Fun and EASY recipes to make with kids

I volunteer in my son's preschool and it's always so fun to involve the children in the preparation of snacks - so when I saw this request, I decided to compile the various things I have made in his class.

Spooky Spiders (makes 10) Perfect for Halloween!

Ingredients: 20 round crackers, 1 can spray cheddar cheese, 60 pretzel sticks, 20 raisins

Directions: Spray 10 crackers with cheese, place remaining crackers on top to make sandwiches, stick 3 pretzesl on each side for legs, dab two dots of cheese on top and stick on raisins for eyes

Rice Cake Pizzas

Ingredients: Cinnamon Roll flavored (or other sweet) rice cakes, vanilla yogurt, vanilla granola, assorted berries

Directions: Prepare pizzas on your rice cakes with yogurt as the sauce and granola and berries as the toppings. Yummy!

English Muffin Pizzas

Ingredients: English muffins, pasta or pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, various toppings (pepperoni, black olives, green peppers, etc.)

Directions: Make pizzas on your english muffins and heat int the toaster over or regular oven. I have also made these with Ritz crackers - many kids don't even want them heated up

Goldfishy Dip

These are simple, but fun. Just mix cream cheese with blue food coloring and serve goldfish crackers on the side to dip and "swim" in the "water"

Nanner sandwiches

Ingredients: Graham crakers, whipped cream, slice bananas

Directions: Spray whip cream squares of graham cracker, top with banana slices, squish together into a yummy sandwich!

Bagel Faces

I found this recipe on Hidden Valley Ranch's website - see link below

Fruit Kabobs

Ingredients: Cubed apples, sliced bananas, pineapple chunks, whatever fruit suits your fancy. Fancier options: yogurt, coconut or chocolate chips

Directions: Put skewers through the fruit and serve cold or grill. OR you can dip them in yogurt and roll in coconut or melt chocolate chips in a sandwich bag, cut off a corner and drizzle over kabob - a perfect dessert!

Popcorn Balls (this recipe is for halloween pumpkins, but we've also made them at Christmas using red food coloring for half and green for the other half and eliminating the candy corn - but the possibilities are endless, you can make them for every holiday!

Ingredients: 5 cups popped popcorn, 1 cup candy corn, 1 cup chopped salted peanuts, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 3 cups miniature marshmallows, drops red food coloring, drops yellow food coloring, sticks red or black licorice, cut into thirds

Directions:

1. Grease a muffin pan and set aside. Place popcorn, candy corn and peanuts into a large bowl, mix together and set aside
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in marshmallows, red food coloring and yellow food coloring, adjusting color if needed to get a nice shade of orange. When the marshmallows are completely melted, pour over the popcorn and stir to evenly distribute the candy, nuts and marshmallow. They key here is to use a really large bowl and really get it mixed well!
3. Use a greased spoon to fill the muffin cups. Insert a piece of licorice to act as the stem, and mold the popcorn around it. Let stand until firm, 10 to 15 minutes, and then pull the pumpkins out by their stems. You can wrap individually in plastic wrap and a ribbon to make them extra special.