Today we experimented with the idea of fruit and cheese kebabs (which I really, really want to spell as “kabob,” despite Spell Check’s insistence that I shouldn’t).  We made a trip to the produce section of the grocery store and walked out with strawberries, grapes, and apples.  Then to the dairy case for a couple of kinds of cheese.  We went with cheddar and mozzarella because I have some other recipes in mind that use those two types.

What you need to make fruit and cheese kebabs:

• One or two cheeses
• Different types of fruit
• Skewers
• Small cookie cutters

A little fruit, a little cheese, and a couple of skewers!

We used small cookie cutters to make our cheese and apples into fun star shapes.

Cut your fruit and cheese into bite-sized pieces that kids can help put on the kebabs.

Alternate fruit and cheese on your skewer for healthy fruit kebabs that kids love to eat.

What I Learned the Hard Way:  Your kid may be way more interested in just eating the fruit and cheese as you’re busy trying to make it look pretty.  This is a good thing, though.  It means she was actually enjoying a healthy snack!

I didn’t even know that some people called these candies peanut butter balls until recently.  My whole life, I’ve known them as Buckeyes.  I guess that’s not too surprising since they were my grandma’s specialty, and she was born in Ohio!  Grandma’s Buckeyes were delicious, but they were a little intimidating.  For one thing, you actually melted paraffin wax into the chocolate.  What?  I guess it made them shinier.

Luckily, I came upon this really simple recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  They were so easy (and delicious) that my preschooler and I ended up making a couple of batches during the holiday season last year.

Related Pages: No Bake Cookies, Anise Cookie Recipes

What you need to make buckeyes:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 Tbs. butter (softened)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips

Buckeyes (peanut butter balls) really only take four ingredients.

Mix the butter and peanut butter, then sift in the powdered sugar while continuing to mix.

Roll the mixture with your hands into 1" balls.

I started letting the peanut butter balls chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge to make the next part easier.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 20-second increments, pulling them out and stirring them before continuing to heat.

We used a whole bag of chocolate chips, and there was so much left over that we made a batch of chocolate spoons as gifts.

Insert a toothpick into each peanut butter ball and swirl it around in the chocolate until all but the center is covered. Gently shake of excess chocolate and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper to dry.

You can change this craft up for just about any holiday or occasion by altering the sprinkles and candy colors.

Credit for this chocolate spoon craft goes to Mr. P. at DelicousDeliciousDelicous.  His are absolutely beautiful, so I recommend you take a look over there, too.

Related Pages: No Bake Cookies Recipe, Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipes, Christmas Treats Coloring Pages

My three-year-old and I made these as party favors when it was my turn to host Bunco night at the house, but we also packed some up and took them to her teachers at preschool.  The idea was to use them to stir into your coffee, but I found that many of the ladies were perfectly content to just eat the goodies right off the spoon!

What you need to make this chocolate spoon craft:

• Plastic spoons
• Chocolate chips
• Sprinkles and/or small candies
• A book
• A bowl

My daughter is convinced that everything is better with sprinkles!

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. We did a few rounds at 30 seconds and a couple of follow-up rounds at 15 seconds.

Prop the spoon handles up with a book so that the bowl part is flat and the chocolate won't run out. We used a regular spoon to ladle the chocolate into the plastic ones.

Kids can help add sprinkles to the still-warm chocolate to make this edible craft fancier and tastier.

You can add candies to your chocolate spoons, too. We used M&Ms and Kisses.

One bag of chocolate chips makes a lot of spoons!

What I Learned the Hard Way:  It takes them a little while to set up, so don’t make them 15 minutes before the party starts.

We had a friend coming over recently, and she was so impressed by the fact that we had made cider for her.  She walked in the house and said it smelled “mulled.”  I asked what that was, and she told me she meant the way some people warm it with spices and everything.  So, I was all, “Yeah, that’s the kind we’re having.”  Seriously, I looked like a total Suzie Homemaker, and the whole process from start to finish took about ten minutes.

What You’ll Need to Make Homemade Mulled Apple Cider

• Apples – We used about a dozen (If you want to cheat and do really easy version, just use pre-made apple juice.  Your kid will totally not care.)
• Juicer
• Apple slicer or knife
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Cloves

I've looked into the difference between "apple juice" and "apple cider," and even though the juicer filters it to some degree, I'd say what comes out still qualifies as cider.

