Food Creations Archives - Page 3 of 11

Easy Halloween Snack- Candy Corn on Crackers

October 21, 2013 By Deirdre

When I have looked on Pinterest for fun and easy Halloween snacks, I have some great ones. I have even started a board for them called Halloween Food Ideas. Many are sweet treats (I love them.), but I decided that I needed to come up with an easy Halloween snack that was a little on the healthier side.JDaniel is a huge fan of cheese. I thought it would be fun to create something that looked a Halloween sweet, but was made using one of JDaniel’s favorite foods. That is how I came up with candy corn cheese on crackers using Colby jack, sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.

How Did I Make This Easy Halloween Snack

I would love to say it was perfectly easy to make. It should have been easy, but the cutting the cheese perfectly was a little tough for me. Seriously? Yes, I have a difficult time cutting cheese into nice straight slices. I know there is probably a tool for that, but I didn’t have one on hand. If you have the right tool or are just a gifted straight slicer of cheese, it will be easy.The slices were then placed into two stacks. (One stack would have been too tall for me to work with.) Each stack was then cut into triangles. The triangles were then cut into three sections to replicate the three sections of a piece of candy corn. I did find that I could do straight cutting for this step in creating an easy Halloween snack.Then it got a tiny bit tricky. (Not bad trick, but challenging tricky.) This step involved matching one type of cheese up to create a candy corn creation that was the same thickness, and width. I confess I did trim so of them to get them match up better.

The final step was super easy. All I had to do was to place each candy corn cheese creation onto a whole grain round cracker.

How Did They Go OverJDaniel really enjoyed them. He does seem to like cheese as much or more candy anyway. A mock candy snack was something he really enjoyed.What do you like better cheese or candy?

Kids Lunch- Apple Filled Lunch

September 30, 2013 By Deirdre

I should be thinking of lunches with leaves or maybe pumpkins, but I am still creating kids lunches with that are apple filled. Our recent trip to an apple orchard has filled our house to the brim with apples. Apples have been appearing during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh! and sometimes snacks. I hope you will like this apples for kids lunch Bento.

This lunch contains several of the things that were leftover from my apple recipe experiments. The applesauce actually isn’t homemade. JDaniel has been dying to help me make some, but we haven’t had a chance between school, soccer and swimming. I did use red sugar to create an apple on top of the applesauce.

The apple chips are something we have made several times this fall. I share the recipe for them last week. They spend a lot of time in the oven, but take every little time to make. JDaniel was thrilled to find them in lunch.I found a wonderful recipe for turkey meatballs in a Taste of Home magazine that had apples in them. I followed the recipe almost completely. Instead of using turkey stuffing along with the egg, ground turkey, grated apple I used cornbread stuffing.

JDaniel complained that the meatballs were to spicy so, I gave him cup of apple jelly to dip the meatballs into. Apple jelly is really bland. It coated the spiciness of the meatballs and made them something JDaniel enjoyed having in his lunch. We will have to try using dips with other foods that a deemed spicy.

You will find more apple themed ideas on my Apples board on Pinterest. There are more Bento ideas for kids lunch on my Bento Lunch board.

Here are some other wonderful apples ideas:

Applesauce Toppings Bar

Apple Chicken Salad Bento

Apple Cinnamon Bread

What apple dishes does your family enjoy?

Easy Sight Word Snacks

September 23, 2013 By Deirdre

Last week I participated in Megan of Coffee Cups and Crayons Coffee Break on Google+. I was an awesome opportunity to share how we made apple chips and to hear about other snacks Mom Bloggers have shared with their children. Kelly of Smart School House shared some alphabet letter chips made with tortillas. They got me to thinking. JDaniel loves cheese on tortillas and I need to work with him on sight words.Why not take out my tiny letter cookie cutters I thought and make him a sight word snack with cheese and tortillas? It would be easy to put together and he would inhale the words after reading them to me.He loved finding them sitting on the kitchen table when he came home from school. The cheese has melted a tiny bit due the warmth of the day pouring into the kitchen window. He liked that unplanned added touch.The success of this sight words snack got me excited. I have been thinking of other foods I could use to create the snacks that spell out sight words.

