Cooking Games with Fruit
These activities are great ways to get kids interested in fruit. You
may even find your kids picking healthier snacks after trying these!
Banana Crunchies – This yummy treat is easy for kids to make
and adds a healthy crunch to a favorite fruit. Start with a few large
bananas, some vanilla yogurt, and crushed cereal (honey or cinnamon
flavored varieties are best). Cut each piece of fruit into pieces that
are two to three inches long. Then, spread the yogurt onto a flat plate
and place the cereal into a shallow bowl. Let kids take turns rolling
the banana pieces first in the yogurt and then in the cereal. When you
have finished, enjoy your delicious treats or place them in the freezer
for later!
Fruit Kabobs – This activity is perfect for young children. It
is quick, simple, and creates almost no mess to clean up. To start, you
will need several wooden kabob sticks and a variety of fruits. Those
fruits like melon, apples, or pineapple work great, but you will need an
adult to cut them into cubes. Other great choices are strawberries,
grapes, and large blueberries. These do not need to be cut at all. Let
kids pick what fruit to stick onto their kabob sticks. Then, you can eat
your treats or enjoy them with some yogurt dip. You can also put fruit
kabobs on the grill for a fun summer treat.
Frozen Fruit Pops – For best results, you can do this activity
with premade popsicle molds. However, small paper cups will also work.
All you need is some fruit juice and fresh fruit pieces. Let kids put
the fruit pieces in the mold or cups and top with fruit juice. Then, add
a popsicle stick (you can also use a trimmed straw or long toothpick)
and let the pops freeze for several hours or overnight.
Fruity Pizza – You can make a pizza out of fruit using a thin
tortilla as the “crust” and peanut butter as the “sauce.” An adult may
want to help spread the peanut butter on the tortilla. Then, kids can
add their own fruit toppings. You can also use marshmallow sauce for
“cheese” if you want. When kids are done adding berries, apples,
bananas, etc. to their pies, put them in the oven and bake at 350
degrees until the tortillas just start to turn golden.
Apple Donuts – This fun treat takes a little adult supervision
to get started. First, use an apple corer to core a whole apple. Then,
cut off the very top and bottom of the fruit. Now, you are ready to make
some “donut” disks. Slice the rest of the apple width-wise into pieces
that are around a quarter of an inch thick. You should end up with a lot
of donut shaped apple pieces. You can either eat these plain, or make
them more interesting with some toppings. One great option is to let
kids spread peanut butter on one disk and jelly on another. Put them
together for a miniature PB&J sandwich. You can also let kids lightly
coat the donuts with cinnamon and sugar and bake them in the oven until
they are warm. |
