Tag: funsnacks

Taste Testing Tuesday #71 – Super Quick Snack

Here we go again with Taste Testing Tuesday! I hope your Tuesday is going well! We’re getting close to the end of the school year and things are getting crazy busy, aren’t they? Today’s post can help you whip up a yummy snack in just a couple of minutes! Really? Yes, really! 🙂 This is a super quick snack and you’ll wonder why you never tried it before! (We had this for a snack occasionally when I was a kid back in the dark ages.) 😉

Yes, those are graham crackers. All you need for this snack is graham crackers and frosting! Homemade frosting is great but if you don’t have time to make frosting, the kind in a tub from the grocery store works perfectly.

All you do is break a graham cracker into the size you’d like them to be and spread frosting on one side of one piece.

Add a second piece of the same sized graham cracker to the frosting side, making a little sandwich. And that’s it! You have a snack for those hungry kiddos! Any flavor of frosting should work great!

Now, if you want to fancy things up and you have the time to do so, put the frosting on one side of a piece of graham cracker and then sprinkle on your favorite topping. Like…

Chocolate drink mix like Ovaltine…

Colored sprinkles…

Colored sugar…

Or chocolate sprinkles…just to name a few things you can use.

Even if you choose to go the “fancy way”, preparing this snack is sooo quick! What if you don’t have graham crackers on hand? This snack also works with other crackers. For example, Ritz crackers work fine too!

Feel free to experiment with whatever similar items you have on hand. I’m betting vanilla wafer cookies would be great too! Have a great Taste Testing Tuesday making super quick snacks! 🙂

Fun Valentine Treat

Remember Jello Jigglers? We hadn’t made any here in ages but they would make a cute treat for Valentine’s Day. The directions are right on the boxes of Jello and they only need Jello and water to make them.

I suggest using red Jello for Valentine’s Day. I made half of a recipe and used an 8″ x 8″ pan.

Heart shapes are great for Valentine’s Day, of course. 😉

Remember to dip the pan in hot water for a few seconds to help with removing the shapes. The smaller sized hearts came out easier than the large ones. And there they are!

To make them fancier, add a bit of whipped cream on top or some pink yogurt.

Be careful that the kids you share these with are old enough to chew them up well. They take some extra chewing! Hope your Valentine’s Day will be a fun one! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday #58 Chewy Granola Bars

Another Taste Testing Tuesday is under way! Today we’re trying Quaker Chewy Granola Bars. I found one box with 4 different flavors in it. And there are 2 bars of each flavor. 🙂

Before we begin, you might want to draw a simple chart to record what everyone thinks during your Taste Test.

Write each participant’s name down the left hand side and the names of each kind of granola bar across the top. Draw a smiling face for “Yum!”, a straight face for “It’s ok.”, and a frowning face for “No, thanks!”

You can decide how big of pieces to break the granola bars into depending on how many people are involved in your taste test or how old the participants are. This is a picture of a fourth of a bar and a half of a bar. I decided to use half bars so they are easier for you to see them.

#1.) Chocolate Chip. Are you a chocolate chip fan? My husband loves them, but I prefer milk chocolate.

#2.) S’mores. Does this one make you think of campfires and making your own s’mores? If you look close, you can see little marshmallow bits in this flavor.

#3.) Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. Whoever discovered that peanut butter and chocolate go together was a genius, right?! This kind has tiny little peanut butter chips in them. Spoiler alert…this one is my favorite. (I love Reese Cups!)

#4.) Oatmeal Raisin. This one makes me think of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies. Mmm!

And there you have it! Put a piece of each kind on a plate for each taste tester.

Let the tasting and the voting begin! Which is your favorite? Which is your least favorite? Which one got the most smiley faces? I hope your family will have fun taste testing chewy granola bars! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday #57 – Fun With Leftover Snacks

Hello again! It’s Tuesday and you know what that means! Time for another taste test! Sorry to be so late in posting, but I’m fighting a cold and not feeling the best and my computer has decided to act up.

So, do you ever have one of those days where you want to serve the kids a snack but all you have left are odds and ends of different kinds of snacks? And there isn’t enough of any one snack to go around? Here’s a fun idea to save you! 😉 Collect up a few of your small amounts of leftover snacks and turn them into a fun snack time!

Start with a cup, plate or small bowl for each person who will be having a snack. I like to use the 5 oz. Dixie paper cups.

Take each type of snack food and put a small amount in each cup. For example, maybe you have enough Cheese Puffs to give each person 3 pieces.

Continue adding small amounts of each type of snack until the cups are full.