Food Learning Activities Beyond Sight Word Snacks:

small lengths of celery with cream cheese could be used to build letters.
string cheese could be peeled into strings to form letters
small letter cookies
cinnamon toast cut with cookie cutters
cheese cracker Scrabble letters from the store
alphabet cookies from Trader Joes
potato sticks could be used to form letters
apple slices could be cut out with cookie cutters
cold spaghetti could be bent into letters
cookie cutters could be pushed into fruit leather to create words

My brain was reeling with ideas. I think I may have to create a whole series on sight word snacks. JDaniel would love to taste test them for me and I would get to help him work on sight words. Snacks give him a hands on way to interact with sight words and his taste buds get to participate too.

Brace yourself sight word snacks will be appearing on the blog every couple of weeks until I run out of them. If you have an idea for me to try, leave it in a comment below. If you like one of the ideas on the list and would like to see how it could be carried out, you can leave me a comment too.

Apple Chips Recipe

September 17, 2013 By Deirdre

Apple season is in full spring here in South Carolina. It seemed like the perfect time to try an apple chips recipe I found online. Well, actually I found two apple chip recipes online. Believe it or not they were both different from each other. After reading through both recipes, I decided to follow a couple of directions from each one and add a twist of my own. I have mentioned to you that JDaniel shares most with me about his school day when we sit down after school and have a snack this looked like snack he would like.Ingredients
3 large Gala apples
4 tablespoons of cinnamon1/4 cup of melted brown sugar1/2 cup white sugarDirections

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees F.
Line two cookie or baking sheets with parchment paper.
Create a mixture of the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set it aside.
Lay an apple on its side.
Slice apples thinly or as thinly as you can cut them. My slices are on the thicker side. When I tried to cut them thinly I didn’t end up with complete slice.

I just used small leaf shaped cookie cutters to make fall themed apple chips.

Place the apples onto the baking sheets in rows.
Melt the brown sugar in the microwave with a little water for about 35 seconds.
Brush the melted brown sugar onto the apple slices.
Sprinkle the apples with mixture of the cinnamon and sugar.
Bake for 1 hour and then flip the apples over.
Bake the apples for a second hour.
Turn of the oven and let the apples sit in the cooling over for 30-45 minutes.

Some of the apples may be a little chewy and some may be a little crunchy. It will depend on the thickness of the apple slices and how hot your oven tends to run.

My guys think that I need to try this apple chips recipe again. They really loved these. It is probably due to the two kinds of sugar and cinnamon. They both love sweet snacks. I love that we are getting fruit along with the a sweet treat!

What is your favorite fall treat?

{Kids Lunch} I Love You Sandwich

September 9, 2013 By Deirdre

I am having the best time making lunch for JDaniel every day. I have had a lot of ideas of my own that I have sent in but, recently I sent in an I Love You themed lunch that I found on Pinterest created by Following in My Shoes.

I tried to not to just copy theirs. Well, my lunch ended up with funky fingers that kept tearing and theirs were perfect. They had their cheese sitting on top of the bread. I decided to use a cookie cutter shaped like a hand create a cutout in a piece of bread. The cutout was placed under the slice of ham to help raise the hand up a little ham and cut out a little more. I think next time I will have to go to the deli and ask for thick slices of cheese. It would make creating the hands much easier.

In the bento box, I also added blueberries and grapes. The grapes had an open faced Oreo with cranberries on them. JDaniel really loves each one of these. I am not sure if blueberries or grapes or Oreos would be his most favorite. You will want to place in your child’s favorite fruits in this section. If they are red or purple, they will easily fit into the love theme.

I really wanted to give JDaniel a lunch filled with love that he would love. I think this lunch would be something your children would love to have too.

