Ants on a Log: Essential Fun Kid Snacks for Busy Little Anteaters
We mustn’t forget the joy we endured eating kid snacks like Ants on a Log. Fun kid snacks that made our hearts race and it’s likely they still make our hearts race today. But when was the last time that you ate the peanut butter, celery, and raisin combo? For some, the answer might be back in primary school when it was safe to take peanut butter to school. For others, it might be that you ate them as recently as last week because your kids begged and begged! What are some other (potentially) forgotten youngster snacks that can trigger even the most serious nostalgia in adults?
Swedish Fish
This treat is a little different from peanut butter on a celery stick. But these chewy fish shaped candies can certainly replace any raisin ants. They were introduced to the North American market as both a fat-free and gluten-free solution to snacking in the 1950s. Of actual Swedish origin, it’s an example of a European candy that did well across the Atlantic. So well that we now have a facility that produces this pescetarian friendly food in the port city of Hamilton, Ontario.
Dirt Cakes
Much tastier than they sound, you can serve this childhood favourite in one big dish or individual cups. We’ve even seen little terracotta pots! Start with vanilla pudding – or custard, depending on your origins – then top it with crushed chocolate cookies. But the dessert is only complete once you’ve added gummy worms. We’ve mentioned dirt cakes before, and we’ll probably mention them again.
Barnum’s Animal Crackers
Everyone has a favourite animal and everyone likes cookies. Combining the two was a genius idea that came out of England in the late 19th century. With 53 different animals to eat your way through, and only 22 animals per box, we’d forgive you for buying several boxes in order to find that perfect giraffe, or hyena, or even koala! What’s more, there’s nothing stopping you from giving the ants on a log a vacation and enjoying a few circus animals on a log.
Butterfly Cakes
A variant of the cupcake, it’s also known as a fairy cake due to the fairy-like Tinkerbell wings made from dissecting the top section of the little cake. You can make them with any flavour, like blueberry, and once returned to the main cupcake body, the wings may be decorated with frosting or simply icing sugar. Maybe even raisin ants hitching a free ride through the air?
While we’ve certainly omitted a number of fun kid snacks, we did try to keep the spotlight on one particular star today because it is, after all, National Ants on a Log Day. They may not include real ants like the ice cream at the Montreal Insectarium or be like eating cricket snacks at the Ontario Science Centre, but you can always keep your friends on their toes with sneaky additions of Swedish Fish and Animal Crackers. Not to mention, they’re also a great way to get youngsters to eat more healthily!