Fancy Kids' Drinks

Shake up a tasty tot-tini that your kids will love to make (and drink).

Submitted by
Sonam Adinolf

Your kid has quite the sophisticated palette—she'll try anything, as long as it's cheesy and comes out of a blue box. Expand her repertoire (and get her to eat some produce) with this fancy and fun-to-make concoction.

A shaker:
Use your fancy cocktail shaker or any wide-mouthed lidded container.
A liquid measuring cup with a spout:
Make it a 2-cup capacity or larger because your kid will be stirring in it.
A mixing spoon
Cold milk (about a cup)
Measuring spoons
Flavored gelatin powder or Kool-Aid:
About two tablespoons of gelatin or ½ teaspoon of Kool-Aid. Try grape if you want a smashing purple martini or lime if you want it to be slimy and green.
A drinking glass:
Put a bib on your toddler because sippy cups won't work.
A straw
Fruit:
Any fruit that is currently on your kid's approved list: strawberry slices, banana slices, mandarin oranges, whatever. Just slice it up ahead of time and put it on a plate.
Cocktail umbrellas:
Optional, but they look great and can be useful for spearing the fruit floating in the cup.

Gather the ingredients on the kitchen table and get your kid to give her hands a good scrub before you get started.
Help your kid pour about a cup of the milk into a measuring cup. You can use this as an opportunity to talk about measurements and math—or you can just pray that you don't end up with a half-gallon of milk all over the table.
Use the measuring spoons to help your kid measure out the gelatin or Kool-Aid and dump it into the milk. Have your kid stir vigorously until it's dissolved.
Let your kid select a few pieces of fruit and put them in the bottom of the shaker.
Have your kid carefully pour the colored, powdery, yummy stuff on top of the fruit.
Screw the lid on tight and let your kid shake it up, baby.
Once the martini is well shaken (not stirred), pour it into a glass, pop in a straw and add a cocktail umbrella..
Have your kid kick back, relax and savor the drink. Who knows, maybe she'll kick back long enough for you to finish off the leftover fruit that she didn't use. Or make a mama- or papa-tini for yourself and check off one of those five-a-day fruits for both of you!