Finger Foods - Tacoma,WA

Cream cheese and jelly roll ups:

Cut crusts off of soft bread
Use rolling pin and flatten slices thin.
spread cream cheese on slice
spread jelly on top
start at one end of the bread and roll up.
Cut the "roll" into 1/2 inch slices.

J.- Make some sandwhiches and use cookie cutters to cut them into cute little shapes. Grapes, Carrot sticks (nice and thin) peppers (Personally, my boys don't like them, but my girlfriends boys love green and red peppers, raw!) apple slices, cantoloup (sp), Veggie chips, fish crackers, pear slices, oranges, raisins, and then for dessert....cupcakes! Then you can make mini ones if you want, and you can control the portions a little better. Some people may recommend something a little "healthy" but I think that all the finger foods are pretty healthy, and a little cupcake wont hurt anyone!!
Have fun! L.

Just this past weekend, I was at an event where someone brought Ritz crackers topped with pieces of cheese cut into easter/spring shapes (bunnies, flowers, eggs, etc.). She just sliced the cheese (both chedder and mozzerella), then used little cookie cutters to cut the shapes. Placed one piece of cheese on each cracker. They were very simple, cute, and went like hotcakes! The lady who brought them also suggested you could use the same idea with slices of meat on the crackers.

J.,
I have always had loads of success with Cucumber and cream cheese tea sandwhiches, I use one side white bread one side wheat and cut into triangles or circles. Cream cheese and jam is yummy too. When my kids got a bit older I started making "Super Shaggy Sandwhiches" (like from Scooby-Doo)get a loaf of french bread and pile on the veggies and meat and cheese, cut into really small pieces but all the veggies make it really tall and fun to squish and eat. All my kids have inherited my love of veggies on sandwhiches so thats always a favorite around here. Fruit shish-ka-bobs is also a big hit and something we have to have atleast once a summer, good finger food! Melon balls piled on a plate. Make your own lettuce wraps is easy and fun finger food, with chicken, shredded carrots and cabboge, soy/ginger sauce also yummy! We also do chicken tenders on skewers with some Franks dipping sauce(kinda spicy) or peanut sauce.
Olives are something that all my kids love around here so a bowl of those for munching might be good.All different colored bell peppers cut into strips and sprinkled with a lil' rice vinegar and stood up in a cup is pretty and delicious---WOW, I have made myself hungry.---Cant really go wrong with fruits and veggies of all kinds

Happy Birthday to the girl!

K.

my kids like little finger sandwiches and love them in shapes too. I have done egg salad, cucumber and cream cheese, and cream cheese with minced ham. Also those little smokie in bbq sauce is great too.

hey J., my 3 yr old daughter is also allergic to peanuts and we had a great tea party for her last birthday. i made mini ice cream sandwichs out of nilla waffers colorful marshmallows, i even cut up extra pizza from the night before into bite size pieces. btw, the marshmallows were for hot chocolate, not tea. grahm crackers are another great finger food. fresh fruit, ect. for a really cool party get a chocolate fountain and let the kids do that themselves. hope this helps, have fun!

So sorry I can't resist:
Cheese Fingers
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50015
Cheese stick cut in half, knuckles cut out, then a green pepper finger nail.

Family fun has tons of great party food recipes you should check them out.

I usually make their feta roasted red pepper dip and cinnamon mini muffins for playdates:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cinnamon-Mini-Muffins/Detail...
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50314

We went to a party that had cheese sandwiches - cream cheese with slice of cheese in between - they'd be cute cut out of cookie cutter.

A veggie plate is always good - you can even arrange them in a shape of something - like a smiley face or what not.

The 4 yo might like to dip her fruit into caramel sauce. My grandkids love that.

My granddaughter is also allergic to peanuts but she can have cashew butter and almond butter. Peanuts are not really a nut.

At the daycare center I used to work at we used SOYnut butter in place of peanut butter, because it caused very very few allergies. Cheese sandwiches cutout with cookie cutters are also always a winner and super simple. Any kind of bar cookie or jello jigglers cut with cookie cutters are also a huge, super simple, cheap hit with small children. Make cupcakes and ice them before the kids arrive, then set out bowls/plates of fruit (raisins, strawberries, fruit leather, fruit juice gummies, ect) and let the kids decorate their own cupcake. You'll get points for being the coolest parent around without doing a ton of work, line the table with a roll of newsprint (news papers sell then ends of reams for $2-10 a ream/huge roll) then just roll the mess up in the paper after the party and toss it in the trash or composter. Let the kids colour the table cloth/newsprint for extra cool Mom points and to save money and time on decorations.

Anything with toothpicks, cherry tomatoes, cheddar and orange cheese, grapes, olives, meat, tofu, you name it. I have a 2 and 3 year old and they love when I feed them food on toothpicks. I get the plastic ones with colorful shapes on the end.

This is a super easy delicious fruit dip..

1 container Whipped Cream Cheese
1 Jar Marshmallow Fluff

Mix together (I find it easiest to mix if the cream cheese is room temp, or heat it up a little in the microwave). I usually serve it with apples,grapes and strawberries. It is sooooo goood! and part way healthy ;)

Or fruit pizza is so yummy too! Pretty much same idea as fruit dip, except make a giant sugar cookie crust,place the dip on top then the fruit!

http://foodallergies.about.com/od/nutallergies/tp/peanutf...

I too have one with peanut allergies, so I am curious to see the suggestions. Her allergist suggested sunflower butter, though we havent tried it yet. He said it is usually found at health food stores and it is the closest to peanut butter. It is supposed to be pretty good.

HI!

I like to slice melon or apples using a cookie cutter - you can then make the fruit the shape of your theme!!

*K

I like to make soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches, cut them with a cute cookie cutter (or just into 4ths), string cheese is always easy, cream cheese or cream cheese with avocado sandwiches, mini bagels with cream chees and jelly...olives and pickles are usually a big hit with kids, there is a recipe you can google for mini mac and cheeses (made in mini muffin tins, easy to make, yummy to eat), roll ups made with tortillas (can put anything on the inside)...you can skewer fruit and make kabobs.