Kids Veggie Platter

For the cucumber snake: thinly slice the cucumber almost all the way through and place on a platter in the shape of a snake. Cut an open mouth in the long end and add a forked tongue cut from a piece of red pepper. Make eyes from a little mozzarella and a dab of tomato puree andattach to the cucumber with cocktail sticks.

For the snails: peel the carrots to flatten one side. Using a cocktail stick, insert chives as feelers.

For the shells: attach 12 mozzarella balls to the carrots with tomato puree and decorate with spirals of tomato puree.

For the radish mice: trim the radishes, but leave the root on for the snout. Add chives as tails at the other end. Make little notches for the eyes, and for the ears cut pieces off 1 radish and insert them into slits above the eyes.

For the beetles: cut lids from the tomatoes, and cut each lid in half to make wing cases. Reserve 24 lengths of chive for the feelers and snip the rest of the chives into small pieces. Hollow out the tomatoes.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the tomato flesh, olive oil and chives. Season with salt and pepper and fill the tomatoes with the mixture. Place the wings on the beetles, splayed out a little. Stick the feelers into the filling. Make eyes and spots from mozzarella and use to decorate the beetles.

Arrange the animals around the snake.

For the pepper boats: cut each pepper lengthwise into 6 pieces. Place the pieces of pepper on a platter, open side up, and fill each with 1 cube of cheese.