Scavenger Hunt Wrap Up and Prize Winners...Yippie!!!

Well, the time has come to announce the winners for the Continents...Sweet! Scavenger Hunt...

First, thanks to all families who participated:
Jen from Homemade Homeschool ( #1)

Jessie at The Education of Ours   (#2)

Kelly from Little Wonders' Days (#3)

Entry (#4) has been deleted.

Honey from Mondorfment (#5)

Sandra, our continents swap buddy without a blog (#5)

And of course, our family here at Sunrise Learning Lab.


Thanks also to our lovely neighbors who came over to help make Owl Treats and Sea Turtle Cookies. It was way more fun with them coming over to help us whip up these snacks. 
Thanks to them for also allowing their boys to be in the photos for the one blog post.
 
Was going to post a photo tour of each family's scavenger hunt, but it will be easier for you to click on the links I have provided to see what each family did for this scavenger hunt.
the only family who has not been able to submit their photos as of yet, to the best of my knowledge, is Honey from Mondorfment. Her family has been under the weather, but they are still going to be included in this fun, as Honey researched a bit about Antarctic snacks, as well as she and her family are willing to try some of the dried fruit that my family wimped out on, so all of that dried fruit won't go to waste!


Every family who participated will receive a pdf of a nice international cookbook / eBook, as well as some cool pictorial recipe cards to make some fun snacks with children.
In addition, there are a few extra prizes...


Kelly made the food that received the most comments...the pear bunny!
I got comments both on the blog and in my inbox about her little salad.


Jen was the first to submit her entry and to give me permission to use their photos on my blog...so she gets a little something extra...

Sandra, Honey, and Jen found out what they eat in Antarctica for snacks, so they get a little something special...
and then, everyone got to be entered into the drawing for either the snack attack gift basket or the snack gift card, depending on where the winner lives...


 And now, for the winner of the gift basket or gift card...


Winning number: #1


Jen from Homemade Homeschool!!!


Thanks for participating...am gonna send the pdfs out tomorrow, as I need to pay Dear Hubby some attention, as he has been such a good sport about all of the snack making and blog posting I have done today.


Happy Friday, everyone! 


Hope that all of you will like what I am sending your way:)

Sandra's Snack Scavenger Hunt Wrap Up...

One of my continents swapmates who does not have a blog wanted to participate in the scavenger hunt, so she emailed me her cool shots and a description of what she found with her family for her continent of choice...Europe!

Sandra has been an awesome person to do continents swaps with...she found and made some wonderful things, so I was very excited that she wanted to do this scavenger hunt, too...
So, with no further ado, here is what she did with her family:

OK, here we go...I choose Europe as our continent, so...

1.    Our favorite snacks:

- cheese with grapes:

 

- baguette with cretons, cheese and grape tomatoes (oh, so French...):

- bruschetta

2. One of the snacks we don’t like are olives with goat cheese. No one in our family likes taste of the olives– but I use goat cheese in different salads. Here is the photo I took from the net – olives stuffed with goat cheese

3.  strawberries, apricot, cheese, green pepper, blueberries, grapes (with dark chocolate – mmmmmm) and eggplant

4. Bruschetta – famous Italian appetizer:

Basic Bruschetta Recipe:

• 1 loaf  of bakery baguette
• 3 TB olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 medium-large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 ball of Buffalo style mozzarella, sliced into 1 inch pieces
• 1 bunch of fresh basil leaves, sliced
• salt, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Slice the baguette and place the pieces on a foil lined cookie sheet.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in small sauce pan.  Add the garlic slices and allow them to simmer for a few minutes.  Do not let it overcook or the oil will have a burnt flavor.  Set aside. 

Combine tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and salt. 

Place the bread in the oven.  Bake until the edges are golden brown (8-10 minutes).  Remove bread from oven and brush each slice generously with the garlic flavored olive oil. Add tomato mixture to each slice.  If desired, drizzle each piece with a little bit of the leftover oil. 

