You can still have fun in the kitchen while maintaining a healthy, balanced diet. With the help of cookie cutters, fresh fruit and skewer sticks, these Love Bug Fruit Kabobs are a creative way to get kids involved in the kitchen and introduce them to the yummy possibilities of fresh fruit.
Ingredients
- KABOBS
- 10 skewer sticks
- X and O cookie cutters
- 10 thick slices of pineapple
- 10 thick slices of cantaloupe
- 10 strawberries
- 5 black grapes, sliced in half
- ¼ cup melted chocolate
- 20 edible googly eyes, recipe follows
- 20 almond slices
- 50-60 mini chocolate chips
- FRUIT DIP
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt or nondairy yogurt
- 2-3 tablespoons raw honey
- Pomegranate seeds or basil leaves for garnish, optional
- EDIBLE GOOGLY EYES
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons milk or nondairy milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Mini chocolate chips, such as Enjoy Life, which are dairy free
Directions
For the kabobs: Cut X’s and O’s from the sliced pineapple and cantaloupe.
Thread a cut-out “O” onto one of the skewers. Then thread a strawberry onto the skewer, followed by a sliced black grape half and a cut-out “X”.
Using melted chocolate, “glue” the googly eyes onto the grape and the almond slice wings and polka dot mini chocolate chips on the back of the strawberry lady bug.
For the fruit dip: Stir the Greek yogurt and honey, to taste, in a small bowl until well blended. Drizzle the top of the dip with more honey and garnish with a few pomegranate seeds or basil leaves, if using.
For the googly eyes: Whisk together the powdered sugar and cornstarch. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, and mix until combined. You should have a thick paste at this point.
Place the paste into either a piping bag or Ziploc baggie and pipe dots in one row onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Gently top each dot with a mini chocolate chip—you don’t want to wait too long to place the chocolate chip in the middle or it will set.
Repeat until all the paste is gone. Allow the googly eyes to set on your counter for at least 24 hours.
Cook’s tips: Alphabet cookie cutters are available on amazon.com. You can use purchased edible googly eyes instead of the homemade version. Just check ingredients to be sure they are gluten free.
Nutrition Analysis provided by Cara Reed: 60 calories, 1g fat, 9.5g carbs, 9 g sugar, 6 mg sodium, 0.2g fiber, 0.2g protein.
Cara Reed is the creator of Fork & Beans, forkandbeans.com, where she shows people with food allergies that food can still be fun, creative and tasty. She is also the author of Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking and is a regular contributor to Kids Kitchen.
