Healthy snack recipe: apple ladybugs.

While other children gorge on candy and chocolate, your kids can enjoy healthy snacks that taste good, too. These apple ladybugs are sweet and fun to make.

1.

First, slice a red apple in half from top to bottom. Remove the core of the apple with a sharp knife or apple corer. If you don’t have an apple corer, a neat trick is to scoop out the core with a melon baller. This works especially well if you want the (older) kids to help you with this step, since melon ballers don’t have any sharp edges.

2.

Place the apples flat-side down and dab a few drops of peanut butter on the surface of the apple’s skin. This could be the artist in me talking, but go for an odd number of spots — 3 or 5 works perfectly. Stick raisins to the peanut butter for the ladybug’s spots. If you want a sweeter option, a few dabs of Nutella in place of the peanut butter and raisins is also tasty.

3.

Skewer two more raisins with some thin stick pretzels and poke both into one end of the apple for the ladybug’s antennae. If you don’t have pretzels, toothpicks work as well, but you may want to remove them before giving the ladybugs to smaller children.

For keeping the apple from browning, smear a thin layer of peanut butter over the cut-side of the apple and place into a lettuce leaf.

And now you’re done. Healthy snacks can be delicious and adorable!