A Baseball-Themed Lunch for Little League Season
My boys are both playing baseball for the first time this year, and our household is in the midst of a baseball frenzy. I am surrounded by constant games of catch, chatter about batting technique, and requests to walk to the park around the corner to hit some balls. And don’t even get me started on all the practices and games that dominate our evenings and weekends! Though it can get to be a bit much for me sometimes, I love seeing how enthusiastic my kids are about their new sport. To support their new obsession I came up with a baseball-themed lunch that combines icons of the sport and favorite ball park foods. It’s a fun lunch box to send to school, but it would also be great for a sibling to eat while they watch a game that’s scheduled during dinner time.
To make this baseball-themed lunch you will need
- buttermilk biscuit
- carrots
- grapes
- small sausages
- Cracker Jack
You’ll also need a divided lunch box, a paring knife, a red food-safe marker, sushi grass, a silicone cup and baseball-themed cupcake picks.
The first thing we’re going to do is decorate a biscuit to look like a baseball. I used a biscuit that I made from a package of refrigerator dough, but if you have home-made biscuits on hand, definitely use those. I started off by lightly scoring the top of the biscuit with two curved lines to use as a guide when I was drawing on the baseball’s “stitches”. Then I used the food-safe marker to draw small V’s along each of the curved lines. If you aren’t familiar with them, food safe markers are just like regular felt-tipped markers, but they are filled with food coloring instead of traditional ink so it is safe to eat food you’ve decorated with them.
Layer the sushi grass into the largest section of the lunch box to make it look like a baseball field, then place the decorated biscuit on top.
Next we are going to make carrot “baseball bats.” I started with baby carrots and used a paring knife to very carefully carve away some of the sides so that the carrots were wider on top and tapered at the bottom. It can take a bit of practice to get this right, but I guarantee your kids won’t care if the “bats” don’t look perfect.
Once you’ve tapered the carrots, slice off the end so bottom is flat. This will make it look significantly more like a baseball bat.
And here’s a little tip: don’t turn all the carrots into baseball bats. Put a layer of plain carrots down in one of the lunch box compartments and then lay the fancy carrots on top. It still looks great, it gives your child a thrill and it saves a lot of time.
Thread some grapes on a couple of baseball-themed cupcake picks (available at kitchen and craft stores or on Amazon) then add them to another section of the lunch box along with a few loose grapes to fill in the gaps.
No trip to the ball park would be complete without a hot dog so I had to be sure I included a few mini sausages too. I stumbled on some little chicken apple sausages that are very kid-friendly and a bit healthier than some of the more mainstream brands. You can brown these in a skillet on the stove to give them a little color if you like, but it’s also safe to just pop them into the lunch box straight out of the package if they come fully cooked.
And finally, what’s a more natural treat to add to a baseball lunch than a little bit of Cracker Jack? Put some in a little silicone cup to fill in any remaining space in the lunch. Cracker Jack does have peanuts in it, so if you are sending this lunch to a school with a “no nuts” rule (or know your child is going to be around someone with a nut allergy), you can substitute with caramel corn, plain popcorn or the sideline favorite of many small ball players — sunflower seeds.
