FOOD FUN

Kids' Recipes

Cooking is a skill that helps children read, do math and organize their work logically. This school year, spend more time with your kids in the kitchen and teach them how to cook with easy kids' recipes.

Making Food Fun

Sometimes kids just need a little inspiration to try new things. With this collection of ways to make food more fun, you'll encourage your kids to play with their food.

Cheesy Chums

Here's an easy way to dress up an after-school snack.

Ingredients

• mini cheese round (such as Babybel)
• small pieces of red bell pepper, scallions, carrot, and olives

• whole wheat crackers

Instructions

1. Use a sharp knife (an adult's job) to trim the wax covering from a mini cheese round, then add facial features with small pieces of red bell pepper, scallions, carrot, and olives*. Serve with a short stack of whole wheat crackers.

Tips:

We used cocktail straws and drinking straws to punch round eyes from olive halves.

Egg Heads

Instructions

1. Stack a hard-boiled egg slice on a round cracker and add whatever garnishes you have on hand. Our favorites include chives, alfalfa sprouts, sunflower seeds, and dill.
   
   
   
   

   Strawberry Shortcake Snake

   
   
   
   
   
   Ever wonder how many seeds sit on a typical strawberry? Two hundred, to be exact. But even more impressive is the amount of vitamin C strawberries pack. One serving, which equals about eight medium berries, provides 130 percent of our bodies' daily requirement.
   
   Whether you're choosing a cartonful at the grocery store or picking your own at a farm, look for bright-red color, a sheen and fresh-looking leaves. And serve them at room temperature for the best flavor.
   
   With plenty of strawberries fresh from the patch, summer is no time to scale back on dessert, particularly if one of these shortcake snakes winds up on your plate. Your kids will get a kick out of helping to shape the shortcake into curvy bodies and embellishing the strawberry heads with candy eyes and forked tongues.

   Ingredients

   • SHORTCAKE BISCUITS:
   • 2 cups all-purpose flour
   • 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
   • 4 teaspoons baking powder
   • 3/4 teaspoon salt
   • 1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)
   • 1 cup milk
   • STRAWBERRY FILLING:
   • 1 quart strawberries

   • 4 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
   • WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING:
   • 1 cup whipping cream
   • 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
   • GARNISHES:
   • 4 whole strawberries
   • Green fruit leather
   • Mini chocolate chips or M&M's

   Instructions

   1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter. Or use a vegetable grater to grate the stick into the mixing bowl and let your kids take turns blending the margarine into the dry ingredients with their fingertips. Once the dough is crumbly, slowly stir in the milk.
   2. Turn out the dough onto a floured working surface and gently roll or pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick rectangle (it should measure about 6 x 8 inches). For the best results, handle the dough as little as possible.
   3. Slice the rectangle into four 1-1/2- x 8-inch strips. Place the strips on an ungreased baking sheet, then let your child mold and curve them into S shapes that resemble snakes. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown. Transfer the baked shortcakes to a wire rack (a parent's job) and let cool. Carefully slice the cooled shortcakes in half lengthwise or split them with a fork and then set aside.
   4. Wash the strawberries and let your kids select four to use for the snakes' heads. Slice the rest of the berries lengthwise into a mixing bowl. Toss with the confectioners' sugar and let stand while you prepare the whipped cream.
   5. Combine the whipping cream and confectioners' sugar in a chilled bowl and beat with an electric or hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
   6. Just before serving, arrange berries on the bottom half of each shortcake, then cover with the shortcake top. Spread on whipped cream and add a layer of sliced strawberry "scales."
   7. For the snakes' heads, cut mouth openings in the tips of the whole berries and place one at the end of each shortcake. Press a pair of mini chocolate chip or M&M's eyes into the sides of each head and add a forked tongue cut from green fruit leather. Serves 4.