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) 🙂

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

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How many baseball fans do we have out there?  Kids in little league?  T-ball?  I’ve got a few fun ideas for you today inspired by one of our favorite game-day snacks: Beer Nuts!

Fun Baseball Snack by CreativeKidSnacks.com. Made from yogurt, strawberries, and peanuts. Add more fresh strawberries and yogurt and serve in individual cups for a little fruit/yogurt/nut parfait!

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I was so excited when Beer Nuts offered to send us some of their nuts to see what cute snacks we could come up with.  I asked for their classic peanuts, and a bag of almonds because they are one of the more nutritious choices out there.

(Yay for yummy Beer Nuts!)

About Beer Nuts

Beer Nuts, by the way, are specialty nuts with a unique glaze on them that has a sweet and salty flavor.  The original skin-on peanuts were an accidental hit when their creator, Edward G. Shirk, who owned a small confectionary store called the Caramel Crisp back in 1937, occasionally made them available for free as an incentive to purchase one of his other products.  These tasty redskin nuts became so popular that Shirk decided to go from selling them over the counter by the scoop to package them up and making them available for widespread distribution.  That distribution started in local taverns, and the glazed peanuts were named Beer Nuts, as they became known as the perfect accompaniment to a glass of beer.  Nowadays they are a popular snack at baseball stadiums, circus, and other sporting events.

Now, let’s get on to what fun we had with these guys!

“Skin-on Peanut and Almond Butter”

I was excited to find out that research has shown substantial amount of extra health benefits in peanut skins!  These benefits include things like antioxidants (equal amounts, if not more that fruits and vegetables), anti-inflamatory properties, anti-aging compounds, even lowering blood sugar levels.  Read all about it in this article.

Most peanut butter is made with blanched, or skinless, peanuts.  This article explains why.  One of the reasons listed is “if not handled properly, the natural oil in the peanut skins could may become prematurely stale and cause off flavors when the peanut butter is being made”. Fair enough, but when we have a full pound of skin-on peanuts at our disposal, let’s go for a great-tasting peanut butter!

“Skin-on Peanut and Almond Butter”

2 cups Beer Nuts original peanuts

1 cup Beer Nuts brand Almonds

Combine ingredients in a Vitamix machine or food processor.  Continue mixing until a smooth, warm peanut butter consistency is reached. Mmmm.

This peanut butter is perfect because the Beer Nuts have that special “slightly sweet. slightly salty” coating on them already, so no additional ingredients (including oils, sugars, etc.) are required to make a great-tasting, delicious snack.

The girls and I ate this all up in a couple days by dipping apple slices into it or spreading it onto celery sticks.

Baseball Mitt Snack

Fun Baseball Snack by CreativeKidSnacks.com. Made from yogurt, strawberries, and peanuts. Add more fresh strawberries and yogurt and serve in individual cups for a little fruit/yogurt/nut parfait!

The next fun thing we did with our Beer Nuts is make a baseball mitt.  To make it, simply spread your Beer Nuts brand peanuts onto a plate and arrange to look like a mitt as shown.  Leave a small round circle in the center of the mitt.  Next, spoon 5-6 tablespoons of yogurt into the round opening.  Use a butter knife to smooth out the dome of yogurt you have created.  (We used plain Greek yogurt.  I’m telling you, it’s absolutely astounding what kids will eat if it’s presented in a creative way)!  Complete your look by adding thinly sliced bits of strawberry to look like the red stitches on a baseball.

Add more fresh strawberries and yogurt and serve in individual cups for a little fruit/yogurt/nut parfait!

“Hitting a Home Run” Snack

Fun Baseball Snack by CreativeKidSnacks.com. Made from yogurt, strawberries, and peanuts. Add more fresh strawberries and yogurt and serve in individual cups for a little fruit/yogurt/nut parfait!

A third fun idea we had was to make a baseball bat and ball.  This size snack is a better serving size for just one.  When your child mixes the yogurt, strawberries, and peanuts together, they get a little parfait perfect for them!

Simply arrange your Beer Nuts brand peanuts on your plate to look like a bat as shown.  Follow the same directions as above for the baseball.  You can finish the look with a couple yogurt motion lines on either side of the ball to look like you are seeing the impact of the bat and ball.  We made those lines by scooping a tablespoon or so of yogurt into a plastic baggie, snipping off a corner of the bag, and piping it onto the plate where we wanted it.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out our other sports-themed snacks!

(Sharing HERE)

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

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

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Today’s post features Eric Carle’s beloved Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? story book as well as a learning activity and snack to go with it!
This comes from a series I been calling Read.Play.Eat.  Take a look at the snacks and learning activities I shared for the following children’s books:
Blackout
It Could Always Be Worse
Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes

READ.

By Eric Carle
This is a story I’ll bet almost all of us have in our libraries!  I remember hearing this book read to me in kindergarten.
Read this story to you child.  Allow them to “fill in the blanks” as you pause when each new page comes.  They will quickly learn to name each new animal as it shows up.
PLAY.
Make some simple animals using a sharpie and some white cardstock.  I simply drew freehand from what I saw in the book.
Go through the story, and have your child color each animal as they appear.
Next, make some “puzzle pieces” by cutting the animals in half.
The goal will be to match each animal’s front to its back.
It will be all the easier with the colors each animal has.
Your child will be delighted to do a puzzle that he or she made themselves.
Another activity to do once the animals have all been matched together is to line them up in order of appearance in the story.
First, see if your child can do it from memory, then “check your answers” by using the book.  If they made mistakes, have them re-arrange the order to learn the right way.
So much fun!
EAT.
Create the Brown Bear of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” by simply making a peanut butter sandwich, and slicing four legs.  The natural shape of the bread is very close to the shape of the bear in the illustrations in the book.
Next, cut a circle from another piece of bread.  Use two half raisins for the eyes, and some halved almonds for his ears and nose as shown.  So easy!

Best of

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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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