Indoor Food Activities for the Whole Family

Posted February 19, 2016 | kids, Nutrition & Health Tips, recipes, snacks

 

Now that the dark rainy season is in full effect and playing outside may be less of an option, we wanted to bring you a few ideas for mixing fun and food with these indoor family activities. Round up the kids, a few ingredients, and get playing!

 

Cinnamon Sugar Snowflakes

Make these crunchy sweet snacks on a cold day with kids aged 3 and up .

You’ll need:

• Flour tortillas (regular or gluten-free)
• Cinnamon sugar
• Melted butter or cooking spray
• Clean kid’s scissors

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Microwave the tortillas for a few seconds so they don’t break when you fold them. Fold in half, and fold in half again. Cut out shapes as you would a paper snowflake. Unfold.
3. Spray with cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake for 5-10 minutes until golden, watching carefully so they don’t burn.
4. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and enjoy!

 

Rainbow Fruit Skewers

This is a great activity for practicing motor skills as well as making healthy food fun. Wooden skewers can be a little sharp, so kids under the age of 5 may need help.

You’ll need:

• Wooden Skewers
• Washed and cut colorful fruit: strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes (green and purple), blueberries

Directions:

1. Skewer one piece of fruit at a time onto a wooden skewer in your favorite color pattern.
2. Enjoy!

 

Veggie Faces

This is a healthy and fun way to get kids of almost any age to eat their veggies! You can keep some dipping sauces at the table to encourage dunking and snacking along the way.

You’ll need:

• Plates
• Small tortillas (flour or corn)
• A variety of vegetables (carrot julienned and rounds, cucumber spears and rounds, bell pepper slices, cherry tomato halves, etc)
• A variety of cheese slices (shredded, triangles, and rounds work great) or cream cheese

Directions:

1. Place a tortilla on each plate for a head, and lay out the sliced veggies and cheese for creating facial features.
2. Place the veggies on the tortilla in creative ways, making silly faces and munching along the way.

 

Homemade Butter

Making butter at home is a fun way to teach kids about where food comes from and how it’s made. It will keep a couple of days in the fridge, but it probably won’t last that long because it’s so delicious!

You’ll need:

• Heavy whipping cream
• A jar with a tight fitting lid
• Pinch of salt
• Bread (or something to eat the butter with)

Directions:

1. Pour the heavy whipping cream into the jar, making sure it’s about half full. Add a pinch of salt
2. Close the lid tightly and take turns shaking the jar. After about 5-10 minutes of shaking it will turn to whipped cream, and the noise of the liquid sloshing around will stop. Keep shaking! A chunk of butter will separate from the liquid soon after.
3. Pour the buttermilk off (you can save it for baking), get the butter out of the jar and rinse under cold water to remove the rest of the buttermilk. Enjoy!