[Flamenco Lady]

Children love to make their own treats and after school snacks and cream cheese is one of those great foods that can easily make bite size snacks kids can make themselves. My children used to make these with me in the kitchen as appetizers and finger foods for holiday gatherings, game day parties, after school snacks, etc.

Using softened cream cheese mixed with one or more of the following ingredients, roll into balls (so the children can play with the food). These combinations also make great spreads to serve with crackers if you don’t want to roll it into balls. The finished balls can be rolled in other ingredients as well for a pretty presentation, so I will list some of our favorites below.

Ingredients for combining with the cream cheese (use one or more)

Black olives, green olives, stuffed olives, or just about any kind of olive or even an olive tapinade as long as it is drained of any excess liquid.

Diced pimentos, or any finely diced peppers (jalepenos are great for a spicy version)

Any thinly sliced and chopped lunch meat

Any kind of shredded cheese

Any kind of pickles finly chopped and drained of extra juice.

Crumbled Bacon

Vegetables such as finely chopped celery, carrots, onion or even zucchini

Pickled vegetables finely chopped and drained of excess liquid

Ideas for rolling the balls:

Sessame seeds

Chopped nuts

Crushed crackers

Crushed pork rinds

Crushed potato or tortilla chips

Crushed dry cereal (not sweet ones but Corn flakes and cheerios and chex work well)

Finely chopped herbs such as parsley, dill, or basil or a combination of your favorite fresh herbs

[bgill]

Here are two afterschool snacks or Halloween party treats.

Olive Spiders:

Make skinny carrot sticks. Take three sticks for the legs and stuff them into a large pitted black olive so they make 6 legs (yes, spiders have 8 legs).

Take a round white paper plate and draw a spider web on it to serve your spiders on.

Ear Wax on a Q-tip:

Put a few drops of green food color into Cheeze Whiz and stir it to make the ear wax. Or use peanut butter.

Put mini marshmallows on the ends of small stick pretzels to make the Q-tips. Dip the Q-tips into the ear wax!