Here are some more Bento kids lunch ideas:

Apple Chicken Salad LunchPreschool Graduation LunchBento Lunch Cracker SandwichesKids Meals – Summer Sunshine LunchFall Bento LunchYou will also find a wonderful collection of Bento kids lunch ideas on my Bento lunch board on Pinterest.What do you put in your children’s lunches to make them special?

21 Bloggers Share Salad Lunches For Kids

September 3, 2013 By Deirdre

Last month I shared with you lunches without sandwiches created by 21 different bloggers. Many of them were in bento boxes. All of them were delicious. I decided to continue the lunches without sandwiches theme with a focus on salad lunches this month. A call was put out to my amazing bento blogging friends. They were asked to share lunches with salad as the main dishes. They answered my call with amazing salads that kids and adults are going to love.

Salad Lunches

Biting the Hand That Feeds You made an awesome salad with flower cutouts scattered throughout it. It is so pretty. The sides that go with it look delicious too.

Bento Lunch made a wonderful chef salad with a super cute face made from hard-boiled eggs, blueberries, and tomatoes.

Eclectic Lamb’s star-themed salad lunch is filled with a wonderful salad and yummy sides.

Becoming a Bentoholic made a super delicious lunch in a Lego bento. It contains an antipasto salad and fruit salad.

My Epicurean Adventure’s Post NYC Gluttony Lunch looks so good. It is filled with yummy ingredients and has wonderful side dishes. It looks delicious.

Eating Well’s Bento has a wonderful egg salad.

More Salad Lunches

Biting the Hand that Feeds You’s fish food salad is something special. It is so cute.

Healthy Eating Starts at Home took a leftover chicken patty and created a chicken salad lunch JDaniel would love.

Beneficial Bento created a collection of low-calorie salads. Her Greek Salad (featured in a Trader Joe’s cookbook looks wonderful. I also like her chef salad on a stick.

More Salad Lunches

JDaniel4’s Mom made a tossed salad with bunny croutons. Yes, this is one I made.

Oh! Bento has a wonderful curried chicken lunch with yummy vegetables. JDaniel hasn’t tried curried chicken, but I think he might really like it.

Lunch Box Dad shares how to serve a strawberry mango chicken salad in three different ways. Each of the options is wonderful. I think the finger food version would be JDaniel’s favorite.

Beneficial Bento has created a really cute daisy and ladybug salad. Kids will love finding this in their lunch.

Healthy Eating Starts at Home shares two delicious salads side by side. Both are vegan, but I think non-vegans will love them.

Bento for Kidlet’s salad with stars displays wonderful foods that children will love to eat. There is something cool about stars in a lunch.

Diane Rambles’ chicken salad sandwich looks wonderful in this post as does her yummy Asian salad. I think both would be great to try.

Even More Salad Lunches

My Epicurean Adventure made a post-fasting lunch that has the cutest mini tomatoes in two colors. Bentos on the Bayou made a wonderful chicken salad. You have to stop by to check out the face on her chicken salad. It will totally make you smile. Creative Food selected a veggie pasta salad for her Back to School Essentials post. It is filled with brightly colored veggies and many colors of pasta.Oh! Bento made a bento with several salads. There is a noodle salad, fresh green salad, and yummy cherry tomatoes.Lunches Fit for a Kid wonderful salads for the whole family in Bentos. I love that the meat in the salads is served on a butterfly-themed skewer.

Final Group of Salad Lunches

JDaniel4’s Mom created a three-salad meal with a spring flower theme. Yes, this is another one of mine. It isn’t in a bento, but it is fun.Blame It On the Bento used small butterfly cookie cutters to create a salad lunch that is filled with butterflies. It is so cute! Bento for Kidlet has a super cute roll decorated to look like a boy along with an awesome salad.Beneficial Bento mentioned a post on How to Make a Salad Bar. I seriously love her salad bar container from a craft store. So cool!Bento for Kidlet made a super easy lunch that features checkerboard designs.

Do you have a favorite salad-centered lunch?

