Kids in the Kitchen – Week 1: Fruit Snakes

Although I don’t have kids, I do love cooking, and as part of my “What do I want to teach the world?” mission, I decided that this is a worthy passion to pass on, especially to the next generation. However, kids don’t typically read blogs, so I’m approaching this from a more proactive angle. This week, I set out on a children-oriented cooking journey at my favorite charitable organization, Shepherd Community Center.

Shepherd has one simple goal: breaking the cycle of poverty. One of their main tools in tackling this mission is a private, Christian school with next-to-nothing tuition for grades K-5. The students from the surrounding inner-city community just started their 2014-2015 school year and signed up for after-school clubs. This is where I come in!

Over the next 6 weeks, I will be leading a kid-friendly cooking class for Shepherd students in grades 1-3. I’m focusing on presenting healthy foods (discernable to them as God-made versus man-made) in a fun way and creating sanitary kitchen habits. We started this week with a slimy yet succulent fruit snake.

The Pinterest-inspired concept was simple enough. Each child received a banana and a few strawberries to begin. After the important task of washing both our hands and our fruit, we peeled and sliced everything into thin pieces (using plastic knives, of course) and placed alternating banana and strawberry slices in a curling line along our plates. Most kids got this without an issue, although some complained about the “gooeyness” of the banana. Tip: Have food preparation gloves handy in case your kids fall into this category.

The hardest part for the kids was the head. We needed to cut a triangular slice out of the pointed end of a whole strawberry. This proved almost impossible for the kids, so Miss Victoria happily cut 12 snake heads. We thinned out the strawberry scraps from the mouth slit to make the tongue.

The best part, surprisingly, was the finishing touch: blueberry eyes. We placed two toothpicks in our strawberry head, stuck a blueberry on each end, and the screams started. “Eeeeewwwww!” “Gross! Look at the googly eyes.” “Ahhh! It's is a real snake!” The kids were delightedly disgusted with this final step, I suppose because at that point it did, indeed, resemble a snake. 
Note: Most of the toothpicks were a little long, so I would recommend cutting one toothpick in half instead of using two whole toothpicks.

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If you are looking for a way to encourage your kids to eat healthier foods or just a fun activity to do on a Saturday afternoon, take a shot at this easy fruit reptile! For the duration of the 6 weeks I’ll post each new kid-friendly recipe we try with tips and ideas on improvement.

Fruit Snake Recipe (yields 1 snake)

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 3-5 strawberries 
• 2 blueberries
• 1 toothpick, cut in half

Directions:

1. Slice banana. 
2. Set one whole strawberry aside. Slice remaining strawberries.
3. Place strawberry slices between banana slices, alternating every other one. 
4. Remove strawberry hull from remaining strawberry. Place strawberry flat side down and slice a triangle wedge out of pointed end. 
5. Trim this wedge into one thin line, and place perpendicular inside strawberry opening. 
6. Place a blueberry on the end of each toothpick piece and stick the exposed ends on the whole strawberry above mouth slit. 

Bon Appetit, 
        Victoria