Food Creations Archives - Page 10 of 11

Two Meals from Chipper the Squirrel #readforgood

July 15, 2012 By Deirdre

This week’s theme on MeMeTales: Readathon 2012 is Green Earth. One of the free books offered this week is Let’s Go Chipper featuring Chipper the Squirrel.

I had a great time making two meals based on Chipper this weekend! They were supposed to be a part of my Read.Explore.Learn. post for Friday, but I couldn’t wait to share them with you.

Chipper the Squirrel Food Creations

The first thing I made was a Summer Garden Lasagna. The recipe is located on Chipper’s blog. It is filled with all kinds of wonderful vegetables. My family really enjoyed this version of lasagna. I have to confess that I added a little more tomato sauce to the recipe than was called for. My guys really love tomato sauce.

The second thing I made was a tortilla Chipper. He came out a lot darker than the Chipper from the book. My Chipper ended up more purple than light brown. I don’t have brown food coloring and tried to create brown using the colors I have. In fact, my version of Chipper has darker fur and his clothes have a more neon tint due to the colors of food coloring I have. He was really fun to make though. I asked my guys and they both think is could be a close relative of Chipper.

If you haven’t joined the MemeTales Readathon 2012, it is not too late. We have really enjoyed reading their e-books this summer. I think you and your children would too.

If you like this food creation, here are more creations I have made.

Star Wars Food Creations

{Fun Foods} Cookie Cutter Creations Made of Watermelon

Marshmallow Recipe- Fruity Marshmallow Cloud Fluff

Christmas Snack- Decorating Cheese Trees

You will find more fun foods for kids on my Food Creations board on Pinterest. Please take a moment to check it out.

Great 4th of July Crafts and Snacks for Kids

July 4, 2012 By Deirdre

The Fourth of July has always reminded me of fun and easy foods. People just seem to want to a cookout or have picnics with great food that doesn’t keep them tied to the kitchen. The Fourth of July ice cream sundae at the top of this post is such fun to put together and so easy to make. Actually, your guests make it for themselves.

Great 4th of July Crafts and Snacks for Kids

All you need to do is setup an area on a table with ice cream sandwiches, your favorite ice cream toppings, whipped topping, cherries, and sprinkles. Your guests construct the sundae with their favorite things.

I have been serving them on plates, but they could just as easily served in bowls.

Below you will see several 4th of July crafts and food creations I have shared here or on others blogs in the last week or two.

The cardboard flag mobile was part of a post I shared on Not Just Cute last week. The post was called Book Activity: Pledge of Allegiance. I shared a wonderful book called the Pledge of Allegiance and how it helped me explain the Pledge to JDaniel. The mobile now hangs in JDaniel’s room under his ceiling fan. It is one of my favorite 4th of July crafts.

I have shared these Red, White and Blue Frozen Smoothie Stars with you in a muffin tin meal. The post on how to make them was a guest post I did for Come Together Kids. It was my post, but Laura did the layout for this picture. She did an awesome job.

JDaniel created a wonderful 4th of July crafts idea for chalk drawing. It was shared on Kids Activities Blog called Craft for Kids: 4th of July Fireworks! We had fun adding the ribbons on at the end!

You may remember seeing the post for Memorial Day Recipe- Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars right here on JDaniel4’s Mom at the end of May. I thought these stars would be great for the 4th of July too.

4th of July Snack and 4th of July Muffin Tin Meals of the Past

July 2, 2012 By Deirdre

The Fourth of July and pinwheels got linked together in my head for some reason. I mulled over several ways to create a pinwheel and end up with a tortilla cut into a pinwheel for this 4th of July snack.The pinwheel didn’t seem to lend itself to becoming part of a sandwich so, I decorated it with sprinkles, red frosting, and a cherry. The blueberries and grapes not only covered the red and blue colors needed in a 4th of July snack but added a healthy touch to it. The bacon in the star-covered muffin liner is there because JDaniel likes bacon. It does look a little like the red stripes in the flag. JDaniel ate the pinwheel, the cherry, and the bacon. He decided the fruit could be used for lunch the next day. I did serve him the fruit along with tiny star sandwiches the next day for lunch and he ate the whole thing.

Below you will find some of the 4th of July snack and meal ideas I have served over the past few years.

