I've never considered myself to be someone particularly "creative". I can't walk into a room and envision an awesome makeover, I can't sew, and I can't paint very well either.
I've discovered recently that the kitchen is my creative outlet.
One day I had the idea to make a creative snack for my almost 4 year old daughter. What I made was nothing fancy, but ever since then she has been in the habit of asking for "a creative lunch". Every time I make one for her, she is so sweet and tells me how great it is and says something like, "You're the best mom ever, I love my _____ (insert whatever animal or object the lunch was)." With reactions like that, how can I resist continuing to stretch myself and create new snacks and lunches for her?
The best thing about the "Creative Kid Snacks" that I show you is that they are (a) healthy - consisting of plenty of fruits and veggies, plus other good food, and (b) easy - not too fancy or complicated. They shouldn't require a tutorial for you to re-create them for your kiddos.
Here's what's been on the menu lately!
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Made on Good Friday, Jesus is made out of a baby carrot. The main body lies flat because the carrot was sliced in half. Jesus' eyes are tiny bits of raisin, his crown of thorns - pretzels, and the cross is a peanut butter sandwich cut into the right shape. The hill is made of banana.
This guitar is made of a turkey sandwich. The strings are carrots, and the musical notes are grapes. Blueberries add the bit of dark contrast color around the strings.
To make this very easy monkey, simply cut a peanut butter sandwich into what looks like a pear and then add 2 half circle ears. Layer a slice of turkey to create the facial area color, and add a red bell pepper mouth and 2 raisin eyes.
This tropical island getaway is created by using oatmeal for the land/sand, yogurt for the waves, a graham cracker tree trunk, sugar snap peas for leaves, and colby jack cheese for a sun.
Mr. Peacock was so fun to make. The best part is that you can make a colorful tail out of any colorful fruits or veggies you have on hand. Mine has a body made from a peanut butter sandwich, legs and feet of carrot, and a tail made of celery, bananas, carrots, and blueberries.
EASIEST creative lunch ever! Little Miss is made of a folded over sandwich, has blueberry eyes, strawberry lips, and carrot arms and legs. PERFECT for beginning creative lunch makers.
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!
Hot air balloon: basket is a graham cracker, ropes are string cheese thinly cut, balloon circle is made from a banana cut in half lengthwise and made to look like a circle, interior is strawberries and celery. The clouds are cottage cheese and the people are carrots with raisins cut into fourths!
This volcano was made in honor of my daughter’s recent fascination with lava. The volcano is a grilled cheese sandwich, the lava is ketchup (used for dipping) and the ground below is some rice leftover from last night’s dinner.
This Valentines Day inspired snack is plain yogurt served in a heart shaped cookie cutter with grapes, blueberries, and strawberries along with some drizzled honey over top. The “I” is made of celery and the “u” is made of sliced up string cheese.
Up next is my very cute owl. He is my favorite of all. His head/body is a peanut butter sandwich, his eyes are Ritz crackers with blueberries, wings and strawberries. His beak and feet are carrots, and the moon is a banana. I created those stars by placing some plain yogurt in my cake-decorating bag and using the star shaped tip. I’m not gonna lie, that was going a little above and beyond, You could easily just dab the yogurt on with a small spoon if you want to recreate this guy!
Camping scene: Tent is made of a peanut butter sandwich, the tree trunks and ground are made of Triscuit crackers, the leaves on the trees are made of cucumber and the campfire is made out of a base of walnuts and flames of carrots and yellow pepper.
Next up we have the first thing I thought up when I came home from the grocery store with all of my colorful produce. The basket of flowers is made of a graham cracker basket, celery stems, and four flowers. Flower 1: carrots and a grape. Flower 2: bananas and the bottom of a strawberry. Flower 3: a piece of toast with jam cut into the shape of a tulip. Flower 4: rosette made of ham.
Mr. Elephant is probably the easiest one up today! His body is a peanut butter sandwich, his legs, trunk, and tail are a banana (slice lengthwise using one long half for the trunk and the other half cut up for the legs and tail). His ear is a piece of turkey and his eye is a blueberry.
David and Goliath: their bodies are made of celery. David’s sling is made of ham with a grape half for a stone. Their heads are made of Ritz crackers, raisin eyes, and carrots for mouths. The Sun is made of a banana, and Goliath’s sword is made of a carrot.
Our little angel is made of a grilled cheese sandwich. She has wings of apples and a halo of corn. Her eyes are raisins and her mouth is a strawberry. She sits atop fluffy clouds of yogurt.
Do you recognize this guy from Monsters Inc.? Mike Wazowski is made of a honeydew melon sliced and cored. His eye is made of yogurt, sugar snap peas, and a blueberry. His mouth is also made of bluberries. I sliced him up in order to make the eating part easier for my little Disney fan.
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| Cottage Cheese Face, Banana ears, Cheddar Cheese whiskers, Almond nose, Hard boiled egg eyes, raisin eyeballs |
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| Little Chick has a pasta body, raisin eye, carrot legs, feet, and beak, and a celery field of grass in which to frolic. |
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| Butterfly has a carrot body, turkey wings, a pretzel crisp head, raisin eyes, and cucumber/grape antennae. |
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| Miss Suzie has a cucumber body, a turkey face, a grape mouth, almond nose, raisin eyes, and pasta hair. |
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| I don't like this bunny as much as the first one. The only thing you might need to know about this one is the mouth is made out of ham. |
I saved the weirdest looking one for last, and the only reason I included it (obviously it wasn’t because it was so visually appealing!), was for you to see because perhaps you can make your own version that looks better. That curly pasta was really good as a tail though, and the color of the turkey was also perfect for a pig. It’s just hard to cut or tear neatly, as you can see from my mess here.
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| Grilled cheese Panini Sandwich, strawberry nose and hat, cottage cheese beard, whipped cream hat top |
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| PBJ sandwich, Raisin eye, pretzel antlers and a sugar snap peas tree |
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| My happy customer! |
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| Hair: applesauce, Body: deli ham, Eyes: raisins, Nose: grape, Mouth: bottom of a strawberry, Arms: baby carrots, Legs: a cheese stick cut in two |
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| Duck: leftover rice and corn, Eye: raisin, Bill: baby carrot, feet: cheddar cheese |
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| Caterpillar body: bananas, Legs: Red grape sliced in 6ths lengthwise, Eyes: raisins, Ground: Oatmeal |
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| Grace insisted that we add a smile, so we did. |
Our sweet snowman has a cottage cheese body , raisin eyes and buttons, 1/2 a baby carrot for a nose, and celery arms.
Well, I've continued doing this - mostly because Grace requests "a creative lunch" more often than not.
So . . . here is one I came up with last week:
Then, the other day I gave her this one:
. . . and, as usual, she started gobbling it up. I went to work on something else for fifteen minutes.
Then, she told me she wanted the camera.
I asked her why, and she said that she wanted to take a picture of her creation. I walked over, and she had created this out of the flowers:
She made a robot - all from her own imagination! How cool is that? And, of course, just like her mom, wanted to take a picture of it. Perhaps she will be a blogger one day too! (Ha, probably not!)
