May 9: Taco Munch and Ty's Seed Munch

It's birthday week over here with a birthday party this past weekend and two birthday parties coming up this next weekend.  Needless to say, we have half of a cake left over and will be making cupcakes for the upcoming festivities.  I did not want to make any more sweet snacks for our kitchen activity today.  I searched and searched for another snack idea that we could easily make with the ingredients we already have at home.  This was tough as I need to do some grocery shopping.  Finally, I landed on Taco Munch from familyfun.com.  It didn't come together quite as planned, but I think it still turned out OK.  For starters, we made a half-batch, we didn't have the Corn Chex so substituted Cheerios, and didn't read the directions 100% accurately so we mixed the Parmesan cheese in with the taco seasoning and butter instead of sprinkling it on, nor did we add the cheddar cheese...yet.

Taco Munch
6 cups popped, unsalted popcorn
3 cups toasted corn cereal squares

1 cup mini-pretzels

2 Tbs. butter, melted

2-3 tsp. dry taco seasoning
2 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz. cheddar cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (we only have shredded cheese so we'll be adding that)

Combine the popcorn, cereal, and pretzels in a large bowl.  Combine butter and taco seasoning in another bowl and drizzle over the popcorn mixture.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and toss to coat.  Store in an airtight container.  Toss with cheddar cheese before serving.  Makes 10 servings.

Since I'm back on my restricted food diet I can't try it, but Ty did.  The first bite was popcorn that had TONS of seasoning on it...he ended up spitting it out.  I was actually surprised he went back for more, but he tried a pretzel and a Cheerio and deemed them OK.

Let's add water!!!

After we finished the Taco Munch was when it got really fun!  I was cleaning up and Ty was eating the left over popcorn when he came across some unpopped seeds.  He found a bowl, put the seeds in, grabbed a spoon and stated mixing them.  Tysen told me he was making Seed Munch!  He decided to add popcorn, pretzels, and the proceeded to the fridge to find more ingredients for his recipe.  I probably should have let him use more food, but not knowing when he would stop I told him he wasn't going to get ingredients from the fridge, so he assured me it was just pretend.  He added pretend brown sugar and pretend cheese to the mix.  Then he asked for water.  I figured that couldn't hurt anything, so he dumped a cup of water in...and we watched the popcorn shrink before our eyes, accompanied by muted fizzing sounds.  And then he noticed the pretzels were getting puffy.  After more mixing, he wanted to heat it up on the stove top, so using our pretend skills again, he made it "hot, hot, hot!"  Naturally, he had to taste it...and thought it was wonderful!  I've included his recipe --I had him retell it to me -- for your enjoyment! :)



Adding the water.



Seed Munch

Mix using 3 spoons.



unpopped popcorn seeds

popcorn

pretzels

pretend brown sugar

pretend cheese

water



Taste test.



Mix with 3 big spoons.  Eat.  Put on top of the stove to make it hot, hot, hot!  Eat again.



Seed Munch after 30 minutes.  Of course,
we had to keep it to show Dad so the pretzels kept
growing and growing.



 P.S.  When Koen got home from school he did try Taco Munch and wasn't impressed, though he did qualify it and say he just doesn't like things mixed up like that.  Once he heard about Seed Munch, though, he had to make his own version. :)