Friday, May 31, 2019

Snacks


Summer will come eventually. I hope.

I was thinking last night about summer when my children were small. Other children often came to our yard to play. Nieces and nephews were at our house. Then came my grandchildren. We often had the yard filled with children.

When the weather is hot children need to have something to drink. And they are always hungry. It can be expensive to keep them in snacks.

Water is the best thing to drink but the kids like something with more flavor. Kool-Aid and other drinks like that work well.

Another good trick is to freeze Kool-Aid for a cooling and wet snack. Just pour the drink into ice cube trays or small paper cups. Popsicle sticks are usually available at the dollar store. Put one in each cube or cup. As the liquid freezes the sticks are frozen into it. Nice handles. Some people use toothpicks but they are sharp and I do not recommend them.

There are many snacks that are easy to make. One of my favorites is graham crackers and frosting. You can either buy cans of frosting or make your own with confectioner's sugar, butter, vanilla, and a touch of milk. Spread a generous amount of frosting on a graham cracker. Then cover it with another graham cracker. They are quite filling. You can use saltines too but they are not quite as good.

Popcorn is inexpensive. Make up a bunch and give it to the children. I can tell you ahead of time that they will probably have a popcorn fight and throw it all over the yard. It hurts nothing. Birds and animals will eat up whatever falls before the next morning.

If you feel especially energetic you can make Kiddie Cookies. Pie crust is cut into pieces. I used the cut off pieces of pies I was making. Put them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar. Bake them for a few minutes until they are golden brown. They are crispy and sweet.

Core an apple and cut it into wedges. Put a dollop of peanut butter where the core used to be. They are so good. One apple goes a long way so you will not have to use too many. You can also fill them with soft cheese or even fluffy marshmallow.

These are just a few ideas. It makes child'splay fun and your time a little easier.

17 comments:

  1. I have done most of those things for my children, their friends, and my grandchildren. Now half are in college and the others are not far behind. I miss those days.

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  2. OMG, I ate all these things when I was a kid. Graham crackers with frosting was always a big hit. And we got to frost our own, so it also gave us something to do.

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    1. Exactly. Keep kids busy and full and they will all be happy.

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  3. Hope you are well, have a good weekend Diane

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  5. Those were the days. A favorite snap shot is my daughters and a load of friends sitting on the ground and eating cookies.

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  6. Reading about floods and torrential rains, Emma, I hope all is OK in your area. I remember my mother making Kool Aid in the summer and apples and peanut butter are still a favorite snack of mine. We would also put peanut butter on graham crackers, but never tried frosting.

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    1. Fields across the highway from me have been flooded since before the snow was completely gone. They are predicting that the flooding will last most of the summer. I never had peanut butter on graham crackers but it sounds good.

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  7. these are nice ideas dear Emma!

    my mom used to make us lemonade during summer
    she would add some brown sugar and bit colorful drink to make it look more attractive

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    1. Lemonade sounds so refreshing. I ordered some lemonade at a fair once. It had so much sugar in it that I could not drink it. I prefer the tart taste of the lemon.

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  8. Your list is almost exactly like the ones I had as a child! And made for my own children.
    Graham crackers are the best.

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    1. I guess we all learned from our mothers. They were a pretty smart bunch.

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  9. Dear Emma, in Berlin we have 33 degrees Celsius for days - so water is a wonderful drink (and it doesn't make children fat). An apple is nourishing and delicious!

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    1. Water is my de=rink of choice with an occasional iced tea. You are so right/

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