How high on the Mom Coolness Scale do you think you’d rank if you told your children it was time to play with their food? Well, playing with food is just what this Fun with Food article making veggie animals and people is all about! This activity is a great way to let your children express their inner artists, while inspiring them to eat a healthful snack.

My kids and I had a blast making our funny Veggie Animals and People, and they each wanted to make more than one. This activity made us giggle, and everyone wanted to gobble all those healthful bits right up. Score another one for Mom!

And if you want to throw a little learnin’ in there too, why not spend some time looking at some of the astonishing vegetable paintings of Italian Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo while munching on your creations? Buon appetito!

Veggie Animals and People

Ingredients

various cheeses, cut in small blocks and other shapes
baby carrots
grape and regular tomatoes – leave the stems for hair
small zucchini, cut in rounds and sticks
yellow squash, cut in rounds and sticks
sliced olives
celery spears
miniature pickles
bell peppers
broccoli florets
garlic cloves
raisins, almonds and cheese for eyes and mouths
toothpicks and skewers

Directions

1) Start by threading several veggie pieces onto a skewer. This will be the torso.

2) Use toothpicks to attach edible arms, legs and head.

3) Use cheese for eyes and mouths

4) Older kids can use kitchen scissors to snip small pieces off veggies and cheese to make hair or facial features.

5) If you want your people to be able to stand up, just stick the end of the skewer into a small block of cheese or use three toothpicks to create a stable base.

Patti Brown is a homeschooling mom of three. Patti and her daughter, Abbie, blog at Blossoms and Posies. There they write about home skills, recipes, crafting, and more. Be sure to stop by to visit and let them know that you found out about them on the Hip Homeschool Moms site! You can also find Patti on the Build a Menu site, an online menu planning service.