The first tin was a snack muffin tin called Very Berry 4th of July and was created for JDanel when he was two years old. It contained blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, yogurt to dip them in, and cereal to sprinkle on the yogurt. The second tin in the first row is the muffin tin lunch I shared last week. The post was called Friendship and the 4th of July. It features a hot dog wrapped in bread stick, a frozen yogurt star, tomatoes, catsup, blue tortilla chips, and blueberries.

The first tin in the second row is a second 4th of July tin from when JDaniel was two. The post featuring it was called Dipping into the Fourth of July. The tin contained blueberries, plain yogurt, spaghetti sauce with meat, tomatoes, noodles, and cucumbers. JDaniel was big into dipping food all by himself when he was two. This tin was filled with things to dip.The second tin in the second row is from when JDaniel was three. The post was called Muffin Tin Monday on Sunday- Happy Fourth of July. It is hard to see what is in the first cup. It was a burger with bread and cheese stars. The last two cups in the first row contained salads. There was a corn and black bean salad and a red potato salad with potato stars. The last row contained strawberries, red grapes, and peanut butter fudge.I really enjoyed looking back on the 4th of July snack and lunch ideas I have made in the past. I hope you did too.What are your favorite 4th of July foods?This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Muffin Tin Monday- Friendship and the 4th of July

June 25, 2012 By Deirdre

JDaniel and I recently had friends over for lunch. It was great to get together with friends. Since school got out, JDaniel has missed seeing some of this favorite people. I thought they would enjoy having a Fourth of July themed lunch.

While I put together muffin tin meal for the kids, JDaniel set the table with placemats and napkins. He wanted the table to look just right for his friend.

Even though the Fourth of July was still a few weeks away, I went with a Fourth of July theme. The tins were filled with turkey hot dogs wrapped in bread stick dough (I thought they looked liked the stripes in the flag.), frozen yogurt smoothie stars, sliced tomatoes, catsup for dipping, blue corn chips, and blueberries.

JDaniel ate all of this lunch. His friend inhaled the berries and chips. I guess they weren’t really into the other foods. While they are not a picky eater, they really seemed to know what they like.

While they are great friends, I guess they like to eat different things. I will have to check with his mom and see what his favorite foods are so I can serv them next time.

If you like this lunch idea, here are several more you are going to love:

Kid’s Lunch – Apple Chicken Salad Bento

Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Sandwiches

Butterflies in a Bento

Christmas Tree Themed Bento

I wanted to mention that the theme is Friendship on the MemeTales Readathon 2012 this week too. If you are interested in downloading onto an electronic device free books on friendship for the week, please visit MeMeTales for more information.

Disclaimer: I will be receiving this week’s collection of MemeTales books to download for JDaniel for free in exchange for mentioning them in this post.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday!

Muffin Tin Monday- Father’s Day Fish

June 11, 2012 By Deirdre

The father fish in this meal is trying to head of a couple of his little ones that are heading for the worm dangling from the hook in the corner. They don’t seem to have learned that gummy worms are carrot hooks lead little fish to become tiny fish sticks for someone else’s meal.

Many of his other fish children have learned the lesson. They are swimming away for the hook or staying with their dad. They will make it swim another day.

Father Fish is made of Pepperidge Farm’s Honey Whole Wheat bread. He is filled with bacon, cheese, ham, and tomatoes. His children are Whole Grain and Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish. These are my son’s favorite flavors of fish! You can use your children’s favorite fish flavors!

A lovely cantaloupe sun is shining down on the fish family to warm up the cool waters and brighten their day.

Although this meal celebrates fathers and how they care for their children. It might also be called a mom’s day off lunch. Mom isn’t pictured in this lunch. In my mind mom is sitting at home catching up on her favorite blogs or doing a little summer reading. Maybe she is finishing off the bag of gummy worms. I know that is what plan to do with the gummy worms that we have left.

If you like this fun food creation, here are more lunch ideas you will love:

Mardi Gras Mask Lunch for Kids

Apple Chicken Salad Bento Lunch

Lunch Ideas with LEGO

Minion Lunch with Blueberry Overalls

Healthy Snack for Kids- Butterfly Bento

Star Wars Food Creations for Kids

Bento Lunch with Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Bento Lunch

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Disclaimer: I was not paid to mention Pepperidge Farm products. We just really love them.