Kid’s Lunch – Apple Chicken Salad Bento

September 2, 2013 By Deirdre

We are all trying to eat more fruit at my house. JDaniel and my husband have always been great about eating fruit. The one that really needed to work on it was me so, that means I will be serving more fruit. Since I plan most of the meals and search for new recipes, I decided to find one for a salad that would great for lunch and had fruit in it. The one I found was an apple tuna salad. Which sounded great, but I decided to switch out the tuna for chicken. Not only was I going to enjoy the apple chicken salad, I decided JDaniel would too. A kid’s lunch filled with apple chicken salad served in a bento would be fun for him. Apple Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 large can of chicken
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoon of mayonnaise

1 small apple chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon of dried onion

1 tablespoon of sweet pickle
Salt and PepperDirections

Stir all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Add a dash or two of salt and pepper. (JDaniel doesn’t link pepper so we left it out.)
Refrigerate overnight.
Serve with crackers or on a bed of lettuce.

The salad was really wonderful. I used gala and Granny Smith apples in the salad. They made it a little tart and a little sweet. We also added fresh sweet onions instead of dried onions to the salad. Oh! I added just a tad more mayonnaise to the recipe. It made it just a tiny bit more moist. If you prefer a drier chicken salad you may decide not to add the extra tad of mayonnaise.

JDaniel enjoyed the salad. I think if was the inclusion of crackers I added to his lunch that in encouraged him to try it. I love that he is willing to try new things like an apple chicken salad in his bento box.

What kinds of salads do you put in your kid’s lunch?

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Kids Lunch Apple of My Eye Sandwich Sushi

August 19, 2013 By Deirdre

With school staring on Wednesday we have been field testing a wide variety of ways for me to pack JDaniel’s Easy Lunch Box container. One of his favorites was this kids lunch sandwich sushi meal with an apple theme. Part of the reason I think he liked it was that it had a fun name. I think he also liked that the foods were all compressed together in. The flattened bread tasted better to me than when it is fluffy he mentioned to me after he had eaten several sushi rolls.I am so glad he like it. Making sandwich sushi rolls is super easy and allows parents to sneak in new foods without their children knowing they are there.

Let me walk you through how I made the sushi rolls:

Roll a rolling pin over pieces of sandwich bread until it is the thickness you desire.
Spread or place the foods you want on top of the bread. We used apple jelly and honey baked ham.
Roll each slice of bread up to create a tube.
Slice the sandwich sushi rolls as thick or thin as you like.

I made apple and Colby Jack cheese apple shaped cutouts to place on top of the sandwich sushi rolls to dress them up a little bit. The outlines of the cutouts were placed in the upper right hand section of the lunch box. I sprinkled the apples with a tiny bit of lemon juice to keep them from going brown.

Kids Lunch Apple of My Eye Sandwich Sushi

Since the apple of my eye loves applesauce with a dash of cinnamon, I put that in the lunch too. JDaniel might not understand the phrase apple of my eye, but he really enjoyed having an apple themed sandwich sushi lunch in his kids lunch.

Oh! Another reason I like the sushi sandwiches in a kids lunch is that rather than having a whole sandwich or a half or even quarters is that this lunch has bite size pieces that kids can pop in their mouths. I think it might encourage kids to try new foods or eat more of a sandwich than being presented with big pieces of sandwich.

Back to School Lunches without Sandwiches

August 9, 2013 By Deirdre

JDaniel is starting back to school in just over a week. This year he will be entering full-day kindergarten. That means he will need to bring his lunch every day. I am looking forward to making him fun or at least healthy lunches for him. JDaniel loves cheese sandwiches of all kinds, but I tend to think that he may be tired of them after a while. I touched base with members of the Kid Blog Network and the Bento Blogger Facebook groups I belong to and asked them to suggest lunches without sandwiches that I could send to school with him.

These ladies and gentlemen are brilliant. They have given me some amazing links to their best lunches without sandwiches. I hope that you will love them and try them out on with your children too.

