I want to share with you one of my favorite home school finds, a cookbook called Eat Your Way Around the World (make it to the end of this post for another link and a coupon deal). This tasty little cook book is divided into continent chapters and each continent has a selection of countries with about 3 recipes each, selected for their ease of cooking and finding ingredients and ability to make a yummy complete meal! Included with this book is a passport which is formatted for your kids to earn ‘passport stamps’ from each of the countries they visit during meal time and to rate their experiences with that food. We’ve used this cookbook in combination with our world studies as a kick off or grand finale to any particular place study and so far we’ve enjoyed everything we’ve tried- its a winner! This year instead of doing all the cooking myself I’ve opened the doors of the kitchen and made the whole experience part of the school day (my kids love to cook, but had not yet been a part of the list making/ingredient checking/grocery shopping process in whole).
Here they are reading through the ingredients listings of the Brazilian recipes and filling in a grocery shopping worksheet I made for them to use. Next I had them take their finished lists into the kitchen and work through the list to mark off what we already have on hand.
Off to the grocery store! I had the kids push the cart, find their items and debate together what their best choices were for their recipes.
They handled the checkout line and loaded the car with our groceries to head home.
Back at home it was time to hit the kitchen and get to work!
The kids even decided that some table decor was in order for our Brazilian dinner.
Shown here is Feijoada (a Brazilian meat stew), Couve (collard green dish) with fresh sliced oranges. For dessert we had a Brazilian Ambrosia which looks and tastes much like a traditional flan but made with orange juice. It was SOOOOOO good!
This and many other great books and resources are available from Geography Matters, check out their facebook page for a 20% off coupon!
Canyou let me know what other countries are in this book. I am doing geography this year also and looking for recipes to go along with each countries. We also just completed Brazil and made the exact dinner you did except for desserts we made Brazilian cookies:)
Would also love to see your grocery shopping list if you are willing to share:)