play food

My kids love playing grocery store. They hate going to the actual grocery store, but love to reenact it at home. So I was on the Amazon a few days ago looking for play food sets for them, and I found this:
Adorable, right? They're from Melissa & Doug and they're solid wood. I usually like Melissa & Doug products (their floor puzzles are awesome) but this product seemed a) a little pricey at about $20 for the set, and b) made in China, where their lead-based paint regulations are a little lax. Add to this the fact that the reviews criticized the set as easily chipped and dented, and I was not sold.

So I thought, why not just make some play food for the kids? I scavenged the cupboards for nearly empty containers and saved a few days' worth of boxes and cans and soon I had a set of my own. I hot-glued the flaps on the boxes down.

And glued around the inside of the lids on the plastic containers, after washing and drying them well. The cool thing is that as the boxes are crushed and the containers are chewed up by the dog, these can go right into the recycling and I can make replacements.

For free!