Around The World In 12 Dishes- Mexico

So we are on our trip again. This time our journey takes us to Mexico!

The Mexican kitchen is not so new to us as as we have had enchiladas and quesadillas before, but we wanted to try something different this time. As we all love meatballs we decided to make some Mexican style ones. My lil one helped me to chop the parsley and drain and rinse the kidney beans.  It`s nice to have a little helper in the kitchen :)

For the meatball stew you need:

• 1,5  tbsp olive oil
• one large onion, finely shopped
• 400g beef mince
• 50 g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1,5 tbsp chipotle paste
• 200g basmati rice
• 400 g can chopped tomatoes
• 400 g can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• handful of chopped parsley
   
  And this is what you do:
  Heat the oil and cook the onion for 10 min until  soft.. then remove from the pan. Place the mince, breadcrumbs, chipotle paste and the spices in a bowl, season and mix thoroughly. Roll mixture into 20 small meatballs. Fry the meatballs for about 8 mins until brown all over.
  Now cook the rice. Return the onion to the pan, add the tomatoes, as well as a can full of water. Simmer for 5 mins, then add the kidney beans and cook for a further 10 mins, until the sauce has thickened and the meatballs are cooked through. Season the meatballs, scatter with coriander and serve with the rice. 

Our stew turned out lovely. As I knew my lil one doesn`t like spicy food I made some simple meatballs for her.. so everybody was happy :)

 ***

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.

Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators’ Spin On It have come together to help you on your food journey and will each cook a dish with our children and post about it – to help inspire you to have a go! Then go out there, cook, blog, and join in the linky fun! Check out the other great posts as well!

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden, then continued on to Moscow in Russia and via Indian New Delhi reached Tokyo in Japan. After making a stop in the exotic location of Papeete, capital of French Polynesia, we have now reached Mexico City!

• March 4 – First country was the UK
• April 1 – The second country was Sweden
• May 6 – The third country was Russia
• June 3 – The fourth country was India
• July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
• August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
• September 2 -The seventh country was French Polynesia
• October 7 – The eight country is Mexico!

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
• Cook a dish from Mexico: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Tacos, Enchiladas, Quesadillas and more.
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish :)
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]

• Fun fact: The Chihuahua is the world’s smallest dog and is named for a Mexican state.
• Share with us: Our Mexico challenge starts on October 7th and will remain open for a year, so attach a link to your blog to enter the linky party or go to the comment section and post a photo together with what you did together with your child(ren).
• Pinterest: We will add your photos to a “Around the World in 12 Dishes” Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone :)
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our cute lil’ button to share it on your blog.

<a href=”http://www.glitteringmuffins.com&#8221; target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg&#8221; alt=”Around the world in 12 Dishes” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

Please check out our partner blogs and their Mexico ideas: Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators’ Spin On It

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations :)

Please link up your Mexican dish and/or craft in our linky below, we would love to see it!

-