Sweet Snacks: Cinnamon Tortilla Chips and Fruit Salsa

One of the most popular afterschool-programs I run is Sweet Snacks, a cooking program where the kids make their own snacks (sometimes salty, sometimes sweet). This time, we made Cinnamon Crunch Tortilla Chips and Fruit Salsa. 

Usually everyone makes their own individual snacks (even pudding parfaits and dirt cake!) but this time everyone pitched in to make a big batch and we all shared. 

I got the recipe from this book:

Ingredients for the chips:

small flour tortillas

cinnamon 

sugar 

vegetable spray

Some of the kids were the chip makers. I gave them flour tortillas and plastic knives and asked them to cut the tortillas in to triangles. 

We then made cinnamon sugar by pouring sugar into a container, sprinkling it with cinnamon, closing the lid and shaking it up. You can also buy cinnamon sugar already made, but my philosophy with this class is to make as much as possible with the kids since the idea is to be hands-on with what they are eating. 

We sprayed both sides of the triangles with vegetable spray, sprinkled (ok, more like doused) them with cinnamon sugar and put them in the toaster over to toast up. 

In the interest of full disclosure: I do this program twice in a row to accommodate the number of kids who wish to attend. The first group was perfectly happy with the chips as they came out of the oven, but I found they took waaaaay too long to bake and they were still soggy. For the second group, I fried the triangles (far far away from the kids) and then had them sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar after they were brown. These were much crispier. 

The Fruit Salsa

On the other end of our long tables, I set out ingredients for the fruit salsa. 

The book recommends the following ingredients: 

strawberries

banana

apples

kiwis

lemon juice

sugar

nutmeg

cinnamon

Since not everything was available at my grocery store, I ended up picking fruit that the kids could do something to: cut it, slice it, etc. 

We had kiwis, bananas, canned pineapple, apple slices, mango slices, and pears. I put these out with plates and plastic knives and everyone picked a piece of fruit, sliced or cut it up, and placed it in the big bowls. 

I also put two girls in charge of squeezing lemons for the juice. 

Once all the fruit was ready, we poured the lemon juice over it, sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar (that the tortilla group had made) and mixed it all up. 

Each child was given a fresh plate, some fruit salsa, and some chips. Delicious!

I really enjoyed the collaborative nature of this recipe and the kids loved the results. One mom told me that her son would NOT eat kiwis at home, but he was very much enjoying them in the salsa.

Having fun, trying new things, deliciousness.... Win-win-win.