Muffin Tin Monday- A Frozen Banana Buffet

June 4, 2012 By Deirdre

My son just loves muffin tine meals. Sometimes he helps me move his dinner into a muffin tin! There is something special about have a meal or a snack in one. JDaniel loves to have a snack after his “quiet” time in the afternoon. I decided to surprise him with a frozen banana buffet for a snack late last week. He was thrilled.
JDaniel really enjoys getting to dip foods and I have told him that he can’t double dip if other people are sharing the dip with him. This muffin tin was his alone and he was able to dip as much as he wanted to. We have a found the key to success dipping is to only put a small amount of each sauce into the muffin cups.

The buffet tin is filled with two dips and four toppings. The dips are chocolate sauce and honey. The toppings are coconut, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and cinnamon. If you children don’t like any of these sauces or toppings, please feel tree to substitute them with one that your children like.

It was a lot of fun to watch JDaniel try a variety of combinations. He loved the sprinkles and coconut with honey and chocolate syrup. The cinnamon was mixed with honey more often than not.

Tip: I gave JDaniel a whole banana and it was really too big for a snack. JDaniel ended up putting it in the fridge for later. It would have been better to give him small sections of banana. The sections could have been placed on small fork or toothpick for dipping.

If you like this frozen banana snack idea, here are some more snack ideas you will love:

Decorated Cheese Trees
Applesauce Toppings Bar
Easy Sight Word Snacks
4th of July Sundae

This post is linked up to Muffin Tin Monday.

Watermelon Recipe – Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars

May 24, 2012 By Deirdre

Memorial Day is right around the corner and many of you will be celebrating with picnics and family gatherings. During those gatherings, you may want to have a cool refreshing treat for the younger members of your family or your friends family. Flavored watermelon stars are both cool and refreshing. This watermelon recipe is fun and easy to make with your kids.

Watermelon Recipe

You simply cut stars out of the slices of watermelon using a star-shaped cookie cutter. Slices that are about one to one and a half inches thick are the easiest to cut through.

We tested out five varieties of Kool-Aid and one type of green ice tea mix in our flavored watermelon stars. The flavors we used were peach-mango, cherry, strawberry, pink lemonade, and orange. The peach-mango green tea was our local grocery store brand. You could select any flavor you or your family enjoys best or you could randomly select packets as I did.

Watermelon Recipe - Fruit Flavored Watermelon Stars Soaking

Each star was dipped in a mixture of a teaspoon of the liquid and a 1/3 a cup of water. The star remained in its muffin cup for about ten minutes. If you leave the watermelon stars in flavored water too long they become very mushy.

When the watermelon had absorbed some of the drink flavors, we did a taste test. Actually, JDaniel did a test taste. He loved all the flavors, but the strawberry watermelon star was his favorite.

If you decide to try this at home, you may choose to only dip our watermelon stars into one flavor. With just one flavor you may decide to place them all into one bowl instead of a muffin tin. When they have absorbed the fruit flavor, you can set them on a platter for your guests.

You may decide you want to have a star dipping food area at your event for children to try dipping star into the flavor of your choice. If decide to do a dipping area, you may want to have forks or tongs available for lifting the stars out. The flavor dipping cups will probably not stay free of germs if little fingers are repeatedly reaching into the bowl or muffin tin to retrieve their stars.

What is your favorite powdered drink?

A Road Trip with Kids Muffin Tin Meal and Road Trip Travel Items

May 21, 2012 By Deirdre

For today’s muffin tin lunch I am featuring a road trip tin. The Nutella covered bread car body has blueberry tires, but the tires could easily we replaced by any of the spare tires in the tin.

JDaniel has cucumber, carrot, tomato, franks, and sandwich cookie tire replacements available to him if the blueberries can’t make the whole trip.

Why am I featuring a car trip tin?

JDaniel and I are joining my mom, my sister from Atlanta and her kids on a road trip to see my sister in New York. It will be loads of fun when stop in Hershey, PA to explore the amusement park. My sister from New York and her kids are meeting us there and then will continue north to NY to my sister‘s house, but I am worried about something.

I worry about the length of time we will be in the car. It is a long car ride. JDaniel has been on long trips before, but was much younger and slept most of the way. I can just hear him asking if we are there yet when we have only been in the car for a short time. He asked over and over again on the trip to Augusta, GA last weekend when we went to see his Nana.

