I had a tiny friend sleepover on Friday, so I decided it would be a good night to practice some fun parenting. After all, we now have less than three months until this baby arrives. I did a bit of digging online and decided it would be a fun spring time activity to prepare bugs for dinner. I should have videotaped P’s reaction when I told her. It was priceless.

First up… Snails

Ingredients

• Mayonnaise (we used ranch dressing because P doesn’t like mayonnaise)
• Large tortilla
• Lettuce or baby spinach
• Sliced deli meat of your choice
• Sliced cheese of your choice
• Gherkin pickles (P doesn’t like pickles, so we used baby cucumbers)
• Carrot sticks

Instructions

1. Trim the rounded edges of the tortilla to make it square, then spread on mayo or dressing
2. Layer on the lettuce or spinach, then the meat and cheese, and roll it up tightly.
3. With the seam on the bottom, slice the tortilla into 2-inch-wide pinwheels. For the snail’s heads, cut a pickle (or cucumber) in half at an angle. Poke two small holes in the uncut ends and stick pieces of carrots for antennae.
4. Slip each pickle (or cucumber) half under the edge of a pinwheel, securing them together with a toothpick, if necessary.
5. Makes 4 to 6 pinwheel sandwiches.

Second course… Butterflies

Ingredients

• Nut butter
• Apple
• Celery

Instructions

Simply make a nut-butter sandwich using apple slices, cut it into quarters, arrange the pieces as shown, and add a trimmed celery stick. I saw a lot of options for this online, so you can sub out any foods that your kid doesn’t like.

I lost P’s interest for awhile after making the peanut butter, so she played tag with my husband, Mark while I whipped us up some butterflies. Once they were done, she informed me that she doesn’t like apples. HA. So, I gave her some pears with peanut butter and she was happy.

And for dessert… Spiders

Ingredients

• Double Stuff Oreos
• Icing (homemade or pre-packaged)
• Mini chocolate chips
• Pretzel sticks
• Ziploc bag

Instructions

Stick the pretzel sticks into the cookie. (They fit better in double stuff oreos than in the regular size). Put frosting in a small ziploc bag. Snip a small hole in the corner and squeeze out 2 dots on top of the oreo for the eyeballs. Press a mini chocolate chip in each circle. P insisted we give the spider a smile, so we did 🙂

Voila! Bugs for dinner. Now, I admit, it was a rookie mistake not consulting with her first about the foods that she likes, so we had to make some on-the-fly adaptations, but I think overall, it was a success!