Wash your apples. If you happen to have a ladybug around, it makes this part more fun. ;-)

Slice your apples.

Run the apples through the juicer right into a sauce pan. Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and ground cloves.

I didn’t get a picture of it, but the spices left kind of a scum on top after the apple cider was warmed, so I just skimmed it off.

It tastes delicious and totally made my house smell like the holidays!

This homemade smoothie recipe is healthy and totally kid-approved.

When it comes to getting kids to eat healthfully, it’s not always easy.  Dot and I got to experimenting a while back and ended up making some awesome soothies.  She likes them so much that we went through quite an experience one night when she kept asking for “foovies,” and we had no idea what she was saying.  Now the whole family calls them foovies, and we have them all the time.

Related Pages: Non-Alcoholic Drink Recipes for Kids,Watermelon Recipes

There are tons of ways to make smoothies, but we like our version, and it’s even pretty healthy:

• 3/4 cup yogurt (we like fruit or vanilla)
• 3/4 cup frozen berries or fruit
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/2 banana

Everything in this yummy smoothie recipe is pretty healthy.

Blend the smoothie ingredients until...well...smooth.

I just recently tried freezing some of the smoothies in these popsicle molds I got from Tupperware, and they are a HUGE hit.

Smoothie popsicles are awesome!

Making no bake cookies with kids is fun.

Dot and I enjoy baking, but nothing gets requested as often as these yummy, yummy no-bake cookies.  Despite the fact that there’s a fair amount of sugar and butter, I try to tell myself that it’s offset by the oats and peanut butter, for a cookie that’s not entirely horrible for us.

To make no bake cookies, you will need:

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups minute oats

Ingredients for no bake cookie recipe

• Start by putting the milk, butter, sugar, and cocoa into a saucepan.
• Heat the mixture to boiling and let it boil for 1 1/2 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla.  (I put the peanut butter in first so it can melt before I add the oats.)

Boiling the no bake cookie mixture for 1 1/2 minutes is supposed to be the key to getting these to turn out just right.

The mixture will be very hot, so I usually have Dot watch me as I scoop spoonfuls out onto wax paper.  She then “helps” by flattening them down with a spatula.

This recipe makes about 36 no bake cookies.

What I Learned the Hard Way: Every once in a while, I get a batch of these that won’t quite firm up.  I have yet to figure out why, exactly.  What I have learned, however, is that you can put them in the freezer to harden them up, and they’re still totally delicious.  (Seriously, even if they’re just piles of goo on the wax paper, they’re totally delicious.)

Homemade Play Dough

This play dough recipe has been one of our best craft projects yet.  Dot has been known to play with it for literally HOURS during the day.  The hardest part is convincing her not to mix all of the colors together, but we do what we can, right?  The recipe itself is pretty easy, although I had a bit of a scare, as I figured I didn’t have cream of tartar around the house.  It turns out my husband had purchased some for something he made back at Thanksgiving, so we were able to add it in.  Apparently, it gives the play dough better elasticity.  (By the way, don’t let the number of pictures in this post make you think this is a complicated project.  It was actually really, really easy.  I just took a lot of pictures.)

Related Pages: Coloring Pages for Kids, Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes, Circus Crafts

Homemade Play Dough Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup (warm) water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• food coloring

Homemade play dough ingredients

Measure dry play dough ingredients into a saucepan

Play dough ingredients start out a little soupy

As you cook over medium heat, the play dough firms up, it only takes a few minutes

When the play dough is firm, take it out of the pan and knead it.  It’s probably not too hot, but check it just in case to make sure you or your kids don’t get burned.

Coloring your homemade play dough

I then cut the dough into six roughly equal pieces, one of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple)

Five drops of food coloring per play dough ball

I placed each ball into a plastic bag and then kneaded it to get the color to spread evenly.  To get the colors, try this.

• Red = 5 drops of red
• Orange = 3 drops of yellow, two drops of red
• Yellow = 5 drops of yellow
• Green = 5 drops of green (or three drops of yellow and two drops of blue)
• Blue = 5 drops of blue
• Purple = 3 drops of blue, two drops of red

You can also make your play dough smell good by adding things like peppermint extract, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc.  I added banana extract to the yellow, but apparently I needed more, as we couldn’t smell it when all was said and done.

Make scented play dough

A play dough rainbow!

Keep your play dough in an airtight container, and it will last quite a while.  We’ve had ours for about two weeks, and it’s still in pretty good condition!

