Hidden Valley® Veggie Critter Snacks Recipe for a Fun Afternoon

I love the Twittermoms challenges and look forward to them all.   This challenge is with Hidden Valley®, vegetables and your little one's imagination!  If you want to try your hand at it, click here and join in on the fun!  We moved into a health kick and although we aren't altogether there yet, we have been purchasing more fruits and vegetables.  With that, it's always a struggle to get the girls to eat more so creating this was fun and did get them engaged in having a healthy snack.


Here is what you need:

• 1 packet Hidden Valley® The Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
• 2 8 oz. tubs reduced fat cream cheese
• Romaine lettuce
• A couple of strawberries
• Grapes
• Carrots
• Celery

You can use a wide variety of chopped, colorful vegetables such as: asparagus, cherry tomatoes, crinkle cut carrots, baby carrots, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber, eggplant, shredded carrots and olives

For our recipe of Jamie's Veggie-Fruity Fun, here are the instructions:

1. Add the seasoning mix to the cream cheese.
2. Stir until well combined.  This is a fun step for the kiddies as they love to mix and stir and get things on their hands!
3. Cut the romaine leaves into butterfly shapes (with mom's help)
4. Use two small strips of celery and place a layer of the Hidden Valley® mixture to add flavor and to stay in place as the antennas of the butterfly.
5. Use the Hidden Valley® mixture again to place a grape on each end of the antenna. 
6. Shred the lettuce on top of the butterfly template to create a little salad.  Another fun step as what kid doesn't like to shred things?
7. Cut up pieces of carrots and add dabs of the Hidden Valley® mixture to the underside to help them stay in place and give them more flavor.
8. For the flower, take a strawberry and cut into four sections without fully cutting through the strawberry.  Pull the four sections back slightly and place some of the Hidden Valley® mixture in the middle of the strawberry and place a grape in the middle. 
9. Add a piece of celery for the stem with a line of the Hidden Valley® mixture along the stem.

Optional:  Add raisins or Hidden Valley® ranch dress to spruce up the salad or eat as is for more of a finger food. 


This is such a wonderful idea to get your children involved in eating healthier and preparing them for a better future with seeing how cooking with vegetables and fruits are fun!

Have any great ideas yourself?  I'm always looking for fun, new ideas to share with my kids who just happen to love to cook!

Disclaimer:  This post is part of a blogging contest from the TwitterMoms community. There is a chance this post could be selected to win a $25 AmEx Gift Card, so wish me luck! For more details, you can view the contest page here (link to: http://www.twittermoms.com/forum/topics/share-your-veggie-critter)