I’m betting your kids will find this fun since it’s an out of the ordinary way of having a snack. 🙂

Maybe the kids will want to barter with each other to get the snacks they like best. Say, 1 Cheez-it cracker swapped for 1 fruit gummy.

It’s a great way to use up leftover snacks and not have to listen to the kids fight over who gets which snack…they all get ALL the snacks! 🙂 As always, you can make a chart for your taste testing and let each kiddo tell if they like each snack or not. To make it even more fun, try hiding the cups around the house for the kids to find before they enjoy eating their snack. Have fun and happy snacking!

Taste Testing Tuesday – #19 – Fun With Pancakes!

We’re back! This week’s Taste Testing Tuesday centers on pancakes! There are so many ways to make pancakes. My Betty Crocker cookbook lists 15 different ways to make pancakes with different ingredients mixed into the batter. While I’m sure many of these are great recipes with tasty results, today we are going to concentrate on what you can do with “plain” pancakes. Just use your regular pancake recipe or mix and then let the fun begin!

First, let’s look at ideas for making your pancakes in fun shapes. Of course, there is the usual way of making them in a nice sized round shape. One of my husband’s favorite memories is from times he spent the night at his grandparents and his grandma would make him a plate-sized buckwheat pancake for breakfast. 🙂 (Yes, he ate the whole thing!)

How about making some extra small pancakes? Kids can brag about how many pancakes they ate. 😉

Or you can make them into animal shapes. This could be a bear or Mickey Mouse or a dog…

Probably the most popular way to eat a pancake is with butter and maple syrup. Mmmm!

You can make a funny face by adding some pieces of banana, a few chocolate chips and a piece of bacon.

Now let’s add some toppings to the “bear” pancake. Add a couple of banana slices for his ears and chocolate chips for his eyes, nose and mouth.

Or maybe use a couple of blueberries for his eyes, miniature marshmallows in his ears, a chocolate chip nose and a cheese puff for his mouth.

You can flatten miniature marshmallows with your fingers and then put a chocolate chip in the center of them to make eyes. Apple slices for a mouth finishes him off.

A snowman is our next idea! Blueberry eyes, bacon for arms, mini chocolate chips for his mouth and buttons and then a piece of carrot or cheese for his nose makes a pretty cool pancake snowman.

You can use small pancakes like bread for a sandwich! How about adding a cooked egg, a piece of bacon and a piece of cheese for a tasty breakfast?

Do your kids love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but hate the crust? Use a couple of small pancakes to make an awesome peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crusts!

Our last suggestion for today uses an ingredient that I say everyone loves! Can you guess what it is? Sprinkles!! Everything is better with sprinkles on it! 😉

I hope these ideas have gotten the wheels in your mind turning and you’ll come up with even more ideas on your own. What is YOUR favorite way to eat a pancake? Have fun and enjoy those pancakes however you make them!

Taste Testing Tuesday – #13

Welcome back for another round of Taste Testing Tuesday! What fruit is plentiful this time of year in the United States? Apples! Now is the time to get your favorite apple from your local orchard or grocery store. Wait, you don’t know what your favorite apple is? Then you are in the right place! Today we’ll taste test 6 apples that are available here locally. Make yourself a little chart so you can keep track of who likes what in your family.

As you can see, I made a little sign to keep beside each type of apple. I bought 2 of each apple so one could be cut into slices to taste test and one to look at and see the differences between the apples I chose. Some differences you can talk about with the kids are the color, shape, size, if the flesh of the apple is soft or crunchy and is it sweet or tart? Here are the ones I used:

Gala

Honey Crisp

McIntosh

Ida Red

Paula Red

And last but not least, Golden Delicious.

I like apples that are a little sweet or a little tart and I especially like the softer flesh. What are your favorites? Now I’m hungry for an apple pie or apple crisp! haha! Hope you have fun tasting apples and you discover some new favorites. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

Taste Testing Tuesday – #10

We’re back with another exciting adventure for your taste buds! Ready? Today we’re trying dried fruit! While you can use any kind of dried fruit for your taste test, here are the 5 kinds of dried fruit that we are using today….

#1.) Raisins

#2.) Blueberries

#3.) Cherries

#4.) Cranberries

#5.) Strawberries

There are many more dried fruits to pick from like bananas, dates, figs, prunes, mango, pineapple, etc, etc. So if you use different fruit than the ones I used, that is absolutely fine!

Put a small bunch of each kind of dried fruit on a plate for each person doing the taste test.

