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Macaroni Menu: Flower and Bug Snack Ideas

By Kyrie Collins, Highlands Ranch-Parker-Castle Rock-Lone Tree Publisher June 7, 2017

After consulting with my most creative friends, scouring the pictures on Pinterest, and experimenting quite a bit, we've come up with a few ideas for incorporating our garden theme into your next lunch or snack time. My boys and I had so much fun getting creative and making these together.

Garden Scene (pictured above):
This was almost too cute to eat ... almost! Turns out it was all quite delicious, and surprisingly easy to prepare.

  • To make the flowers, we used cucumber slices, halved cherry tomatoes, and celery stalks and leaves for the flower stem.
  • The ladybug was made from Mini Babybel Semisoft Cheese. We simply pulled the strip off and then used a reusable plastic straw to poke holes in the wax.
  • For the butterfly, we spread some peanut butter across a cored, halved apple and inserted two Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps for the wings (regular pretzels were too heavy and wouldn't stand up).
  • We used Pillsbury® Place 'n' Bake Crescent Rounds to make the snail. We unrolled the round just a little and smooshed the end back to make the head of the snail. We sprinkled a cinnamon-sugar mixture onto the "shell" of the snail to make it a little darker than the body. Originally, we inserted raisins for eyes before baking, but the rounds puffed up during baking and pushed the raisins out, so I had to press them back in as soon as the rounds came out of the oven while the dough was still soft.



Meat and Cheese Flower:
We rolled up sliced turkey and American cheese in a flatbread (a tortilla would work too) and then sliced to make pinwheels. We added apple slices for the flowers and a stalk of celery for the stem. Everything we need for a nutritious snack!



Butterfly Snack Bag:
This is a great one for the lunchbox when the kids go back to school! Start with a snack-size plastic zipper bag. Fill one side with Goldfish or other small crackers and the other side with raisins, Craisins, blueberries, or grapes. Close the bag. Twist a pipe cleaner around the middle of the bag to create "wings." Color a clothespin with marker or glitter glue, draw a smiley face or add googly eyes, and clip on the clothespin to make a "body" for your butterfly. Twirl the ends of the pipe cleaner for the antennae!



Ants on a Log:
When I was little, my mom used to make this snack with celery, cream cheese, and currants. My guys don't like cream cheese and celery strings can pose a choking hazard for very young children, so we sliced a banana lengthwise and topped it with peanut butter and dried cranberries. After I created this, my little guy said, "Wow, Mom, you're good!" High praise indeed!


Fruit Flowers:

We really got to get creative and try a few different ideas with this one using the fruit we had in our house already. We discovered that halved strawberries and cored and sliced apples make great petals. Sliced oranges and kiwi work perfectly to make the center. Blueberries are delicious and colorful so obviously we had to incorporate them too! Just wash and slice up whatever is in your fridge and try a variety of combinations.


Butterflies:

By far the easiest! Two Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps topped with a blackberry.