!

Practice forming shapes during lunch time using superfoods #healty #creative kids food

Step 1:  Create the “examples”

On a plate, form each shape as shown using the following supplies:

Star:  1 baby carrot (sliced into thin strips)

Square:  string cheese sliced in half width-wise, then sliced into 4 flat sections of equal length

Triangle:  blueberries sliced in half so they lie flat on the plate

Oval: Avocado, 2 sliced sections

Heart: Red bell pepper, sliced horizontally accross from standing position.

Step 2:  Provide the kids’ materials

Collect the same ingredients sliced in the way described above and place all onto a plate.  Provide enough for each child to make one of each shape.

Step 3:  Model how each shape is formed, and allow the kids to try!

One shape at a time, show the child how to form the shape using the food.  (Example:  For the triangle, I said “Take one blueberry and lay it on your plate for the tip of the triangle.  Next, take two blueberries and make a row right underneath your first blueberry.  (showing them the second row of blueberries on the example plate), and so on).

Practice forming shapes during lunch time!

Step 4:  Correct any mistakes and praise a job well done

The point of this is to learn the right way to form shapes.  Gently nudge your child along until they correctly make the shape.  If they make a mistake, place the food in the correct place on the plate, hand it back to the child, and have them place it there themselves.  Sometimes it takes patience, and there are some things a younger child might be able to do.  For example, the star was too difficult for my 3 year old to make, but my 5 year old got it with several corrective directions from me.  She was SO proud of herself when she got it!  We snapped a picture of her joy shown below.

Practice forming shapes during lunch time!

Enjoy teaching the kids to form shapes using this delicious and healthy food.

Health Benefits of this snack:

Health benefits of red peppers

Health benefits of avocado

Health benefits of carrots

Health benefits of blueberries

Health benefits of cheese (particularly combining cheese with fruits and veggies as we did in this meal) 

Practice forming shapes during lunch time using superfoods #healty #creative kids food

(Sharing HERE)

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

Copy-Kids Review and GIVEAWAY

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Moms, have you heard of Copy Kids? I stumbled accross their website awhile back and was SO EXCITED when I watched this video about what they do.

Copy-Kids DVD Trailer from Copy-Kids on Vimeo.

These moms are seriously helping kids all over the world to learn to love eating fruits and veggies!

What is Copy-Kids?

Copy-Kids is a DVD (they have one out and currently have a second one in production coming out at the end of the summer 2013) that shows little kids happily eating different fruits and veggies.  The DVD includes different chapters for different foods.

The Copy-Kids eat raw broccoli, bell peppers, avocado, cucumber, tomato, carrots, and all kinds of healthy fruits and veggies.  The theory is that children who watch this DVD will desire to mimic, or “copy” the kids they see on TV and eat the veggies too!

Because teaching kids to love eating healthy foods is one of my passions as a mom, as well as a big “why” behind this blog, I was so excited to be able to get a Copy-Kids DVD to try out on my own little ladies.

Screen shot 2013-06-24 at 1.57.15 PM

Click photo to be taken to source

The girls were SO excited to open a package the mailman brought just for them, and were delighted that it was a DVD.  I told them the name of the DVD, and it intrigued them; they asked to watch it RIGHT AWAY.

What I wanted to do was to make sure I had all of the fruits and vegetables on hand before playing the DVD.  This way, as they viewed each part, the girls could reach for that food.  Although I did not have everything featured in the DVD in my house at that moment, I chopped up what I did have and got us all set up to watch!

Note:  After putting the DVD in, I realized that each chapter (featuring one fruit or veggie) was 7 minutes, I realized that we wouldn’t be making our way through the whole DVD in one sitting anyway.

The girls were so excited to check out the kids on TV, and were ready to copy!

Using the DVD

As I played each chapter of the DVD for the girls, I removed all bowls of food except the one being shown in that chapter.  This way, little Emma wouldn’t down the avocado the whole time (she loves that stuff), instead of trying the food being shown on the TV.

One of my favorite things the girls saw on the DVD was a little girl eating a bell pepper like an apple.  Grace, my oldest, got a kick out of that, and for the next few days she’d ask for bell peppers to eat.  Once she even “snuck” one and I found this in her room:

(Excuse the pixels, this one was taken with my phone!)

Anyway, is that cute or what?  I’m thrilled that a bell pepper has become a fun snack.

My little one, Emma, was not ever a big fan of raw broccoli.  Most adults I know don’t even care for it that much!  However, as Emma watched the Copy Kids eat the broccoli, she learned to like at least the stems, or the “bottoms”.  Check out this cute 1.5 minute video of our escapades as we watched Copy Kids.

 

Want to try this with kids you know?

This DVD works like a charm!  I was very surprised to see how much it inspired my little girls to love their veggies.  Grace is still loving her bell peppers and eats them every day!

You can buy the Copy-Kids DVD here.

You can also keep up with Copy-Kids on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and their blog.

Following along will ensure that you stay in the loop about that second DVD coming out soon!

Win a Copy-Kids DVD + a $25 Whole Foods Gift Card

Cai from Copy-Kids would like to offer one lucky winner a FREE Copy-Kids DVD as well as a $25 Whole Foods Gift Card to be able to go out and purchase the produce you will need to provide for the kids as they watch.  Yes, you heard me right: A Copy-Kids DVD + a $25 Whole Foods gift card.

*If the winner does not have a Whole Foods nearby, we will work with you to come up with an alternative gift card to the grocery store most convenient for you.*

How to Win:

Enter below for a chance to win your very own Copy-Kids DVD + $25 Whole Foods Gift Card.

*Note* – one entry choice will be to PIN the following image to one of your Pinterest boards.  You will need to leave a comment on today’s post letting us know your Pinterest URL and the name of the board you pinned to.  This entry is worth 3 points!  Woo Hoo!

Pinnable Image:

Giveaway is open to US residents until Tuesday, July 1 at 11:59 pm!  Good Luck!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oscar the Grouch

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We are all about teaching kids to LOVE eating healthy foods here at Creative Kid Snacks, and one way we do that is by presenting them in fun ways.  I can’t tell you how many new foods my daughters have tried (and eaten all up), because it was included in one of their “creative lunches”.  These are foods that they would never choose to eat on their own.

Oscar the Grouch is the perfect character to turn into a super healthy lunch for the kids.  He’s green, brown, and white, and lots of nutrient packed foods can be used here to make him.

I’d like to show you the version we made the other day, and then offer other suggestions for you to try.

Create an Oscar the Grouch snack to serve the kids super healthy foods like peas, meat, olives, or broccoli, beans, or other greens you want them to eat! | CreativeKidSnacks.com

We used the following ingredients for the Oscar shown here:

peas – canned or frozen (thawed, heated)

cheese – any white cheese cut into circles for Oscar’s eyes

black olives – approximately 6 sliced

pulled pork – leftover from sandwiches served the night before

Arrange all ingredients on a small plate as shown to make Oscar’s face.  Super simple!

Variations:

Perhaps you are looking for a way to serve some of the following foods to your kids.  Try these in an Oscar!

Face:

Broccoli

String beans

Edamame

Softened avocado

Green grapes

Green apple slices

Eyebrows:

Rotisserie Chicken

Grilled Chicken breast sliced

Ground Beef

Pulled Beef

Ham

Mouth/Eyeballs:

Raisins

Blueberries

Eyes – Whites:

Hard boiled egg sliced

Cottage Cheese

Yogurt

Hopefully you can make your own super healthy Oscar soon!  Next time I try this, I’m going to use this:

(Sharing HERE)

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

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!


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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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