What I Learned the Hard Way: Mixing the color into the play dough is harder than it looks.  The majority of the time we spent making the dough revolved around mixing in the color.  You can make all of your dough a single color by adding the food coloring to the mixture before you heat it, but I wanted to have lots of colors and think it was worth the extra work.

Related Pages: Healthy Pasta Recipe for Kids, Applesauce Recipe for Kids, Watermelon Salsa Recipe

Chili Mac Recipe Kids Will Love

Chili Mac Ingredients

This recipe makes a big batch with plenty of leftovers for freezing. A half recipe will easily feed a family of 6.

Brown the ground turkey or beef and drain off the fat.

Add the chopped peppers, celery and onion and sauté until just-soft.

Pour into large stock pot and add the cans of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and black beans. Stir.

Add the seasonings – cumin, taco sauce, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, oregano and onion salt. Stir and simmer for 15 minutes.

Cook pasta separately according to the package directions. Drain, do not rinse, and add to the large stock pot, stirring thoroughly.

Serve with shredded cheese and cornbread… yummm…  Actually, it’s so filling you may not even need the cornbread!

More Recipes Kids Will Love

Homemade Sports Drink Mix

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Red Hot Applesauce Recipe

Slow Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches

While these are great summer drink recipes for kids, I’m going to be pulling this page out again later for Christmas parties and for New Years Eve drinks for the kids, too!

Related Pages: Easy Summer Kids Recipes, Peanut Butter and Jelly Recipes, Summer Birthday Party Games

Check out all of our kid-friendly recipes while you are here!

For how pretty this cake looks, it is surprisingly easy. You could also change up the frosting/colored sugar colors to make this flower cake look like a sunflower. Use chocolate sprinkles for the center!

Easy Flower Cake

What You Need to Make This Easy Flower Cake

Flower Cake Pans

A standard round cake pan

Heart mold pan (this one is silicone)

Cake mix or a killer cake recipe

Store bought frosting or a to die for frosting recipe (I kid you not – this frosting is TO. DIE. FOR.)

Colored sugar (or make your own with sugar and food coloring (instructions below), or colored frosting)

Zippered plastic bags to make colored sugar, or to use instead of a pastry bag.

Optional - shallow 3″ round cake mold for leaves (you can also just halve a heart cupcake for the same effect)

Optional - pastry bag

How to Make this Flower Cake

Simply mix up your cake batter, and cook it in the following molds:

1 round cake form.

12 heart cupcakes, filled low so that they don’t lose their shape and pop over the top of the pan.

2 shallow round cakes, or two more heart cupcakes, cut in half to make 4 leaves.

You should have enough with one cake mix. But I used both chocolate and vanilla cake for mine, because a large family is hard to please with one flavor!

Once complete, your cooked cake pieces should look like this:

Unfrosted Flower Cake

I then frosted only the tops of the cake pieces. For the yellow center, you could use yellow frosting, or I frosted mine with regular white frosting, then dusted it heavily with colored yellow sugar. Do this before you put the leaves and petals on the plate.

How to Make Colored Sugar

This is so easy you probably don’t need directions. Put about a cup of sugar into a zippered plastic bag, and add a few drops of food coloring. Give it to the kids to play with as they mix the coloring with the sugar. Add different colors mixed together to get various shades of yellow and green, or whatever color you want to make! Add more food coloring as necessary to get your desired color saturation.

WARNING: Even if you put a whole bottle of red food coloring into the bag, it will not be as red as the colored sugar you can buy in the  store.

Yes, I found that one out the hard way.

Flower Cake Assembly

To make the flower cake leaves, frost the tops of your half rounds, or half hearts. Then dip the tops into colored sugar. Again, you could just use green frosting for this part as well. I just had the colored sugar leftover from Christmas and really needed a reason to use it up!

Put the heart petal shapes around the cake before you frost them.

To pipe the frosting onto the flower petals, you could use a pastry bag with a fluted tip. I couldn’t find mine and was in a HUGE rush to finish. So I just used a zippered plastic bag with the corner cut off.

WARNING: DO NOT use cheap zipper bags for this. They pop open. The good news is that if this happens, it’s fairly easy to dump the frosting into another bag. And then pray that one doesn’t break, either.

Yes, I found that one out the hard way, too.

More Flower Party Ideas

Flower garden birthday party ideas

Dirt cake recipe

Make adorable flower streamers

Easy flower cupcakes

Kids flower crafts