Snacks You Can Make With Your Kids
Delicious, Nutritious Finger Foods as Easy as Child’s Play
Looking for ways to get your kids to eat healthier? Introduce them to the world of cooking by spending an afternoon in the kitchen together, making easy, creative snacks.
Cooking with your kids is a great way to spend a rainy day, and this is one time when playing with your food is encouraged.
Preparing Your Kitchen for Kids
If you’re cooking with kids, make it a safe place for little hands. Remove as much as you can from your kitchen counters or wherever you’ll be cooking, and be extra sure to put away all knives, graters and other sharp and dangerous objects when you have kids in the kitchen.
Presentation is Everything
A plain, whole apple, banana or carrot doesn’t hold much draw to a little one. But cut a carrot into “logs” and fan out one end, turn a radish into a rose, or add sprinkles to banana slices, and you’ve got yourself one happy little snacker!
Crispy vegetables can be made into shapes by making some cuts in them and soaking them in ice water. Cutting the top of a radish in a rose-petal design will turn it into a flower when the cold water fans out the edges. Thick carrot shavings will curl up into cute swirls that your kids will love to snack on.
Tell the children you’re in charge of cutting and they can do the soaking, adding ice cubes to the water, draining and patting the veggies dry.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Shape Sandwiches
Creative sandwiches are easy snack foods for kids. Use very fresh white or wheat bread (the softer and spongier the better) and spread lightly with peanut butter and jelly. Let your child press the sandwich with a shaped cookie cutter to make crustless, fun-shaped finger sandwiches.
Peanut Butter Banana Rollups
Spread peanut butter onto a flour tortilla. Place a peeled banana at one end and roll up the banana in the tortilla. Cut into slices.
Ants on a Log
Wash and cut celery stalks into 3-4” long “logs.” Fill the recess with peanut butter and place a few raisins on top.
Rice Cake Faces
Soften cheese spread or cream cheese and spread some onto a rice cake. Let your child look through the refrigerator and pantry to find toppings to make a face – peas, carrot shavings, raisins, Cheerios, oyster crackers and almost anything can be used to make eyes, nose and mouth on a rice cake face.
No Bake Cookies
You do the stove work and the kids do the stirring and dropping. Half an hour later, you’re enjoying your creations! Combine ½ cup milk, 1½ cups sugar and 3 tablespoons cocoa into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add ½ cup peanut butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 3 cups oatmeal. Stir and drop in spoonfuls onto waxed paper lining a cookie sheet. Chill cookies in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Anything Kebabs
Pineapple chunks, apple slices, pear slices and kiwi stacked onto a toothpick are fun to make and to eat. Get more fruit into your child's diet by cutting it into bite-sized pieces and combining different fruits on a kebab. Also try cheddar cheese chunks and squares of French bread, and small pieces of turkey and cheese rolled up and skewered.
Ice Cream Sandwiches
Put together your own bite-sized ice cream sandwiches by spreading some softened ice cream between the flat sides of two cookies (homemade or store-bought ginger snaps, chocolate chip or vanilla wafers are perfect). Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours before enjoying your "homemade" ice cream sandwiches.
