Creative Kid Snacks

make fun of lunch!

Frosty the Snowman and Friends

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My girls love the Frosty the Snowman movie.  We have a DVD of the same version that was on TV all the way back in the 80’s when I was a kid.  They love to sing the song, “Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul . . .”  The other day I decided to make them a snack inspired by their favorite snowman.  (Even though we’ve already made these snowman snacks last year, today’s snowman looks just like Frosty from the movie).

Frosty the Snowman

Ingredients:

3/4 to 1 cup cottage cheese

1-2 baby carrots

1 slice of banana

1 dried blueberry (I buy the large bag available at Costco)

1 fresh blueberry

2 small slices celery

1 dried cranberry

Directions:

Use a small spoon to scoop the cottage cheese onto the center of the plate.  Gently spread it out to make the largest part of Frosty’s body – his tummy.  Next, spoon each leg on and gently slide cottage cheese into shape if needed.  Follow the same process for his arms.  Cottage cheese is great, because it naturally falls into the shape of fingers at the end of an arm.  You won’t have to use your fine motor skills for this step!  Slice one square piece of celery, along with one thin rectangular piece, and place atop Frosty’s head.  Add a dried cranberry to look like a flower.  Slice a small dried blueberry in half and place onto Frosty’s head for eyes.  Slice your fresh blueberry in half, then slice a crescent shape out of one of the halves, and lay that flat onto Frosty’s face for his smile.

Slice a baby carrot in half lengthwise.  Lay one above the other next to Frosty to look like his broomstick.  Slice one banana wheel.  Carefully take your knife and slice thin sections from the wheel.  Place onto plate to be the bottom of the broom.  To make Frosty’s pipe, slice a baby carrot in half lengthwise, then slice one of those halves again (lengthwise), so you have a flat rectangular piece of carrot to work with.  Slice a pipe shape, aiming to get a thin rectangular piece with a squared piece at the end.  Place the pipe right into Frosty’s smile, and he is complete and ready to delight your little ones!

Frosty’s Wife

After I made Frosty for my oldest, I decided to make him a little friend.  She was easier and faster to make than even him.  Meet Mrs. Frosty.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cottage cheese

2 fresh blueberries

1 red grape

1 dried blueberry

1 small section of celery

1 dried cranberry

1 baby carrot

Directions:

Use a spoon to scoop and carefully shape three cottage cheese circles onto the plate for Mrs. Snowman’s body.  Next, thinly slice a section of celery and place onto plate for her arms.  Slice a dried blueberry in half and place onto her head for eyes.  Slice a dried cranberry in half width-wise and place beneath eyes for Mrs. Snowman’s mouth.  Add two fresh blueberry buttons and a red grape bow.  To make the bow, slice a red grape in half lengthwise, then slice a triangle out of each half and add a remaining sliver of grape for tie of hair bow.  Complete her with a tiny sliver of a baby carrot (proportional to her face), and you are done!

Enjoy!

More Snowman Fun!

If you enjoyed these snowmen, check out our other snowman creations, (our snowman milk chugs are super easy and fun), along with the rest of our Winter and Christmas snacks!

(Linking up 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)

Jingle Bells

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Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!

It’s almost Christmas!
If you have older kids who will be home from school for winter break, and you are new to the creative lunches thing, here is a perfect one to make for them!
For this lunch, we will re-purpose those cookie cutters we’ve undoubtedly been using to make our cookies this season.

 

 
 

My cookie cutters are a little on the thin side, so I used them for one slice at a time.
Using whole wheat bread, we pressed the cookie cutter into each piece, then added our turkey and cheese.  That’s it!

 

Little Emma (age 2) loved pressing the cookie cutter into each piece of bread to help me!
Finally, we placed some holly around the top of the plate to make it look even more festive.
To make the bow, slice a strawberry in half so you have two triangles for the loops.  Slice the remaining portion into two thin rectangles for the ties, and add one last bit in the center to complete the bow.
Sweet, easy, healthy, and merry!

Snowman Party Poppers

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Are you having a winter party?  Tis the season to celebrate the snow with a cute snowman snack I like to call Snowman Party Poppers.
We’ve already introduced you to the Christmas Snacks we like to call Grinch Party Poppers and Santa party poppers; so today it’s time for the snowmen!

