Great Ideas for Moms

I have a very picky todder and have had to find some creative ways to serve him healthy food!  I found these great snack ideas and wanted to share them with all of you struggling with picky eaters! 

ARCTIC ORANGES

4 oranges
4 cups orange juice
4 cherries

Cut the tops off the oranges in a zigzag pattern. Hollow out the insides, remove the seeds and combine in a blender with the juice. Set the rinds in a muffin tin and fill with the mixture. Drop a cherry inside each orange. Freeze for 2 to 3 hours. Soften the treats for 5 minutes, then serve. Makes 4.

SHRUNKEN SANDWICHES

2 slices ham
2 slices low-fat cheese
12 mini crackers, such as Ritz Bits

Cut ham and cheese (six from each slice) into small rounds the size of the mini crackers. A clean medicine bottle makes a good cutter. Place a ham round on six of the crackers, then add the cheese. Cover each with another cracker. Serves 2.

COLD CUT PUZZLER 

Let your child put this puzzling lunch together. Start by making a sandwich with cheese and bologna or other deli meat.

Cut the sandwich into a number of shapes, then separate the shapes, mix them up and place them on her lunch plate.

Have your child reconstruct the sandwich by interlocking the puzzle pieces before she eats it.

BAGGY OF BUGS

Place a graham cracker in a plastic baggy, seal it shut and crush the crackers into a fine sand using a large spoon.

Add a few raisins to the bag and have the kids dig for bugs in the sand. Experiment with other tasty critters–dried cranberry “ladybugs,” carob chip “ants” and fruit snack “worms.”

BANANA SCREAM

3 bananas (the riper the banana, the sweeter the shake)
2 tbsp. nonfat milk

Peel the bananas, cut in half width-wise, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze until firm. Place in a blender,
add milk and puree until creamy. Serves 4.

FISH IN A POND

1/2 cup low-fat cream cheese or cheese spread
Fish-shaped crackers
4 celery ribs, stems removed

Scoop the cream cheese into a bowl. (You can tint the cream cheese with blue food coloring to make it look like a pond.) Place the goldfish in a separate bowl, or surround the “pond” with them. Let the kids dip the celery sticks into the cheese, then into the bowl of crackers to “catch” a fish. Serves 2.

FRECKLE-FACED BEARS

 1 10-oz. pkg. refrigerator biscuits
1/4 cup sesame or sunflower seeds
36 raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Roll six raw biscuits into balls, roll in seeds, then flatten slightly on the cookie sheet to form the bears’ heads.

Roll small pieces of dough to form ears and noses, and use raisins for eyes. Use leftover dough to create letters, monsters, faces or pigs. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 6 bears.

FUN WALDORF SALAD

1 cup grated carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
2 to 3 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. lemon juice
4 ice cream cones

In a large mixing bowl, stir all ingredients well. Scoop into ice cream cones. Serves 4.

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