Make It, Eat It Try It for Brownies

Tonight we were working on the "Brownie Girls Scouts Through the Years" which requires making food or a snack from a certain decade.  While we were at it, I decided it might be a good night for Big K to cook up some requirements for her Make It, Eat It badge.

She had seen this one and wanted to help cook a meal, so it was right up her ally.

We started with the apples, since they needed the longest to cook.

TIPS for #1 Baked Apples:

• Go ahead and core the apples all the way through.  They will cook better, and faster.
• Use the smallest apples you can find.  If we cook this again, we might even try Granny Smiths- her favorite.
• The marshmallows didn't really melt on the apples for us.  We had to put them in the microwave to melt them.
• These were okay-- but not super exciting. . guessing they were going for healthy.

While the apples were cooking, she started the Sloppy Joes and some broccoli.
We made the fruit fizz and the fruit salad on a different day, but repeated the Fruit Fizz on this night as well.
TIPS for #2 Fruit Fun

•  Fruit Fizz went over well.  This tastes a lot like birthday party/shower punch.
•  It's possible to make it "by the glass" by cutting the measurements way down.
• Add straws-- it makes everything more fun. 

• Putting some of the juice in a smaller container will make it easier for them.

Tips for #2 Fruit Salad

• Pampered Chef kids-safe knives are great for this.
• Bananas are easy to cut, as are grapes. If using fruit with skins, make the first cut for them or remove the skin.

TIPS for #3 Sloppy Joes

• We eat Sloppy Joes often at our house, so I thought this one would be a no-brainer. Not! Seriously, just get a real Sloppy Joe recipe. This one is bland, and just awful.  You want them to like cooking!  They won't even want to eat it!
• Remember- long sleeves when browning beef. Just in case.

TIPS for #4  Growing Seeds

• Certain seeds are quick growers.  Resist the tempatation to grow them indoors.  (Remember the sunflower seed from preschool?- Seeds grow better outdoors as soon as they sprout.)
• Basil is a quick growing choice.  Radishes in the summer.

TIPS #5 Recipe Book

• Have her write out recipes they learned together (friendship mix, s'mores)
• They can sew the edges of several pages together for this book-- making it fit #3 of Stitch-it-together (this isn't double dipping because the focus of the other badge is the act of sewing the pages of a blank book.)
• Have her write directions to a family favorite as you cook it.  Something she's seen you make before.

Tip #6 Brownie Soup

     Did it occur to anyone else out there that this is the "soup" version of 4-can casserole?  Giggled when I saw it.  I love the idea of leaving the ingredients open and using what's on hand.  It takes cooking to a new level.  Tonight, she cooked this up as her last requirement.  Her version had chicken stock, mexicorn, celery (I helped with the cutting...), black beans, the rice, tomatoes, potatoes, and she added a chicken breast that I microwaved for her.  To spice it up a bit, the tomatoes were the spicy kind.