5. Funny snacks (I found these on the net):

Suppose to be alligator, but it more looks like a mouse. Green mouse

And veggie critters:

Veggie Butterflies: Use asparagus for the body. Use the ranch and cream cheese mixture to attach crinkle-cut carrots for wings, and add decorations to the wings with bits of bell pepper.
Veggie Lady Bugs: Slice a cherry tomato in half. Use the ranch and cream cheese mixture to attach the tomato to a slice of cucumber or eggplant; attach the other cherry tomato half for the head. Then attach lady bug sports with bits of olive.
Veggie Caterpillars: Cut cauliflower into florets. Use the ranch and cream cheese mixture to attach the pieces of cauliflower together. Then attach shredded carrot for legs and asparagus for antennae.

6.  Wrappers of the favorite snacks from Europe:

- Smoki (favorite in former Yugoslavia)

- Nutella (you know it is Italian, right?):

         

7. Snack from other continent we tried - Grilled Coconut Wings with Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce, we found on Foodnetwork.  Girls didn’t like it, but padre de familia was enjoying it. A lot. Well, I guess if he likes it THAT much, he will have to make it by himself )

Bonus snack from Antarctica: Pemmicon

Some Snack Attack Scavenger Hunt Photos from Sunrise Learning Lab

Here are some shots of Big Bro and Little Bro having fun doing the Continents...Sweet! Scavenger Hunt 

1. Your family's 3 favorite snacks...please share photos of them, why you like them, as well as the country of origin.

Our favorite three are: yogurt, popcorn, and apples.

Goldfish Crackers, Cliff Kids Z Bars, and pretzels were in the running too...

2.  A snack food that is commonly eaten on your continent, but that your family does not like to eat...
Please share photos and tell why you don't like them...
Dried fruit snacks...we have tried them, from raisins to apricots, from lychee to dried cherries, and again and again, it is a no go with the boys.  They were good sports and tried them but that was it...just a little taste.

Not exactly sure if it the texture or the sweetness, etc.

3. Find individual snack items to represent each of the colors of the rainbow..all of the snacks have to be from the continent you are representing.

Red - watermelon, apples
Orange - orange smoothies, carrots, oranges, goldfish crackers
Yellow - bananas, banana yogurt pops
Green - cucumbers
Blue - blueberries
Purple - grapes

4. Share your favorite snack recipe and tell the continent this snack represents.

Frozen yogurt pops
Super simple but delicious
You need: Yogurt in small plastic cups, such as Dannonino.
Small child sized metal spoons
Directions: Have each child push a small metal spoon through the top of a yogurt cup. Pop into freezer overnight.
Take out the next day and run cup under lukewarm water for a few seconds until the yogurt pop loosens from the container. Enjoy! Yummy!

5. Find 2 snacks that are  made to look like something else...for example, "ants on a log"...
photos, please...
We made Owl Treats and Sea Turtle Cookies. We invited some friends over to help with the snack making fun. Everyone had a good time making the treats, although the biggest hit was the time spent playing with trains and eating popcorn...the boys all had a ball making the food, but did not really eat much of the snacks more than just a few bites...

Both owls and sea turtles are native to the state of Florida in the USA.
We recently saw owls at the bird sanctuary and sea turtles at the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota. Mote is taking in injured animals from the gulf. They currently already help some injured owls and sea turtles who were injured due to boating carelessness, and now, they will be taking on the injured animals from the oil spill area.
For the Owl Treats, we used: round whole grain wheat crackers, round whole wheat crackers, string cheese sliced into ovals, bits of meats for the wings and body (we used Pepperoni, ham, and bologna), and cheese bits for the beaks and feet (we used both American and mild cheddar).

For the glue, we used cream cheese.