Lunches Without Sandwiches

Lunch Box Dad – 1 Meal 3 Ways-Mango Strawberry Chicken Salad

JDaniel4’s Mom-Signs of Spring Lunch

Momables– 10 Non-Sandwich Lunch Ideas

Eclectic Lamb– Dinosaur and Volcano Pizza

Lunch Box Dad– Kermit the Frog’s Green Food Lunch

We Should Be Folding Laundry – Veggie Wraps, Apple and Fruit with Veggie Shreds

JDaniel4’s Mom– Despicable Me: Minion Lunch

Keeley McGuire– 20 None Sandwich School Lunch Ideas for Kids

We Should Be Folding Laundry– Mac and Cheese with Fruit and Veggie Sides

What the Girls are Having– Taco Salad

Eats Amazing– 10 Alternative to Sandwiches for Lunch Boxes

Picture used with permission from Healthy Eating Starts at Home

Healthy Eating Starts at Home– Quesadilla Strips with Layered Dip

Feeling a Little Lunchy- Feeling Like Making Baby Calzones

JDaniel4’s Mom– Salad with Bunny Croutons

Bento for My Girls– Delicious Leftovers (includes a Reese Poke Cake that looks awesome)

Keitha’s Chaos– Katy the Caterpillar Lunch (spinach tortellini with a cheese caterpillar)

Healthy Eating Starts at Home– Steamed Salmon Sushi Rolls

Mama Miss– Edible Fun Bento

Life at the Zoo- Simple Homemade Quiche

East Coast Mommy– French Toast in a Thermal Container

Kids Chaos– Garlic Rocket Pasta

You Are The Roots– Kale and Quinoa Nuggets

East Coast Mommy– Cereal for Lunch

Mama Miss– Easter Themed Bento

Inspired by Family Magazine– 10 Sandwich Less Lunches

Here are the other Kid Blogger Network blogs that are participating:

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Despicable Me Minion for Lunch for Kids

July 23, 2013 By Deirdre

Yes, I made a Despicable Me minion lunch! The minions from Despicable Me were introduced into my house a few weeks ago when I offered to watch my neighbors boys so she and her husband could go to a family graduation. The older boy placed the movie into a Mickey Mouse DVD case and brought (smuggled) it over for them to watch before bedtime. I am not big on PG movies. JDaniel hasn’t seen many, but I didn’t protest when I found out it wasn’t Micky inside the case.

It turns out the older son has memorized the movie due to watching it so often. He repeated every line word by word until I promised to turn it off if we couldn’t hear the characters say the words. JDaniel didn’t care about that he loved that he was getting to watch a PG and he loved the minions.

jdaniel4smom_space_activities_rocket_man_snack

Last week I made JDaniel a really cute rocket lunch with an astronaut and everything for our study on Space Boy He thought is was cute, but wanted to know if the next meal could have a minion in it. I wasn’t sure I could make one. I had seen a really cute Twinkie minion on Pinterest, but I wasn’t sure how to make one that would be for lunch.

Making The

Despicable Me Minion

Lunch

I thought and I thought! Finally I decided to make a cheese body with tortilla overalls for the Despicable Me Minion. The overalls needed to have blueberries all over them to make them blue. We had blue frosting that JDaniel loves to sneak, but I couldn’t bring myself to put it on bread and count it as a sandwich. A layer of grape jam was placed on the bread to help the blueberries stay in place. Small pieces of olives were used to make the minions monocle and a small tortilla piece became his mouth.

JDaniel loves Banana Bob. (One of the Despicable Me minions) He got him in a Happy Meal last week so, I put bananas into the bento box with a pick with eyeballs. I put an outline around the eyes to try to make it look like goggles, but it really didn’t work.

The last section has cheese crackers in it. I don’t know if there is anyone in the Despicable Me movies that likes cheese crackers. I do know that my son does so, into the lunch they went.

JDaniel was over the moon with joy! He loved his special lunch and it disappeared in seconds. I was thrilled that it came out okay and that he recognized it.

Do you think the minions from Despicable Me would like them?

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