Snacks

Snacks is one the Girl Scout Legacy badges, and one that my troop was quite excited to work on.

Proving once again that I am not as organized as I would like to be, I sent a note to the troop parents the night before our meeting asking that the girls prepare just a little bit of information to share about either a fruit or vegetable (why it's good for us, how it grows, how to tell if it's ready to eat, etc.), or about a "Health Word" - words like vitamins, fat, fiber, etc.

The girls did a really nice job, teaching each other about foods such as carrots and peppers, and about words such as fiber, organic, and antioxidants.

Plus it was a nice chance for them to work on presentation skills, projecting their voice, listening to their peers.

This met the requirements for Jump into the world of snacks (Is the food good for me? and Is the food good for the earth?). 

The bulk of our meeting was spent making snacks!  And it really held the girls attention.  One thing I must do soon is get out to Wegman's and check into their kid's cooking classes.  I am sure the girls would love it!

For this meeting, we focused on three things - an international snack (guacamole), an energy snack (chewy granola bars), and a liquid snack (milkshake).  When you have 13 girls at a meeting, it's difficult to get everyone involved in each activity, but I think we pulled it off pretty well.  There was scooping, mashing, slicing, chopping, dumping, mixing, measuring, and of course, eating!

For Slurp a snack (make your own milk shake), we followed Paula Deen's recipe for a  vanilla shake.  With extra sugar and vanilla added, this was delicious... though it certainly lost some 'health' benefits. 

We also made a Snack for energy (make no-bake energy bar) - chewy granola bar, courtesy of All Recipes.  In place of mixed fruit, we used a some Craisins I had sitting around the house, but they are both sweet and chewy, so I think they fit right into the recipe.  Because we were limited in time, we placed it in the freezer to set (rather than the recommended one to two hours in the refrigerator).  Either the bars needed more time to set or needed to be thicker because some did fall apart as we cut them.  Regardless, most of the girls enjoyed this recipe.

Lastly, we made guacamole for Make a savory snack (make a savory snack from a different country). 

The recipe was included in the Snack lesson from Girl Scouts - but here it is if you enjoyed the recipe and wanted to try it at home:

6 - 8 avocados, ripe and soft, but not mushy
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 cup tomato, chopped fine
1/2 cup white onions, chopped fine
1 jalapeno
1 teaspoon cumin powder
salt
5 -6 lines, halved.

Directions:
1.  Peel and pit avocados.  In large mixing bowl, mash avocados one by one with a large fork until fairly smooth.

2.  Add cilantro, tomatoes, white onions, jalapeno, cumin, and a few pinches of salt.  Mash and mix all of the ingredients.

3.  Squeeze the limes into the guacamole one by one, mixing after each one.

4.  Taste, and add salt pinch by pinch until it's as salty as you like it.  You will probably need about three teaspoons all together.

In the church kitchen, we forgot to add cumin or salt, though the girls seemed to really enjoy the guacamole, served with a thin, crispy tortilla chip.

Some notes - We tried to chop the tomato with my Pampered Chef chopper.  the girls all squeezed the limes at once, and it guacamole did end up a little too heavy with lime juice. 
There's just one step left, which I asked the girls to work on at home - Try a sweet snack.  Ideas here include creating a holiday dessert, making a snack in disguise (something healthy that doesn't appear all that healthy on the surface), or making your own cookies (starting with a traditional base but adding a twist - for example, making chocolate chip dough, but adding dried fruit, candy, etc. instead of chips).

Happy eating everyone!!!