Play with your Food!

Lehigh Valley Marketplace Magazine
By Jewels Quelly

Although the season is halfway over and we dread the return of the school year, sometimes boredom gets the better of us and we find ourselves (and the children in our lives!) singing those summertime blues? What to do when you’ve got the blues? Select a fun project that leaves nary a trace. Play with your food!

Pick-Your-Own-Fruit and/or Vegetables

Not only is this a great way for the youngsters to burn all that energy and enjoy some fresh air, it’s a terrific way to educate them in an outdoor classroom. Demonstrate that before the peaches get to the store, a local farmer plants and tends the trees. Part of the farmer’s reward is a crop of delicious fruit. Explain that there are many factors affecting the outcome of the crop and by supporting local, sustainable agriculture many folks benefit. Besides, nothing tastes better than a local peach kissed by sunshine. Use them to make a pie or your own ice cream.

Food Arts and Crafts

Graham Cracker Mosaics
Using peanut butter and/or pre-packaged icing (Betty Crocker is the stickiest and best for this project), glue assorted cookies, candies and sprinkles onto graham crackers for edible works of art.

Create a Garden of Eatin’

Cookie cutters and clean craft scissors are the tools you’ll use to cut shapes out of fruit leather. The shapes then get rolled loosely around each other and pinched at the bottom to form beautiful blossoms. Decorate with fruit leather leaves on licorice vines.

Sculpt a Masterpiece

Knead tootsie rolls in warm hands and they become edible modeling clay. We’ve provided two recipes below for you to prepare your own sculpting materials.

 TOOTSIE ROLL RECIPE  

2 Tablespoons butter
2 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup Karo light syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup dry milk
3 cup powdered sugar

Melt butter and chocolate together. Add syrup, vanilla, and milk. Knead in the powdered sugar with your hands until dough is shiny. Roll into 3/4 inch rolls. Cut and wrap in wax paper. Makes about 100 or so depending on size.

Note: This recipe can be prepared and then used as edible modeling clay.
Source: cooks.com

Peanut Butter Play Dough
You will need:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups dry powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Beat all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth.
Chill in the refrigerator at least 3 hours.
Place wax paper down on a table and let the kids play with the dough!
Kids can make shapes and work the dough like regular play dough.
Keep the peanut butter play dough in a plastic storage bag and store it in the refrigerator. Discard after 2 weeks.
Source: mommytips.com

For Kids of all ages: Shake your own Ice Cream

Aside from assembling the ingredients, this delicious project takes only about 5 minutes before everyone is screaming for ice cream. The project can also be made in a clean 1-pound coffee can inside a 3-pound coffee can which can then be rolled on the ground. Don’t forget to wear your mittens.
 
1 tablespoon Sugar
1/2 cup Milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
6 tablespoons Rock salt
1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
Ice cubes

 Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!
Source: kidsdomain.com