He will be able to use the iPad. I just downloaded two new apps for him to explore on the trip. JDaniel has to brand new headphones to listen to the apps through. He and I searched all over Greenville for headphones that weren’t 100% plastic that had volume control. He loves them. JDaniel loves to use the iPad so, I am hoping he will be able to play with apps for awhile and we won’t all here what he is listening too.

During the trip, he will get to trade the iPad with his nine-year-old cousin for his DVD player. That will be fun too. He loves to watch movies or as he calls them shows.

I really don’t want him to be plugged in the whole trip though so, I am bringing along a few other things to do. We are bringing some of the things you suggested to me when I asked you on Facebook about travel items.

What is in our road trip bag?

A cookie sheet with magnets to play with as mentioned by Lisa of Two Bears Farm. Craft to Art.com thought magnets were a great idea too and thought a cookie tin would be a great place to store and display magnets.

Window markers and a pack of Windex wipes as well a pack of post-it notes to write on and stick on the windows as suggested by Holly of Holly’s Hobbie and Darbee Days

Surprise toys as recommended by Denice Castillo. I found a couple at the dollar store.

A DVD player and Leapster were Sara DeNike of The Will to See ideas. We have the DVD coming from Atlanta.

Here are other things I came up with for your road trip with kids:

Stickers

JDaniel’s favorite book First Encyclopedia of Animals and a few other books

I Spy Travel windows ( I have a post coming up on them.)

Snacks

Pipe cleaners

With all these things to do, I am hoping I really don’t have to worry this road trip.

What other things do you think I should bring on the road trip?

You will find more food creations on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.

Mama Duck’s Nesting Mother’s Day Lunch

May 14, 2012 By Deirdre

I hope each of you had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Today’s muffin tin meal is a celebration of mamas. This Mother’s Day lunch features a Mama Duck sitting on a nest.

JDaniel got a delicious breakfast style lunch to celebrate Mother’s Day.

What is part of this Mother’s Day Lunch?

A mother scrambled egg duck is sitting on her sausage eggs that are nestled in whole grain egg noodles dipped in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

The cinnamon and sugar noodles were so easy to make and were delicious. All you have to do is dip cooked egg noodles into a mixture of melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar. They aren’t a traditional breakfast food, but JDaniel really enjoyed them.

A peach slice sun shines over the mother duck and helps keep her warm as she awaits the birth of her little ducklings. JDaniel just loved the peaches. They disappeared quickly from this lunch.

If you like this food creation, here are some other lunches that I have made from my son.

Apple Chicken Salad Bento Lunch

Lunch Ideas with LEGO

Minion Lunch with Blueberry Overalls

Star Wars Food Creations for Kids

Bento Lunch with Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Bento Lunch

Getting Ready for Mother’s Day with a Breakfast Sundae

May 7, 2012 By Deirdre

Next Sunday is Mother’s Day and I am hoping that by doing a practice run with JDaniel on how to create a breakfast sundae a week early he will be able to help my husband create one for me. Doing a test run also gave us a chance to do a taste test.

I plan to have muffin tins filled with the same ingredients we used in the dry run in the fridge ready to go the night before Mother’s Day.

What was in the tins?

The green tin contains coconut flakes, raisin bran like cereal, honey nut loops, dried fruit, chocolate chips, and almonds.

The brown tin contains kiwi slices, baked apples, slice grapes, blueberries, sliced strawberries, and cantaloupe.

If you try making breakfast sundaes at your house, feel free to fill your muffin tins with the topping that you like best.

Here are some other topping ideas:

raspberries
blackberries
honeydew melon
granola
mandarin oranges
fruit cocktail
golden raisins

JDaniel tried using chopsticks to move the ingredients into his waffle cone bowl filled with vanilla yogurt to build his breakfast sundae. They were difficult to use with the little pieces of food he tried to pick up. The little piece kept falling out.

Getting Ready for Mother's Day with a Breakfast Sundae

A large spoon did a much better job. JDaniel was able to use it to scrap the cup that contained the baked apples out easily. I will have to let you know next week how the guys do on Mother’s Day. I am looking forward to this simple and tasty treat.