Literary Lunch: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Fruit Salad

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a favorite in our house.  Its rhythmic text is fun to read aloud.  The kids and I love the bold colors and flat style illustrations.  It's a great book for children learning the alphabet.

This classic favorite comes to life when paired with a coconut tree fruit salad.  Assemble the tree for your little ones or help them strengthen fine motor skills and little muscles as they pinch the precut fruit pieces and put them into place.  These soft fruits are also perfect for practicing cutting skills with a kid-safe plastic knife and fork.

Ingredients (makes two fruit salads):

½ fresh mango, peeled and cut into slices
1 kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into wedges
1 small banana, cut lengthwise
3 red grapes, cut in half or 3 blueberries
a few alphabet pretzels

Assemble fruit to make the picture of a coconut tree and read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to your little ones as they chow down.

Creative in the Kitchen: Literary Lunches Yoko's California Rolls

One of my son’s favorite books is "Yoko" by Rosemary Wells.  In the story the Japanese cat, Yoko, brings traditional Japanese sushi to school for lunch.  When she gets teased by her American classmates, toting American delicacies like “squeeze cheese on white and franks and beans”, her teacher plans a special international food day.  Each character brings a food from a different country under the expectation that they are to try everything.  This piqued my guy’s interest in sushi so we tried our hand at some simple veggie California rolls (see recipe below). 

available at my etsy store: www.etsy.com/shop/bybrookye

At the end of the book Yoko hasn’t changed everyone’s mind about sushi, with the exception of one classmate, Timothy.  They decide to push their desks together and open a restaurant where they share their lunches.  After lunch at our house my son and his brother can open a restaurant just like Timothy and Yoko.  I created their own Japanese style bento (which means box) complete with inarizushi, California rolls, spring rolls, edamame beans in the pod and a cup of sauce all made out of felt.

Ingredients:

cooked rice
cucumber
yellow pepper
avocado
carrot
toasted seaweed sheets

Directions:
Cut your veggies into sticks.  Place a sheet of toasted seaweed onto a bamboo mat.  You can also try rolling it without a mat or substituting a piece of waxed paper for the mat.  Spread a layer of cooled rice onto a sheet of toasted seaweed leaving an inch or two on the side furthest away from you.  If the rice is sticking to you dip your finger tips in cool water to keep it from sticking.  Place your sliced veggies across the end closest to you and roll.  Wipe a small amount of water on the wrap as you close it to help seal it.  Trim off the ends and slice into “coins” about an inch or so thick.

Creative in the Kitchen: Literary Lunches Crunchy Cinnamon Snowflakes

My four-year-old has been waiting for the first snow storm of the season and today it finally arrived!  What better way to warm up after frolicking in the new fallen snow than to put these crunchy cinnamon snowflakes into the oven and snuggle up to read “The Snowy Day”by Ezra Jack Keats.  Our young chefs will of course need help from an adult when it comes to cutting and using the oven.

Ingredients:
flour tortillas
canola oil for brushing
cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle

Directions:

1.       Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2.       Line a baking sheet with parchment paper for quick and easy clean up later.

3.       Place your tortillas under a damp paper towel and microwave for 15 seconds to soften them up and make them more flexible.

4.       Fold the tortilla, one at a time, in half and then into thirds.

5.       Using clean scissors cut out triangles to make a snowflake shape (be careful not to cut along the entire fold or your snowflake will fall apart.)

6.       Place tortilla on prepared cookie sheet, brush with canola oil, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and pop them into the oven for 5 minutes.

7.       Flip them over and bake an additional 5 minutes until it starts to brown and becomes crunchy.  Watch closely so you don’t burn them!

8.       Let them cool a bit and then enjoy!