Birthday Treats to Give Out: Healthier than a cupcake

For TR, who still reminds me that we need healthier habits in our public schools.

Daughters and Son, now that they attend school, end up coming home having eaten different things at school handed out to them by parents who want to celebrate their child's birthday.  Fortunately for me, many of Son's friends treats are simply often limits to him, so he just doesn't get to have them.

Daughters are a different story.  I've been buying back candy rapidly this year (I'm poor because of it) and haggling and wheeling and dealing trying to keep excess sugar and sweets away from Daughters.  I simply told Daughter #2 that we weren't going to do any treats for her birthday since it fell on a weekend.  No big deal.

Daughter #1 was a different story.  Her birthday fell on a weekday, and she desperately wanted to give out a treat.  She negotiated with me, asking me if I would make her one of the fruit mosaics so that she could take it.  I wasn't really in the mood for a fruit mosaic, and the additional struggle with that is I have to be there to serve it.  I racked my brain trying to think of something that I could take to school, so that Daughter #1 could have something to pass out which didn't mess with my healthy food sense.

I had a flash of brilliance and decided to do the Party in Your Mouth popcorn.  It was perfect as it didn't have too much sugar, I could individually package it, and it would be a nice light snack for the students to enjoy.  I ran out of rice crackers at one point, so I had to go ahead and use pretzels (which I had lying around) and it tasted great.  You do need to create about 1 cup of mix per bag you make, so if you're making 27 bags to pass out, you'll need about 27 cups of mix.  Bear in mind that popcorn pops up very nicely, so that should be the bulk of your mix.  If you're worried about sodium content with salty pretzels, seaweed and rice crackers, do not add salt when you're popping the corn.

The kids loved it, and I have to say that I loved making it.  The little bags were perfect and Son liked them so much he's demanded them for HIS end of school party.  Since it is a Son-safe treat, I guess I'll be making some more bags of this!  You can certainly do fancier packaging with ribbon and pretty tape, but I went with mailing labels with Daughter's name a just the word popcorn and birthday.  It worked!


Recipe for the popcorn is here.  Bear in mind that this recipe makes about 10 cups, so you'll need to double or triple accordingly.  I mixed in a large, clean grocery bag, and just shook it together.

Then using a 1 cup measuring cup, I scooped it into my cellophane bags.

Folded it over and had my individual bags of popcorn ready to go.

A link to cellophane bags