Hi Mommas!
My daughter will be celebrating her birthday in class next month (she's in third grade). Her teacher is very health conscious and requests that no sugary snacks are served for birthday celebrations. So far, we've had fruit smoothies, a yogurt bar, and fruit salad. I'm looking to bring something healthy and new that the kids will enjoy. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I've tried scouring cooking and kids websites but could not find anything different from the usual ones that have been used in class already. BTW, there are two peanut allergies, so anything with nuts is not allowed.
Thank you all so much for your help! You have helped me out with other problems on Mamapedia in the past and are a really fantastic group of women. I send my heartfelt appreciation.
L.
Instead of a snack how about just bringing some goodie bags for all the kids? The party stores have all sorts of inexpensive things you can buy.
For my daughter's 4th birthday, she chose popcorn. I mixed plain, cheddar, and caramel popcorn together. I used organic popcorn from Cost Plus, but you can get organic popcorn just about anywhere. I bagged them and added a personalized sticker. Everyone gobbled them up, including the parents. It was easy and fast!
Other parents have brought in cookies, muffins, and fruit skewers (had fruit and marshmallow).
Well my daughter can't eat these but a big favorite was always the rice crispy treats. Course my daughter doesnt have a peanut allergy but she does seem to have a marshmellow one:(.
You don't have to bring food. You could get some temporary tattoos or pencils, etc
If you do anything with chocolate please check the labels carefully.
How about strawberries lightly dipped in melted, "Enjoy Life" chocolate? Warm the chocolate chips in a clean, glass container in the microwave until they're just shiny, then stir to melt; the Enjoy Life brand is the only brand of chocolate we've found made in a dedicated, common-allergen-free facility, so no worries of cross-contamination with nuts or peanuts.) My food allergic kiddo loves these (and so does his sister)! (Not sure if strawberries are too easy to come by these days, though...so I'll try to think of some other ideas --
edited to add: looks like you have lots of great ideas! Have fun & Happy Birthday to your daughter! :)
We are doing edible arrangements for my dds. It is basically a fruit arrangement in a vase, some are pineapples cut into hello kitty shapes.
Cucumber snakes- Seedless cucumber slices cut in half. The kids line the up in alternating half moon shapes (bump up, bump down). Raisin for eyes and red pepper for tongue.
Ants on a log ( Not sure if you're allowed to bring peanut butter)
Pancake bar (if your allowed to cook) wholegrain, berries, nuts. Or premade whole grain pancake and berries or bananas
Have you heard of GoGoSqueez? It's applesauce (no sugar or anything else added) in a squeezable packet. My son totally loves them. They come in a variety of flavors - apple, apple-banana, apple-strawberry. You can buy them at Whole Foods. Trader Joe's also carries something similar - fruit smash ups I think they call them. The TJ ones have lots of different fruits, not just apple like grape, mango, etc.
I love the ideas that everyone is putting out there. I too, am in the same situation - SUPER HEALTHY TEACHER who promotes healthy eating.
Here's what I'm considering taking to ours:
- Single serve yogurt.
- Hummus & whole wheat crackers (my son is ADDICTED to hummus)
- Fruit kabobs (small, with like 4 items)
- Cheese tray
- BareNaked Granola (comes in LOTS of super duper kid friendly flavors)
http://www.bearnaked.com/all-natural-granola/banana-nut-g...
So far, for the sake of being easy I'm leaning towards the Yogurt (probably not the healthiest as it'll be some sort of yogurt in a tube. But hey, it's better than the frosting that the kids would generally lick from the cupcakes!)
Or maybe the cheese tray - What kid doesn't like cheese???
I'm not so big on the Granola yet, because my age group is 4 and they wouldn't eat it as well as the others. But I must say - It's GREAT!
Good luck, I'll be checking back to see if there are anymore phenomonal answers.
- C.
Apples with caramel dip.
Fruit Kabobs
Banana bread or cupcakes
Pumpkin bread or cupcakes
Zucchini bread or cupcakes
Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas
What about bringing different types of fruit (pre-cut) that the kids can dip in yogurt or caramel? (You could include with the fruit a mixture of marshmallows, animal crackers, pieces of granola bar etc. that would also be fun to dip) Fun and Healthy!
Carrots and celery with ranch dip.
Another idea that my kids LOVE is something we call Yogurt Freeze
Mix equal parts of cool whip and any flavor yogurt
Use Nilla wafers and put a dollop of the yogurt on a Nilla wafer and top that with a second nilla wafer. Making a mini sandwich. Then freeze them in the freezer. Once frozen they are done! I have never had a kid turn down one of these yet.
Hi L.,
I'd ask the teacher to come up with a list of ideas too. Since it's her request, perhaps she can help you to conform to what she's looking for. Looks like you have some great ideas given here so far as well!
Good luck and Happy Birthday to your sweet girl :-)
I notice you are in the same city as me. no sugary snacks district wide, it isn't the teachers rule.
Squeezy/tube yogurts that are frozen. Or juice popsicles.
If you're into baking, Babycakes is a fabulous cookbook to use. You can find many of their recipes online for free. I highly recommend the raspberry scones with a bit of jelly, the cinnamon toastie is DELICIOUS and so are the zucchini muffins.
However, from experience, the kids really would probably prefer little gift bags with things they could use (as someone mentioned). Tattoos, erasers, notepads.... that sort of thing would go over well.
Good luck!
Depending on how much time you have, what about caramel apples, make their own trail/chex mix and get cute baggies/cello bags. You can use Chex cereal, pretzels, m&m's or chocolate chips, almonds (not for the 2) sunflower seeds, jerkey bits. Whats wrong with a traditional cupcake? Its not something they have everyday! and really not that bad if you dont use icing and use whip instead.
I remember when we churned butter in our classroom.... You could do graham crackers and butter though I guess neither is up there under the "healthiest" of snacks but pretty educational for the kids who have never churned butter before. How about fruit kabobs? You could find cute little plastic spears and have a fruit bar where everyone could make their own kabobs.
Sounds like you have covered the fun healthy stuff... unless you make frozen yogurt and incorporate making it as part of the party...
How about one of these ideas? Our son's school is super healthy too, so I try to focus on fun, vet nutritious snacks!
http://weelicious.com/2010/08/16/sweet-beet-cookies/
http://weelicious.com/2009/05/17/banana-wee-eat-germ-muff...
Popcorn
Chex MIx
What about the 100 calorie snack packs of chocolate covered pretzels? They come in chocolate and white chocolate.
I also like the idea of just sending in tattoos, pencils or fun erasers.
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.d...
M.
"Jammies" - plain muffins with a dollup of jam on the inside. They're like jelly donuts but healthier.
You can make homemade fruit popsicles (or buy them).
Dessert pizza - bake frozen puff pastry, spread with a thin layer of chocolate (I'd normally use nutella, but that has hazelnuts) and then top with sliced strawberries.
Strawberries and cream is good too - if you can be there to go around and give everyone a little squirt of whipped cream, that feels extra special.
Fruit and yogurt parfaits could work too. Clear disposable cups, a layer of yogurt, a layer of fruit, a layer of yogurt, a layer of granola, a layer of yogurt. Very fancy : )
Good luck!
