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SATURDAY MORNING SNACKS

When we were kids, Saturday mornings were a time of indolent luxury. We would make ourselves a plateful of ‘Special Snacks’ and spend the morning in our pyjamas watching cartoons or reading comics. Our kids are too young yet for comics, but they do love their cartoons and these snacks!

Ants on a Log

Celery sticks
Cheese spread or peanut butter
Raisins

Wash and dry the celery sticks, cut each into three or four pieces. Don’t tell your kids this is a healthy food, whatever you do! These are tall trees and you’re chopping them into logs for the giant children to eat. That’s your story; stick to it.
Spread the cheese spread or peanut butter in the hollow of each celery piece.
Put a row of raisins on top of the filler. Each child can add his or her own ‘ants’ to save arguments over how many should be on each log and how far apart they should be.

Toast Fingers

2 slices multi-grain bread (thick sliced is best)
Margarine (optional)
Soft honey

Toast the bread
Spread lightly with margarine, if the kids insist on it. Spread with honey.
Cut the toast into strips about an inch wide.

For some reason, our kids are convinced that toast fingers taste WAY better than toast slices simply cut in half. They also insist that the topping for these fingers has to be honey. We nod and smile.

Mini-pizzas

Round crackers (preferably multi-grain)
Processed cheese spread or cheese slices
A thick spaghetti sauce or salsa that your kids like
Leftovers (optional)

Arrange a single layer of crackers on a plate. Spread each with a thin layer of cheese spread, or cut thin processed cheese slices into squares and place one on each cracker. Blob a little sauce or salsa on top of the cheese.
These can be topped with bits of whatever goodies are in the fridge – small chunks of luncheon meat, left-over cooked hamburger or shrimp, peas, broccoli, mushrooms, apple or pineapple chunks, or, if your kids are creative, chopped pickles, mini-marshmallows, jelly beans and other ick factor foods. Don’t let them talk you into adding ice cream; this has been tried and does NOT work. If you have it, a few shreds of mozza cheese can be sprinkled over the top of the ‘pizzas’.

Put the plate in the microwave and nuke for a few seconds, just long enough to melt the cheese and heat the toppings. Serve warm.

This recipe works well for (small) birthday parties, where the guests can each be given a paper plate of crackers and a selection of toppings to make their own pizzas. Warning: there will be a mess to clean up after! The dog will be happy, though.