Help Your Kids Get Creative

Though summer’s more than half over, your little ones may have a few weeks left at home before heading back to school. With temperatures soaring and boredom waxing, what’s a parent to do? If you’re up for a project, you can try passing the afternoon by mixing up one of our favorite kids’ recipes. All of these dishes are simple and customizable for individual tastes. Perfect!

1)      Mix up a batch of trail mix. Little ones love making and eating trail mix because they can add whatever they want! Allow them to choose from selections of dried fruit, nuts, baking chips and cereal to create their own custom mix. Portion out the trail mix into individual containers and store it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh. It makes a great on-the-go snack for day camp, play group or even errand-running.

2)      Give peanut butter play dough a go! You might remember this sticky-sweet mixture of peanut butter, honey and powdered milk from your childhood. It’s delicious as well as entertaining! To make a batch, mix 2 cups of peanut butter with 3 tbsp. of honey and about 1 cup of powdered milk. Use it to make sculptures on wax paper, but be sure to set some aside to snack on. If your child is allergic to peanut butter, you can substitute other types of nut butters such as soy, sunflower or almond butter.

3)      Try your hand at no-bake cookies. No-bake cookies, which are set in the refrigerator instead of baked in the oven, are a special sweet dessert that are easy enough for even little hands to mix up (with a bit of help if the stove is involved). We highly recommend this Food Network recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies. If you want, you can throw in a little something extra, such as a handful of salty roasted peanuts or some sweet dark raisins.