Whether youre looking for a new appetizer or cool food for a future party, or you have finicky kids who dont even want to try certain foods, you might want to consider the tomato. Lots of adults eat whole tomatoes just like a regular fruit - well, they are a regular fruit - but kids might not be as apt to grab a tomato and pig out. If you want them to, though, or you want to impress some party guests with your unusual foods, tomato characters will thrill em all! The cute fruit people are made with a tomato as the body and selected vegetables as the characters features.
Start with a small tomato and use a serrated knife to cut the top off of it. This piece, although it wont be eaten, will be saved as the hat for the character. Spoon out the inside of the tomato using a spoon. Drain the juice then proceed to filling the inside of the tomato. There are many different foods you could use to fill it. Make or buy potato salad and stuff the tomato with it. Cole slaw, cottage cheese, chicken salad or tuna salad are other options. You can even make a tiny salad inside the tomato. Or, fill it with peas to create something totally different. Whatever you use to fill the tomato, over fill it, so that the inner goodies can be viewed without lifting the top off of the tomato.
Replace the top that you cut off of the tomatoes. The slaw, chicken salad or other food should be easily seen, all the way around, after the top is replaced. You can enhance the "brim" of the hat by sticking peas, raisins or other small foods into the stuffed food, if you want. Stick these against the stuffed food, just below the top tomato section, all the way around. Olive pieces, sunflower seeds and similar foods can be easily stuck to potato salad, cottage cheese, chicken salad and some other foods. You can make a different version by setting a dried onion ring around the lid of the tomato. If you dont feel comfortable putting the tomato lid back on, and since it will not be eaten anyway, consider using other foods to make different hats and discard the tomato lid altogether. Some hats can be made from a whole green or black olive, a stack of pickles, a cucumber slice with an olive on top (use a toothpick to hold in place), a section cut from a carrot or even a piece of lettuce. . Make eyes by using a dab of cream cheese to hold the selected foods to the proper areas. Pieces of olives, raisins, nuts and seeds make really great eyes. You can even use black beans or peas as eyes. Cream cheese can also be used to attach the noses and mouths of the tomato characters. Noses can be made from pepper pieces, olive pieces, nuts or seeds, a pea or bean and similar foods. Mouths can be made from celery, carrot slivers, raisins, or even a line of cream cheese. The tomato people will stand much easier if you make feet - or a base - for them. Use the cream cheese, once again, as paste. Position a cucumber slice on a plate, cut some toe shapes at the end, and make one piece which looks like two feet. Glue the tomato character to the cucumber with cream cheese and he or she will stand gracefully. Make a different stand by using slices of tiny tomatoes. Cut the inner part of the tomato slice away and leave only a ring. Position the tomato people on these to stand. Other choices for creating stands, bases or feet include a carrot slice, a dried onion ring, a cracker or even a pickle. Make arms for the characters by using shoestring potatoes, pretzel sticks , thin carrot slices, or even raisins on a stick. If you use a base to set the tomato on you can then create legs which stick straight out from the bottom front or side areas of the tomato. Arms and legs can be made of matching foods like pretzels or carrot slices. Feet and hands can be made of raisins, olive pieces or pepper pieces. Youve never seen anything like the cute tomato people that crack up the guests as well as fill them up! Theyre delicious, but theyre so cute, its almost a shame to eat them! You will, though, and so will your kids, your guests - well, everyone! Theyll be the
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