Sunday, September 20, 2009

Fun foods for kids

My friend Ashley is talking at MAPS this week, and her topic is entertainment and fun foods for kids. I wanted to send her a couple of ideas I've found, so I thought I'd share them here, too! These are a BIG hit with the kids, and so easy!

1. Hot dog "squid": Cut hot dog into chunks, poke hard spaghetti through, then boil until spaghetti is done. You can even add a little food coloring (like green) to the water, but be prepared that the hot dog turns a funny color. Kids seem to love crazy colors like that, but it's less appetizing to adults. :-) I've found that cutting a jumbo hot dog into 4-6 pieces, then breaking the spaghetti into 1/2 or 1/3, it makes the perfect size for the little hands at our dinner table.

2. Painted butterflies: Cut refrigerated biscuits in half, then let the kids "paint" them with a mixture of egg/small amount of water/food coloring. Bake as directed on biscuit container!

3. Pancake stacks: You've already seen this from the post about Sophie's birthday, but thought I'd add it to the list. What is it about stacked bite-size food that gets kids excited?! Sophie ate almost her entire stack, and usually only picks at a regular plate of pancakes. It's all in the presentation, I suppose?!

I'm sure Ashley has a ton of ideas like this, so I'll be posting more after her talk on Thursday!

2 comments:

Jen said...

I LOVE the squid! Have you done the octopus (technically I make them a quadrapus but whatever...haha!)...you take the hot dog and cut it in half about 3/4 of the way up the hot dog then turn it and cut again making 4 legs...i find that if i try more legs than that i tend to break them...then boil them and the legs curl out like an octopus...my boys LOVE them! ;-)

Jen said...

P.S. Totally did the hotdog squids tonight! The boys loved them! Thanks for the awesome idea!!