These cute crocodiles veggie dips are filled with guacamole and hummus. This dip recipe is easy for kids to make, healthy, delicious and super adorable!
Making fun animal themed food has helped my kid get engaged in the kitchen
We are learning about reptiles this week so we made a veggie dip in the shape of a crocodile today.
We’ve been on a streak making animal themed foods lately. My kid is really enjoying learning how to prepare his own snacks and meals.
You can see our silly frog apple snack and the snack plate we prepared to pretend to eat like a bird.
Get all the activities and resources we used for our reptile-themed week here, including our weekly lesson plan.
This fun kids dip recipe is inspired by a dish we ordered from Bean Sprouts Cafe
This idea to make a cute crocodile veggie dip came from The New Children’s Museum in San Diego. We went there last summer and ordered a dish that looked like these crocodile from the in-house Bean Sprouts Cafe.
Since then, it’s been on my mind as a recipe to make with my kid. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe Bean Sprouts Cafe uses, but you can find the original version in their super fun cookbook.
This Bean Sprouts Cafe cookbook is filled with lots of creative and healthy foods that kids can help prepare.
This crocodile veggie dip is healthy and easy to make
So, this cute crocodile shaped food is so so easy to make that my preschooler essentially prepared the whole thing himself. I had a proud mom moment when he finished!
Below I share some tips for helping set him up in the kitchen so he was able to do it himself.
Ingredients needed for this healthy veggie dip
You don't need much for this recipe, but it's very important that you have a ripe avocado. We were so excited to make this dip, but had to wait a few days, just to make sure the avocado was perfect.
Ingredients needed:
- one ripe avocado
- one big scoop of hummus
- one quick pour of olive oil
- four thin slices of cucumber
- four small grapes
- one small carrot
Do I use green or black grapes for the crocodile eyes?
Technically crocodile eyes are yellow greenish. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I bought our groceries and bought black grapes.
You might want to try green grapes to give the eyes a more realistic color. But as my kid put it, COOL! Our crocodile is wearing sunglasses!
How my kid helped to prepare this veggie dip
This was a great activity because my preschooler was able to prepare a healthy lunch, mostly by himself. That means he felt a sense of accomplishment and happily ate a lot of healthy foods.
What my kid was able to do to make this dip all by himself:
- Scoop out the avocado into a bowl
- Scoop the hummus into the same bowl
- Mash everything together
- Pour in some olive oil
- Scoop the guacamole back into the shell
- Add on the cucumber and grape eyes
- Find the pointiest carrots to insert as teeth
Tips to set your kid up for success when making this recipe
When I cook with my kid in the kitchen, in addition to teaching him a few kitchen skills, my main goal is always to help him enjoy cooking.
To do that, I'll often go out of the way to set it up so it's fun. And more importantly, have right tools available for him. Sort of like how I buy kid size scissors to teach him to cut, I'll also hunt for kid size kitchen tools to teach him to cook.
Teaching little kids how to mash foods in the kitchen
The concept of mashing an avocado sounds simple. But for preschoolers to do it, they need enough finger muscles to mash, as well as coordination to hold a bowl and push down at the same time.
We use this mini masher because it's a good size for him. (It's also the perfect masher to make baby food!).
If you don't have a mini masher and are using a regular potato masher, I would suggest doubling this recipe, so you have 2 avocados to mash.
Here's what I had to prepare for my kid to make this dip recipe
These are the steps that my kid could not yet do by himself. I prepared most of these ahead of time.
That way, once he started preparing his crocodile veggie dip, he didn't have to wait for me and potentially get distracted.
- Cutting the avocado in half and removing the stone
- Smoothing out the top of the avocado hummus dip after he scooped it back into the shell
- Cutting the carrot teeth
- Slicing the cucumber eyes
- (I should have also sliced the grapes in half)
Tip: He loved picking out the sharpest carrot teeth to use, so you might want to try to include some pointy ones.
This healthy veggie dip is easy and quick to make
This entire activity didn't take too long, but it was really fun for my kid.
I'm going to type up a full recipe recipe soon, but I hope this helps you get started with this activity.
Here is he showing off his finished crocodile veggie dip! He was a proud kid. And I was a happy mom.
This healthy vegetable dip is great to for a little kid lunch
As soon as he was done, he put it in his lunch. We served this veggie dip with more cucumber slices and some pieces of pita bread.
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