For the Sea Turtle Cookies, we made chocolate chip cookie dough and rolled it into a bit of powdered sugar so that it wasn't as sticky. Each child then shaped their cookie to be the shell / body...
We looked at a stuffed animal sea turtle to get an idea of how to make the body shape...
We dipped whole wheat crackers into dark chocolate for the fins...
We used a chocolate chip to be the tail.
for the head, each child rolled 1/4 piece of a chocolate protein bar as the head.
We ended up rolling the piece into chocolate so that it would stick better to the body.
For the sand, we ground up whole wheat crackers and some graham crackers.

These were quite yummy!

6. Take some photos of any of your favorite wrappers / packaging from snack foods that are from the continent you are doing.

 7. Try to one find one snack item that is completely new and from a different continent than the continent you are doing. Do a family taste test and share your results.

We tried Shrimp and Vegetable tempura from the country of Japan on the Continent of Asia.
The boys loved it!
We got ours from a Japanese steakhouse, though, as I am not that into making things such as Tempura recipes...
 They know what they are doing, so why mess with such a good thing?

If you are up for making it at home, here is a link to a recipe to try from Emeril Lagasse.

Well, that is what we did for the Continents...Sweet! Scavenger Hunt here in the Sunshine State. All in all, it was a fun time and a neat way to try a few new treats.

Well, looking forward to the remaining participants photos...will post a wrap up post later tonight and will start emailing the pdfs to participants either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks to all who joined us in this fun activity!


Hope that you will join us for our August scavenger hunt...Shapes in Nature...

The Great Snack Attack Update!

So that you will all know, I do realize that for our friends on the other side of the globe that it is already Friday...


However, since most of the Continents...Sweet! scavenger hunt participants are from closer to my neck of the woods, I am going to use the Eastern time zone for the snack scavenger hunt.
This works out okay for any of you who are already into your Friday, though, because you could still try to do some of the scavenger hunt and get some cool prizes...
Remember, all participants get: a pdf of a cool International cookbook, plus some neat step by step individual portion recipes that are perfect for little ones to make for themselves...plus a chance to win the giveaway prize: either a neat snack themed gift basket or a gift card to buy some snacks, depending on where you live, etc. as it may very well be more feasible to send you a gift card than to try to get some snack items through customs.
Some nice friends of ours that had gone to visit Iceland got their gravy packets confiscated...powdered gravy...yes...I kid you not! So, if you live in the continental US, you may be getting some food items...otherwise, I will most likely have to give you a gift card...We will just have to wait and see who wins this giveaway prize!


We have had some neat submissions for this scavenger hunt. Everyone who has participated enjoyed it so if you missed it, please join us next month...or if you feel up to it, by all means, try a few of the scavenger hunt items while it is still Friday in your time zone! 


This hunt is a neat way to spend time together as a family and to also do some practical life activities with your children.


Well, just as a teaser, here are some of the neat things that some cool bloggy families did for their scavenger hunt:

Indian Mango Lassi courtesy Homemade Homeschool.

Jen from Homemade Homeschool shared how her family decided to try new snack items from Asia. 

Big Bro and Little Bro had fun doing the scavenger hunt as well...Little Bro loved making frozen banana yogurt pops as one of the snacks...


Jessie at The Education of Ours shared that her girls loved making some yummy No Pudge Fudge Brownies. she has some adorable photos of her girls making them, so be sure to pop over to see her little ones having fun making their snack..


Kelly from Little Wonders' Days shared some of the food wrappers of her family's favorite snacks...

Photo courtesy Little Wonders' Days

Photo courtesy Little Wonders' Days

Summer Fun: Trains, Snacks, and Water Tables

Big Bro and Little Bro have been having a great time the last few days, as they have been making various train configurations, helping to make snacks, and playing in the water table.

Here are some photos of the boys and our dear pup from this week...

Big Bro and Little Bro snapped most of the photos...from frozen yogurt pops to pizza, from wet doggies to wet boys, from train tracks to town set ups...all in all, it has been fun for all!