Fun with Food: Ants on a Log
If you are working on increasing comfort around textures and foods, this quick and fun recipe is a must! Your child’s involvement in this food creation will depend on whether or not they are already familiar with the foods used. It is important that you do not force your child to touch or taste the food if they choose not to. They can always observe you making this and listen to you describe smells, tastes, and textures. This will help your child to trust you when it comes to fun in the kitchen and around food in general.
For this fun snack, you will need:
A banana
Mini Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter or Allergy Friendly Butter
Child-friendly knife or the back of a spoon.
Directions:
Peel the banana and lay it on a plate.
Place a dollop of peanut butter onto the banana and spread it across the top of the fruit. This will leave it looking like a “ log”
Individually start placing the mini chocolate chips onto the peanut butter. These are our “ants”.
Last, use a knife to gently cut the banana into slices.
If your child is ready, use a fork or food pick to pick up a slice to smell, lick, taste, or eat it.
Fun tips during this food activity:
Play music songs as “ The Ants Go Marching”, “ Peanut Butter and Jelly”, “ Apples and Bananas”, and/or “Are you Hungry?”
Use other items such as apple slices or celery. You can also use raisins instead of chocolate chips.
Model some descriptive words when exploring the textures. ( i.e. soft, sweet, salty, sticky, smooth, etc. )
If your child is not at the point when they want to consume the food, get them excited to make it for someone else.
Enjoy exploring in the kitchen!