My Little Chefs have always loved playing with their food. When they go through periods of not wanting lunch we change it up to make it seem different. We might use a lunch tray instead of a plate, deconstruct their sandwich, put things on a stick, anything out of the ordinary. We do the same for afternoon snacks when everyone gets home because it is fun, they are always hungry at that time. I thought it would be fun to make an after school snack using one of our favorite play foods, California Ripe Olives, a pantry staple in our home. We use them in many recipes because of their texture, flavor and pop of color or alone creating whatever food art we dream of that day. Whenever I open a can only half seems to get in the recipe or on the table! They are so much fun to put on the ends of our fingers and eat them one by one. After school it is fun to let them cover their fingers with olives and then ask them to tell me something that happened that day before they eat the first one, then share something else before eating the second and so forth. Don’t you love how I can get my kids to share more then just “it was good”. Suddenly they can think of many more things that happened at school.

Panda Face Food Art

Ingredients

• 1 can California Black Ripe Olives
• 1 piece of bread

Directions

1. Open the olive can and remove the juice.
2. Use a circle shape from a bowl or cup or biscuit cutter to cut out a circle of bread which will become the head.
3. Cut 4 olives in half lengthwise. Cut from the hole on one end to the “x” on the other end. These become the ears.
4. To make the eyes cut one olive in half lengthwise. Using the back of a knife dip it in sour cream and draw a circle and a dot on each eye.
5. For the nose cut an olive in fourths lengthwise. To make it a little shorter cut it in half. You should have a triangle shape. Cut a sliver off one whole olive. You should have a hollow circle. Cut it in half to finish off the nose.
6. For an extra treat you can spread some butter on the bread and then sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over the butter.

The panda face is so cute my kids are excited to eat it. Hmmm..that didn’t come out right, but you know what I mean! Go to California Ripe Olives on Facebook, visit the custom tab, and enter once per day for the chance to win an Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. The sweepstakes runs until September 12, 2014. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.