I was just wondering if anyone has a good snack idea for a preschool Harvest Day Party? The children are 3 years old. I am new at this and any not so hard ideas would be appreciated!
Candy Corn Pudding cups:
Clear plastic cups with vanilla pudding on the bottom, mandarin oranges in the middle and whip cream on the top. Yum!
I always cut up apples. Then cut the apple pieces in half. Melt peanut butter morsels (like you might use for peanut butter cookies). Dip the apple pieces in the peanut butter. Its hard to get it to stick so just do a little scoop and stick them on wax paper. Put them in the refrigerator until you are ready to go. The peanut butter hardens and it is delicious. I have had so many people ask for this recipe that I make it for everything.
I would say stay away from peanuts!!! So many children have allergies to peanuts and a lot of preschools/ schools are peanut-free anyways.
Pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins are my fav! Here's the recipe:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 (16 oz.) can pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 cups oil
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 package chocolate chips (I use the mini ones)
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil until smooth. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 16-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Makes 24-30 muffins. You could make the mini ones, though!
You could make a kids trail mix:
teddy grahams
pretzels
cheezits/goldfish crackers
raisins
chocolate chips
optional: peanuts (make sure no peanut allergies)
Pretty much whatever you want to put in it.
Hallowen cookies:
Pilsbury makes some sugar cookies that you just need to bake
How about mini pumpkin muffins?
You could bake cupcakes in ice cream cones , the ones with the flat bottom and decorate them with tiny pumpkin and leaf sprinkles. Make a orange colored icing. I did this several years ago at the Head Start where my niece went. The kids loved them and no mess to throw away just a napkin.
Banana Bread
Zucchini Bread
Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin bread
pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Carrot Cake
Apple pie
apple juice/cider
caramel apples
the candy/nut mix with:
salted peanuts, reeses pieces & candy corn
(just make sure you have more peanuts than anything else). :)
I'm a big fan of fresh fruits and veggies... cut apple wedges, celery and carrot sticks, orange slices... they're very colorful and you don't have all that sugar. Maybe have a veggie dip, too.
My niece will choose this stuff over candy if it's there. [Warning - the apple slices will turn brown if cut too early. If you dip them in lemon juice that will keep them fresh looking longer.]
A variety of apple preparations would be seasonal: dried apples, apple cider (pressing apple cider is a task a 3yo can join in on), fresh-sliced apples, apples cut in half the other way (instead of from top to bottom, across the middle) which makes the core look like a flower, homemade applesauce without added sugar...baked apples, cored and filled with chopped fresh nuts, a little cinnamon and butter.
How messy do you want it to be?
Witch cupcakes! They are super cute and easy to make. Granted, not healthy like some of the other snakcs on here, but hey...it is HALLOWEEN!!! Let the kids enjoy life a little!
You will need:
Devils food chocolate cake mix (my fav..use anyone you want!)
Cupcake pans
Green cupcake frosting
Halloween themed cupcake shells/cups
Keebler fudge stripe cookies (full size)
Hershey's kisses
Orange cupcake decorating icing or gel (fine tip)
Bake the cupcakes per the box instructions and let cool. Frost the entire top with the green (for the hair). Put a fudge stripe cookie on top, stripes down for the base of the hat and put an unwrapped kiss over the hole. Use the orange gel/icing to draw a circle around the base of the kiss make a bow on the back.
They are yummy, cute and the kids really love them! I have pictures of these, so if anyone wants to see them, just let me know!
You could buy sugar cookies from Scotts right now for 10 cents each, spread some orange icing on them, and give the kids some candy corn to make a jack o lantern face on theirs. You could even put the icing on while the groups change during the party since it would only take a minute to do so.
No specific ideas, but some advice. Skip the cakes, cookies and candy. For one reason, there are many moms (like me) who really want to avoid that stuff. Try to find something helathier.
Although my big rason for suggesting this is that kids don't seem to eat that much of these treats. They are exciting to see and want, but in the end don't eat. When I was in college and worked in a 4 year old daycare room, the kids would get excited by the sweets, but not really eat them. They loved fruits, veggies, crunchy/salty (trial mix, pretzels, etc.), yogurt, cheese and other things like this.
