Good Eats at the (Toddler) TEOTWAWKI Cafe–Peanut Butter Play Dough Leave a comment

Even
if we don’t currently have small children in our lives, we should be
able to entertain them if the need arises.  I don’t have any
grandchildren so I do not store any toys or crayons or books for them. 
But if we were in a grid-down situation and I
needed to be able to entertain some children, I have everything on hand
for that.  You probably do, too.

I
first heard about peanut butter play dough when my boys were very
young.  It sounded kind of gross then and it still does now.  I’ve never
been fond of peanut butter and honey sandwiches, so that combination
doesn’t appeal to me, and throwing dry milk into the mix doesn’t improve
things.  But we were really tight with money, and I sometimes needed to
find something new to interest my little boys.  So I decided to mix
some up.

They loved it.  

I
spent a lot of years trying to wrap my head around how children could
enjoy this so much.  I finally gave up.  But I’ve never seen a child who
didn’t really enjoy being able to play with his or her food and eat it and not
get in trouble for it.  So twenty-five years ago, when I wrote a recipe
book for items to make to play with children, peanut butter play dough
was part of it.

I
never liked the title; maybe that’s because we live in a desert and a
rainy day was something to go out and play in and enjoy.  But that’s
what the publishers wanted, and if they’re paying me the big bucks (at
least, it was a lot of money to us at that point in our lives), I
suppose I can let them pick the title.  One of my husband’s best friends
from childhood, Brian Foote, illustrated it.  His pictures are
adorable.  Anyway, back to the peanut butter play dough.

There’s
really not much to it.  It mixes up pretty quickly by hand, maybe a
minute or two of kneading it together.  The measurements look pretty
small, but actually, this makes plenty for three to four children.  Make
sure they wash their hands really well before playing and eating, and
give them all their own portions–no sharing after they’ve started
playing with it.  Because of the honey, do not let children under 12
months of age use this.  And of course, it wouldn’t be a good idea for
any child with a milk or peanut allergy.

Peanut Butter Play Dough

1/3 cup peanut
butter

¼ cup honey

½ cup dry milk

Knead all the ingredients
together in a medium bowl.  Children can
model simple figures and eat as they play.

Links to related posts:
Tootsie Rolls
Basic Food Storage–Dry Milk
Basic Food Storage–Sugars
Alternative Medicine–Honey