Monkey tree

Here is my newest creation. Made with fruit, a few skewers, and a photo from another website. The kids ate all of it! That was three pineapples. The key is getting the pineapples to fit together and stay upright but still cutting them up enough that when snack time comes there are pieces for everyone with minimal effort.

Santa is coming to town!

For this snack I made some bread, meaning I bought bread dough at the store and baked it. I took bread sticks and used cooking scissors to cut them into very thin strips. I then swirrled them to make the beard. The top I made a triangle and added slits with rasins for the eyes - note - do not put the eyes too close to the hat or they get plumped up under the rim and cannot barely be seen. I then folded the top of the triangle over to make the hat. I added a brim (strip of dough) and two balls - one for the nose and one for the hat. I also used bread to make a mustache and a little mouth.

To make the hat red you need to take a basting brush (did not even know they had these before this) and then take an egg yoke and put a couple drops of red food coloring into it. then paint it on for the hat, cheeks and nose. Then take another egg yoke and paint the rest of the parts with it (no color added) to make them shiney and clear.

I served it with cream cheese mixed with grape jelly (just for a little fun). The kids really liked having a Santa snack.

Fruit Cups

So, as my son's class has gone to a weekly schedule for snacks, I had to think of something that I could do quicker than my normal snack. This was very easy. I took clear plastic cups, got a big tray of nectarines and cut them up, put them into the bottom of the cup. Then, I made up a slightly strange concoction of plain yogurt, cream cheese, and truvia. I put a spoonful of that on top of the fruit and then added flavored granola I got 2 for 1 at the grocery store (organic blueberry or cherry/vanilla). I added some spoons. The kids really enjoyed them and I even liked them.

I do not generally like yogurt, just the consistency of the stuff. That is why I added the cream cheese for a different texture.

Phoenix

So, some kids want a cake for their birthday but mine wanted a bean dip Phoenix. To make this I first heated some vegetarian bean dip so it is spreadable. I then created the body and head (while looking at the picture next to it). I added an olive eye. Then I put cheese on the plate so it looked more like the picture - glowing with fire. I then had gotten a large bag of red, orange and yellow peppers (sweet small ones) from Costco and cut them into small strips. I arranged them to be wings, a long fiery-tail and some on the head. I also cut some into a beak for the head. I brought a bag of chips to class.

There were about 3 kids who only wanted chips, everyone else loved the peppers (which I was worried they would not) and the bean dip and cheese, which they always love. I also added a bowl of bean dip, black beans, and cheese to make sure we had enough. We used up everything for a class of 22. I should have had 2 bags of chips and a little bigger bird but all in all, it was a good snack.

Snacks for School

Well, looking back on 2009/10 school year - it was a slow year for snacks. I did not do as many as I wanted. I hate to admit but I delivered a few fruit platters (ready made) and called it in a few times. I was a tired mommy in my second year of working full-time. Most snack require a 5am wake up call to get them to school fresh and nice and me to work on time (or close to it! - Thanks understanding boss!).

But we did have some creativity this year - making some new items, expanding my snack staples, using different fruits and vegetables.

As one child is heading for middle school, I am not sure what I will be doing.... do they even bring "snack?" At least I still have one little one that I can continue to express my artistic needs using food for. I hope you enjoy and I am always interested in improvements so feel free to let me know if you have ideas.

Bean Dip Spider

I do these often, nothing is more fun than a venom dripping (salsa) bean dip spider! I found some of mine had gotten out of hand with the size and type of spider so I shrunk this one. Directions: Take a bed of lettuce, invert a small plastic bowl that is covered with tin foil (for easy cleaning). Then heat up vegetarian low fat re-fried beans. Make the spider shape over the bowl and then do the legs by getting a long scoop of bean dip onto a butter knife and carefully laying it down onto the lettuce. Then add red pepper fangs, olive eyes, salsa black bean "babies" to the back of this mama and some shredded cheese. I left off the Yucca plant log and the blue sour cream watering hole that I normally add. I then included some chips to use on the spider for snacking.

Sandwich Snake

So, this is an easy and fun snack. I took 2 baguettes but only used the ends of 1 for the head and tail. I cut them and lined them up with sandwich fixings to make the snake. I made sure to use a variety of sandwich items and color coded with different colored toothpicks for vegetarian, ham, turkey, etc. I then made the face with my fav of olive eyes, red pepper tongue and ears/venom sacks (I do have a son), and a big green spinach leaf for color in the mouth. I then added some snap peas in the center (its nested babies according to the 8 yr old) with some low fat ranch dip. There are 25 slices in the snake for each child to have one and plenty of peas with extras in the bag I provided for refills. I think this makes the kids want to eat the peas more than if they were in a bowl with dressing.