Celebrate Earth Day with Fun Food!

Earth day is April 22nd! I put together a couple of fun Earth Day lunchbox ideas (see them here) but I thought it would be fun to share some fun food that wasn’t bento style! I like creating fun food art for my kids because it satisfies my need to be creative, it makes the boys laugh, and it gives us something to talk about! Do you talk to your little ones about Earth Day? Before I share some of my ideas for chatting with my kids, here is the fun stuff and how I made it:

It’s a sandwich tree! Well, a roll-up tree 😉 I made this by arranging our favorite pretzel sticks as a tree trunk and branches, then placing turkey roll ups all around. To make the leaves, I used spinach wraps (similar to these) with turkey and lettuce. I rolled them up, sliced them and held them together with toothpicks! Halved cucumbers made the perfect “grass”. 

Ladybugs and ants! I thought it was appropriate to chat about how bugs help the environment, and ladybugs and ants seemed quite fitting (and cute!) To make the ladybug sandwiches I layered bread, turkey, lettuce, a cucumber slice and a halved grape tomato. For the ladybug head and spots I used chopped figs. You could use olives, too! For the ants on a log, I spread our favorite peanut butter on celery sticks and added some more chopped figs. Pretty easy! You could use raisins or chocolate chips here, too!

I don’t want to get all serious and mushy here. But the reality is that our kids are the next generation, and somebody has to teach them about taking care of the environment! Some things you could chat with your little ones about this Earth Day:

• How trees, bugs and animals help the Earth, and what we can do to take care of them.
• Why we shouldn’t litter
• Why we should recycle and how to sort recyclables. 
• Why turning off lights when not in use, and not wasting water is important. 

Are you chatting with your kids about Earth Day? Share some more ideas with me in the comments below! To see my Earth day lunches, click here, to get my free Earth Day printable word search and lunchbox jokes, click here!