Cooking with kids- Painted toast and snails

A couple of weeks ago Mom and I attended a class for daycare called "cooking in the classroom". Usually we dread daycare classes but this one was actually fun. There were a couple of things we made that were really cute and easy for even little bitty kids to do. I think it is a great idea to cook with your kids, or let them help you cook. That is where I learned to love cooking. 


  The first thing we did was PAINTED TOAST. This came out way cuter than we thought it would.
You will need:


3 or 4 cups
white bread
food coloring
paint brushes
milk


Pour about half a cup of milk into each of your cups. Add drops of food coloring to the milk until it is the shade you want. (obviously, don't mix the colors.. think dying Easter eggs) Then using the paint brushes paint anything you want on your pieces of bread. Make sure you use separate brushes for each color. Once you bread is painted toast it in the toaster like you usually would. What is so neat is when the bread comes out of the toaster- the painted parts are brighter and stand out. It looks really neat! Then the kids can eat their artwork! :-) 




The second thing we did was SNAILS. This was also really easy. 
You will need:


bread
cream cheese, softened
cinnamon
sugar
raisins
melted butter (or spray butter works best)


Mix some cinnamon and sugar together (I don't have any measurements..) Take the crust off your slice of bread. Spread a fairly thin layer of cream cheese on the bread and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mix. roll the bread into a roll lengthwise, but leave a "tail" sticking out (just a tiny piece of the end of the bread unrolled)   Cut the rolled bread into 3 pieces. Lay the bread pieces on a cookie sheet with the unrolled edge on the bottom side. Spray the tops with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Place 2 raisins (for eyes) on the unrolled part of the bread. Place them in a toaster oven or the regular oven under the broiler long enough for the bread to toast. When they come out- you have little snails! And they are actually pretty good too. :-) 


Sorry I don't have any measurements. You can eyeball it and guess how much you will need of each thing. It isn't much for either one of these.