Care.com – an insightful parenting informational resource requested if they could provide a guest post on the Dr. Karen Ruskin – Relationship, Parenting and Mental Health Expert blog. I must admit, what a wonderful feeling it is to know that as a Marriage and Family Therapist, my relationship and parenting expertise and blog has become so popular to where such a respected and known website asked if they could have the opportunity to post on my website. Upon reading the article uniquely created for my site, I knew my readers would find it informative and helpful. Thus, my answer to the request was a whopping yes. Below you will find this to-the-point article entitled: 9 Healthy Kid Birthday Party Recipes, written by: Katie Bugbee; the senior managing editor and resident parenting expert of Care.com. Katie reports she is a busy working mother of two, and an expert on many parenting dilemmas, from appeasing picky eaters to finding the perfect babysitter. The 9 healthy recipes sound yummy to me, and I am talking not just as a parenting expert, I am talking as a parent and just for my own snacking enjoyment!
9 Healthy Kid Birthday Party Recipes
By: Katie Bugbee
With kids come birthday parties – endless birthday parties. And there just never seems to be a party that doesn’t come with pizza and cake. But weekend after weekend, this not only becomes monotonous for the kids, but unhealthy too. Plus, it’s just so tempting to pick up an extra slice when you’re lingering around the food table!
Here are some fun, yet healthful options for kid party snacks. Serve some on the side of the ol’ pizza-standby, or create a buffet-type table and let the kids fill their plates – and bellies — with these festive finger-foods.
- Apples with Cinnamon Sugar: Slice various types of apples into small slivers and place in a bowl. Squeeze natural lemon juice over the apples so they don’t brown and top with cinnamon sugar. Serve in small colorful cups.
- Carrots and Cukes in a Cup: Put a dollop of kid-favorite dip or salad dressing in the bottom of a small plastic cup. Add finger-sized sticks of carrots and cucumbers so they peek out of the cup.
- Light Cream Cheese and Strawberry Bites: Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of raisin bread. Then spread cream cheese and sliced strawberries on the bread, for open-faced fruit sandwiches.
- Real Juicy Popsicles: Take real fruit juice and chopped/crushed fruit, mix together and place in popsickle molds. Freeze and pass out with cake. It might just distract the kids from wanting to eat their cake!
- Banana and Sun Butter Toasties: Create or buy toast points and spread them with sun butter (good alternative to nut butters). Then place apples or bananas on top. Add raisins (dipped in a bit of nut butter to stick) for eyes and noses to be cute.
- Fruit Kabobs: Use a melon baller to create balls of cantaloupe and watermelon. Add grape-halves, Clementines and strawberry-halves, and slide on a wooden skewer. Be sure to clip the skewer-point before serving.
- Mini Smoothies: Take non-fat Greek yogurt and mixtures of fruits and berries such as raspberries, strawberries and oranges (hide some spinach in the mix for more iron and vitamins). Blend with ice or added fruit juice and pour into small Dixie-type cups. Top with blueberries and a snazzy drink umbrella for decoration.
- Fish School: Take stalks of celery and fill them with either hummus or an all-natural cheese spread your kids enjoy. Top with goldfish crackers (cheese flavored if using cheese spread, pretzel flavored if using hummus). Now you have a nut-free modern take on Ants on a Log.
- A Real Fruit Cake: A great healthy-cake option if you’re already serving ice cream, or having a sundae-making party. Take a watermelon and cut off the sides, leaving you with a nice pink rectangle. Cut this in half for a square base and add the other square on top, to create a watermelon tower. Decorate top and sides with slices of pineapple (create flower shapes with cookie cutters if you’re up for it), alternating with strawberries. Use toothpicks to hold everything together (just make sure to take them out before serving the kids!). For added flair, stick fruit skewers (see above) out of the watermelon and give kids both a skewer and a “slice” of cake.