Toddler Snacktivity: Fruit Pizza

Since I had plans to take the kids to Jennifer’s work on Saturday afternoon - timed post-nap and after the end of Jennifer’s last lesson – I wanted to stay close to home that morning and do an inter/activity that would kill about an hour and cover a mid-morning snack (and playfully address Mateo’s occasional sensitivities to certain textures, and work on their fine motor skills. There, I admit that I had Type A motivations, even if it is in parenthesis.)

The solution? Fruit Pizza followed by Finger Pudding Races!

MATERIALS

• Fresh fruit, 1 cup
• Yogurt, ½ cup
• Whipped cream cheese, 2 tablespoons
• Pie Crust roll, 1 roll
• Cookie cutters
• Spatulas or other toddler friendly spreaders
• A pan (any will do, as long as it sides at least ½ inch to contain the contents)
• Pudding
• Plenty of stuff to clean up with. Like, PLENTY.

PREPARATION (30 minutes) - (Or 3 HOURS, in this case, but that’s a whole different conversation detailing why you should always bar your significant other from OPENING A JAMMED CLOSET DOOR IN THE ROOM OF A SLEEPING BABY!)

When the kids are a little older, or when we at least have a few “cooking” experiences under our belt together, they can actually assist in any of the following steps. However, given this was their first rodeo and they are 21 months, and because I wanted to keep their interest during the actual process of assembling the pizza, I did this stuff the night before.

1. Cut fruit and store in refrigerator. We always have fresh fruit on hand and I washed and sliced strawberries the night before, and washed some blueberries, putting them into separate small bowls and placing in the refrigerator. I also cut up a banana but didn’t do that until right before we got started the next morning.

2. Prepare the “icing”. I made the “icing” by combining ½ cup of Greek yogurt and 2 tbsp of whipped cream cheese and blended by hand in a small bowl. I then covered in wrap and put it in the refrigerator.

3. Make the “crust”. I made the “crust” using 1 roll of those Pillsbury Pie Crusts. These are pretty thin when unrolled, so I balled it up and then hand pressed it to about 1/8 inch. I then used cookie cutters to cut into shapes (I used a dinosaur and a butterfly that I purchased for $1 each from one of my favorite stores, Sur La Table). I then baked for 12-15 minutes and stored in a container until the next morning.

ASSEMBLY

When it was time to make our pizzas, I wiped down the counters, pulled up the Learning Tower, and we all washed our hands. I then pulled out the previously prepared icing and containers of fruit out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter. I let them help me cut the fresh banana slices (with a butter knife for now). Before I handed over their crust shapes, I demonstrated how to spread the icing, placed a few fruit pieces on my pizza, then let them put a few fruit slices on my pizza as well. We all took a bite and it was yummy.

I then gave each of them a crust and spreader, at which point Mateo placed the plastic knife on the counter, took a bite of his crust, and scooped up half the blueberries and jammed them into his gullet. Harper dipped her crust directly into the yogurt/cream cheese mix. We tried with more crusts and they started to get a hang of the process and they seemed to rather enjoy spreading the icing on their pizzas even if it was all over the place.

FINGER PUDDING RACES

After making and eating their snacks, I pulled out the pudding and square dish and a couple spoons just in case. Mateo does not like wet textures these days and I had read somewhere that a good activity for the sensory sensitive is to put pudding into a pan and let them run their fingers and hands in it.

At first, he wouldn’t do it, but after I showed him how and after I started doing “vroom vroom! And Beep! Beep!” my fingers against Harper’s in the pudding road, and because he loves cars, he joined in. For this, I used sugar-free chocolate pudding, something they had never had. Harper fell in love on first bite.

In all, we spent about an hour playing. This was the first time they had used the Learning Tower and they loved it. I am certain as they get older and can safely assist in food preparation, having this piece will become a integral part of our kitchen. All in all, our mid-morning activity was a success ! How can that be when they didn’t make a proper pizza? Because we were never shooting for perfection and because they had fun and because they got a snack and because it burned an hour!

I love to cook and I look forward to sharing this passion with our children.

Comments

[LauraC]

Gotta say, we got our boys in the kitchen very early and now they help every night with dinner and clean up. I am not afraid to admit I saved the messiest meals for the day before the cleaners come.

I did however have a very "OMFG I AM A YUPPY!" moment when Nate asked last week, "Can I be sous chef after you get your grande mocha?"

[Kate]

I love it and will let you know how my 2 year old likes it. Great idea.

[Kate]

I can't get the learning tower here ... looks great thou.

[Amy]

okay, gotta ask...does 1 learning tower work for the two of them? Our girls are just a month younger than H + M, and love to "help" in the kitchen, usually "cook, cook, cook" as soon as I get home from work. I was bummed because I figured that we would need 2 learning towers, and our kitchen is just not that big. However if you tell me otherwise...

[Lara]

Thanks for the suggestions. We have been "cutting" up bananas for awhile but never tried fruit pizza that will be our next snowy day activity.