Playing with food is often discouraged, but when the games are this fun, it’s hard to resist. Try these food-focused activities the next time you spend time with family or friends, or during your next socially-distant Zoom get-together. You’ll be glad that you did!

1. Jelly Bean Challenge

Fill up a bowl with assorted flavored jelly beans. Assign one individual to be the taster and the other individual to be the flavor-picker. Instruct the taster to close their eyes (and/or blindfold them), and have the flavor-picker place one jelly bean into the taster’s palm. Instruct the taster not to look at the jelly bean. The taster will then eat the jelly bean and guess what flavor it is. For an extra challenge, the taster can also guess what color(s) the jelly bean is. If the taster guesses correctly, the roles switch, and the taster then becomes the flavor-picker. If the taster guesses the flavor incorrectly, then they will remain the taster until they answer correctly.

Get assorted jelly beans here!
Get a blindfold here!

2. Blindfolded Smell Test

You’ve heard of the blindfolded taste test, but have you done a blindfolded smell test? This is a similar concept to the blindfolded taste test, except the guesser is smelling the food rather than eating it.

Here’s how to play: Blindfold the guesser(s) using bandanas (or masks) and put some food on a spoon. Have the guesser(s) smell the food (no touching or tasting!) and then instruct them to guess what it is. Once the “smeller” guesses correctly, they get to switch roles with the participant who gave them the food. Keep score to make things more competitive, or don’t to keep the game light and casual.

Some ideas: Pickles, cake, candy, fruit, vegetables, cereal, crackers, rice, nuts, etc.

Get a blindfold here!
Get fun, colorful spoons here!
Get a scoreboard here!

3. The Stacking Game

If you like building, then this is the game for you. Look through your kitchen and gather food items of various sizes that can be stacked. Some ideas include crackers, Cheerios, cucumber slices, cookies, chips, etc. Start with the larger food items, as these will be the easiest to stack. Flip over an hourglass timer, and have participants create a tower as high as possible during the specified timeframe. The winner is the participant with the tallest tower. As you keep playing the game, make things more challenging by progressing to smaller and smaller items (ie: start by stacking crackers, then progress to chips, Cheerios etc.). Keep a tally of the winner from each round, and determine a final winner when you are done playing the game.

Get crackers here!
Get chips here!
Get cookies here!

4. Guess the Change

This is a game for those with fine-tuned palates! To play Guess the Change, prepare the same dish twice, except change one ingredient. Have participants guess what the difference between the two dishes is. The winner gets to prepare the next dish!

You might want to consider no-bake recipes for this game, since they taste delicious and are easy to prepare! Try our Chocolate Almond Butter Squares. Another delicious, no bake dessert option are these Healthy No-Bake Cheesecake Jars. They are made with Greek yogurt, coconut sugar and cinnamon – yum! If you’re looking for even more no-bake inspo, you can try these Salted Chocolate Tahini Caramel Cups or these Chocolate Energy Balls. Let us know if you try any of these in the comments!

5. Donuts on a String

Hang one donut on a string. Tie participants’ hands behind their backs, and see who can finish eating the donut first, without using their hands.

Get craft string here!

We hope you enjoy playing with your food! Let us know in the comments if you tried out these games with your family and/or friends!