If you have been following along each week with our taste test, you know what to do! If you’re new to Taste Testing Tuesday, be sure to go back and check out our other 9 taste tests. If you aren’t familiar with our tasting adventures, grab a piece of paper and draw a quick chart for recording what you think of each type of fruit you will be tasting. Here’s what mine looks like today:

Taste one fruit, decide what you think of it and draw a face in the corresponding chart box. A happy smiling face means you like it. A face that has a straight mouth means it’s just ok. And a frowning face means, umm, no thank you! Which fruit turned out to be the one you will ask mom or dad to buy more of please? Did you say “no, thank you” to any or them? I liked all of the fruit I tested but as you can see, Rick had a few that didn’t rank too high for him. Remember, it’s ok if your likes and dislikes are different from other people. Not everyone likes the same foods, so there is no right or wrong answer.

Now let’s add just a little more fun to today’s Taste Testing Tuesday. Take 2 or 3 pieces of each kind of fruit you have and mix them together on your plate.

Then WITHOUT PEEKING, take a piece and put it in your mouth…can you tell what kind of fruit it is just by tasting it but not looking at it? You could also have someone else put a piece in your mouth (after they have washed their hands, of course!) and you can see how many bites you guess the correct fruit. 🙂 I hope you’ve had fun with us today and maybe found some new types of dried fruit that you like to eat! Happy hugs to each of you! 🙂

Taste Testing Tuesday – #7

Here we are again with another Taste Testing Tuesday for you! (Wow, that week went by quickly!) We will be testing out ways to eat graham crackers!

I wonder what you think of when you think of eating a graham cracker? Do you like them plain or with something on them? When I was little, my mom would occasionally fix us a special treat by putting frosting on graham crackers. Yum! For our taste test today, I added a few sprinkles just for fun. 😉

What about adding peanut butter and jelly?

Dipping graham crackers into vanilla yogurt is pretty tasty!

When you think of graham crackers, do you immediately think of making s’mores over a campfire? Mmmm! If you’ve never had a s’more before, it’s made with a piece of milk chocolate candy bar, graham crackers and a marshmallow that’s been roasted over the campfire. You make a sandwich with the chocolate and marshmallow in between 2 graham crackers. It’s ooey, gooey, messy and quite yummy! But if you don’t have a campfire going, you can try making s’mores in the house. Melt some chocolate candy bar in the microwave oven and add just a little coconut oil and stir until it’s a uniform consistency. Dip one end of the section of graham cracker into the chocolate and tilt the cracker to make the chocolate spread a little further. Add 2 miniature marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Place the coated cracker on a piece of wax paper on a plate and put it in the refrigerator so it will harden. Or eat it while it’s warm!

That’s 4 ways to taste test graham crackers! Are any of those ways new to you? Which one is your favorite? Do you have any other suggestions for a good way to eat a graham cracker? I hope you have enjoyed our latest taste test! Thanks for joining us! 🙂

Hide and Seek Snacks

Are you looking for a way to make after-school snacks a little more fun? Maybe you need to cheer someone up after a not-so-great day at school? Today’s idea is super simple but lots of fun! Grab a cup for each kiddo and let’s make a Hide and Seek Snack! All you need is a cup for each child and some small snack items. I used a 9 oz plastic cup for my example. Gather up whatever snackies you have on hand that your child likes to munch on.

I found some fruit gummies, Cheez-its crackers, chocolate chips, cereal, raisins, cashews and Honey Nut Thins crackers. You can tailor the items to fit your child’s age. Tiny marshmallows or cheese cubes on a toothpick were some of our kids favorite items for this game. Put all your snack food into the cup.

If you have more than one child, you might find it helpful to write each person’s name on a cup. It can help solve the squabbles over whose cup of goodies it is! 😉

Now for the “Hide” part of the fun! Find a place to hide each cup of snacks. Again, depending on your child’s age how hard you make the hiding place. Here are a few suggestions to get you started. In a drawer…

In some pots and pans…

Hidden among some water bottles…

Or maybe hiding between some favorite books.

When the children arrive home from school, tell them you’ve made them a special snack but they need to search for it. You can give them clues to help them find their snack or play the game of “You are cold, you are hot”…the closer they get to where the snack is hidden the “hotter” they are. For instance, if they are in the wrong part of the house you say, “You are cold.” When they get to the right room, you can tell them “You are warm now!” As they get closer to the hiding place, you can say “You are getting warmer!” or “You are hot!” And if they are standing right beside it, “You are burning up!!” Happy cheering and lots of clapping when their snack cup is found goes a long ways towards making this Hide and Seek Snack a lot of fun! 🙂