School Friendly 5-Minute Honey Banana Sushi with Local Hive

Can we talk about bringing birthday treats to our kid’s school for a minute?

It’s a near artform to find the right balance in a school birthday treat won’t leave the kids bouncing off the wall while the teacher glances at your with narrowed eyes and will be ok for the peanut allergy / gluten sensitive pupils . . . but still also be fun enough to feel celebratory.

I am on the opposite end of the spectrum of the crafty cooking mom who can pop into the kitchen and whip up a low/free everything banned at school cake. But, what I lack in baking skills I make up for in strides with creativity. That’s why I’m sharing with you one of my kids favorite recipes, invented especially for school birthday celebrations, 5-Minute Honey Banana Sushi.

5-Minute Honey Banana Sushi Using Local Hive Honey

This snack/birthday treat is a HUGE HIT with kids of all ages. I came up with the idea at a preschool with strict snack rules and it’s something the kids still love years later. Not only is it delicious sweet using honey (not cane sugar) but it’s really fun for them to assemble and even more fun for them to eat (what kid doesn’t like trying chopsticks).

The Ingredients

The beauty of this recipe is that it is simple enough that you can let the kids get involved in the process. In our case, we’ve brought this in as not only a birthday treat but tied it in with classroom cooking.

Why Honey

Parents love honey. While deceptively sweet, this sweet sugar substitute is packed full of healthy and helpful properties for growing kids and sugar conscious schools. Unlike the store-bought cupcakes that are probably already off-limits at your child’s school, honey snacks will still keep the class alert but not bouncing off the walls and hard to manage.

Now that I found Local Hive Honey (100% pure raw unfiltered honey – nothing added nothing removed) at Costco and pretty much every grocery store around us, we’ve been making big strides in replacing our sugar with honey.

Not all honey sold in stores (and at the farmers market) is equal. I recommend making sure that the honey you buy has no antibiotics, no pesticides and is farmed locally for your region. I used to have to fight the crowds at farmer’s markets to get local honey which really limited how much I wanted to use it. Now that I can get it at Costco and pretty much every grocery store around us, we’ve been making big strides in replacing our sugar with honey.

Why Banana Sushi

Kids love to try on adulthood. Whether it’s imaginary role-playing professions or just grown-ups they delight in getting to act and feel like an adult. Making sushi lets them feel like little chefs preparing a special adult cuisine. The chopsticks and eating pretend sushi (without having to have a pallet for raw fish) makes eating a game for kids. Not to mention, trying to figure out how to hold a chopstick is also excellent fine motor skill practice in addition to being lots of fun!

Here is what you’ll need to assemble the Honey Banana Sushi:
1. Ripe bananas
2. Local Hive’s 100% pure raw & unfiltered local honey (we get ours at Costco)
3. Sprinkles
4. Rice cereal (it’s also gluten-free along with all the other ingredients)

Here is what you’ll need for classroom cooking prep:
1. Ingredients above
2. Cutting board
3. 1 butter knife to cut bananas (bonus, not sharp and can be brought on campus)
4. 1 butter knife to spread the honey
5. Cupcake liners (to put their sushi in and makes for a very painless clean up)
6. Napkins
7. Chopsticks (the extra FUN part for the kids)

Adding An Educational Element

Just like our children, bees are small but mighty. Since September is National Honey Month our school children are already learning about pollinators and the importance of bees. Our favorite honey brand, Local Hive, is a wonderfully responsible community advocate for the importance of helping our pollinators and the impact it can make all the way up the food chain.

A great addition to making banana sushi in the class this month is talking with the students about the small but might change a tiny wildflower seed can make all the way up the food chain. Local Hive has this great visual page that acts as an easy guide to talk about the impact of planting wildflower seeds. In our case, the kids and I use wildflower seed packets from Local Hive to plant pollinator-friendly wildflowers.

The Bottom Line

Instead of store-bought cupcakes or skipping celebrating in fear of sugar, try making honey banana sushi with your kids and their classmates. Not only will everyone have fun assembling it and eating it, using high-quality honey from Local Hive will ensure that the kids are getting some of the best local honey available as well as an opportunity to learn and make an impact during National Honey Month.

Thank you Local Hive for sponsoring this post. You can read more about Local Hive and how they are spreading the buzz about our pollinators.