cute & healthy kid party treats
My son loves rainbows. He’s a very colorful boy. For his fourth birthday, his preschool asked that we bring a “healthy” snack such as fresh fruit to share with his classmates, rather than the usual sugar-loaded birthday treat, cupcakes. Combining my kid’s love of rainbows and fruit, I came up with the idea of making rainbow fruit “pops.”
Instead of sharp bamboo skewers, I used Chinese take-out chopsticks that I’d been hoarding for no purpose, until now. The chopsticks proved to be the perfect implement. They are the right length for a kid’s snack. Plus, the tip is not sharp, but pointy enough to pierce the fruit, and the wider end of the chopstick keeps the fruit from falling off.
These fruit pops are fun and easy enough for a 4 year old to make. I was sous chef and cut the fruit into bite-size pieces and put them into separate bowls for each color: red watermelon, orange clementines, golden mango, pale yellow banana, green kiwi, indigo blueberries, and purple grapes. Being a rainbow expert, my son didn’t need help putting the fruit on the sticks in the proper sequence. He was also quick to correct me if I skipped a color or put them in the wrong order, just like a crotchety Michelin-starred chef.
For my son’s birthday party at home, I made a fruit platter arranged into a rainbow. There were two spaces in the top corners of the tray, which I filled with tiny marshmallow “clouds.” It took more effort than I anticipated as I underestimated the physics involved in stacking all that fruit into a semi-circular formation. I managed to keep it together long enough until the first guest helped herself to some fruit and it all came tumbling down. Rainbows don’t last forever.
-Catherine Lo
*This article was also posted on Elizabeth Street.
poche de maman 