 

These guys are made of mozzarella cheese, blackberry jam, pretzels, and fruit – a winning combination of flavors if you ask me!
Here’s how to make your own.
Ingredients needed (for 15+ poppers):
-large chunk mozzarella cheese – the largest size available at most grocery stores
-pretzel sticks
-2-3 tablespoons seedless blackberry preserves (may substitute other seedless preserves)
-grapes (or other desired fruit) for hats
Assembly:
Step 1:  Cut mozzarella into groups of 3 chunk sizes.
Start with deciding the size you’d like the head chunk to be and cut those equally.
Next, cut slightly larger chunks for the middle, and repeat for the bottom.
Tip:  think about how much cheese would be desirable to eat for one child in one sitting.  Make sure your bottom chunk is not so big that it would be too much for the average person to want to finish.
Step 2:  Fill piping bag or plastic baggie with corner sliced off for piping with blackberry preserves, and pipe faces onto smallest chunks of cheese.
 The fruit and cheese combo is classic and tastes fantastic.
The preserves, once piped onto the cheese for faces, stay in place very well, and they should not dribble as long as you do not make the dots too large.  I used the smallest tip on my piping bags.
Step 3:  Build Snowmen
Because they stay together so well, these guys don’t even require a toothpick!  If you are serving them at a party, however, I would use one in order to be able to quickly grab one from a serving plate.
Layer your three chunks of cheese, largest on bottom, and work up.  Slice the bottoms off of as many grapes as you have snowmen and add to the top to look like hats.
Insert toothpicks and you are ready to go!
(Sharing HERE)

 

 

Snowman Popcorn Cups

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Introducing the Snowman Popcorn Cup!
Try this one for your next winter play date, party, or simply for a fun family movie night at home!
In order to create these guys, all you will need is the following:
-clear containers:  I used clear plastic cups and a clean, clear vase
-ribbon or fabric for scarves
-black and orange sharpie markers, or orange construction paper if you don’t have an orange sharpie
-white popcorn
Note:  popcorn is not terribly nutritious, yet neither is it terrible for you.  The more oil, salt, and butter it is made with, the worse it is for you.  This article mentions the best way of preparing popcorn being to air pop it and then add some extra virgin olive oil and sea salt for taste.  I went the easy route and bought some Vic’s All Natural Light White Popcorn for this snack.  The rule of thumb is, the less steps and ingredients to produce the popcorn, the better.
To transform this vase into a large popcorn snowman, I simply placed some tape onto where the eyes, smile, and buttons would be, then I drew them right on.  I found that the clear packing tape (which I used for the eyes in the picture above, was much easier to take off and much less visible against the glass than regular scotch tape, so use the packing tape if you have it.
For the nose, I used a small triangle of orange construction paper and taped it right on.  Like I mentioned above, an orange sharpie could be used for this too (along with a piece of tape to protect your vase, of course).
 For the small plastic cups, I used a package from Walmart that cost under $3 for 100.
The little cups are equivalent to 1 1/2 cups or so of popcorn, a great serving for the kids.
 I hope you enjoy creating your own snowman popcorn cups.  Be creative with your supplies, and show me what you came up!  I’d love a link to a photo in the comments from you!
Variations:
Tie a brown pipe cleaner around the middle of the cup to create some arms
Glue eyeballs (from the craft supplies aisle) onto the plastic cups
Use your imagination!

(Linking up HERE)

Cottage Cheese Snowman

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Celebrate Winter by using cottage cheese as it was truly meant to be used in the creative snack world: as snow!

Ingredients:

Our sweet snowman has a cottage cheese body , raisin eyes and buttons, 1/2 a baby carrot for a nose, and celery sticks for arms.

Directions:

Scoop the cottage cheese onto the plate with a small spoon into three circles.  Slice your baby carrot in half and add for his nose.  Place his eyes and buttons on, and finish with arms.  Done!

You can’t get much healthier than this for a festive winter snack!

Variations:
Use pretzels for his arms to look more like sticks
Use yogurt for his body
Use blueberries for his buttons

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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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