Tag: sweety drop

Crunch Brunch

If you have little dinosaurs in the house, invite some friends over for Crunch Brunch! Getting kids to try new foods can be hard. Add some peer pressure and prizes and something difficult can become something fun!

Even kids who will eat beets as babies can turn into finicky toddlers. With busy schedules, it’s easy to fall into a groove of feeding them what they’ll eat. Once that routine is established, introducing new foods becomes a challenge. Breaking that routine may require thinking outside the box. One of the ideas I like to use to encourage children to try new foods is the Crunch Brunch.

Crunch Brunch is simply a mid-morning meal featuring crunchy food. You can invite friends or not, require costumes or not, decorate or not – it can take any form that you think will best motivate your children or grandchildren.

Three crispy tacos on board with white cup of pico de gallo and two red chili peppers.

To get the ideas flowing, here’s a starting point or two.

Invite a few kids to wear dinosaur costumes and come for brunch.

Establish some ground rules. Here are some I like:

  • You can eat any dish served alone or combine it with another food.
  • There will be prizes for certain combinations.
  • Every bite you take must crunch.
  • There will be prizes for different crunching sounds.
  • If you dressed as a carnivore, you must try at least two herbivore crunches.
  • If you dressed as an herbivore, you must try at least two carnivore crunches.
  • You can choose to spit out anything you try as long as you’re polite. A personalized dino spew bag will be provided.
  • To qualify for a prize, your bite must be as large as a spoon and must be both crunched and swallowed.

Potential prize categories:

  • Loudest crunch
  • Strangest sound when chewed
  • Weirdest flavor combination
  • Tastiest animal creation
  • Bravest bite
  • Most adventurous taster

Ideas for prizes you can purchase:

  • Rice Krispies Treats® or Annie’s® Original Crispy Snack Bars (gluten-free)
  • Chocolate covered pretzels
  • Bite-sized CRUNCH® Minis
  • Treat size Cadbury Crunchie bars
  • Individual servings of CAP’N CRUNCH cereal
  • Individual bags of Pirate’s Booty or Cheetos
  • SkinnyPop Skinny Pack® Popcorn
  • Individually wrapped popcorn balls
  • Cracker Jack®
  • Snack size packs of crunchy cookies

Ideas for prizes you can make:

  • (Check for nut allergies.)
  • Caramel apples
  • S’mores (GF cookies, breakfast biscuits, or graham-style crackers can be used)
  • Trail mix
  • Chex® Mix
  • Chex® Mix Puppy Chow
  • Crunchy cookies of your choice
  • Brownie bark

Plan the Menu. The goal is not to overwhelm or make the kids uncomfortable so be sure to serve things the kids like along with any novel items.

Perhaps you choose a Crunchy Taco Brunch. What could the menu look like?

  • Tacos, obviously. Your taco filling can be whatever you normally use – ground or shredded beef, chicken, or shrimp. The crunch will come from hard taco shells and toppings like lettuce, jicama, or radishes.
  • Tortilla chips. If the kids love dipping their crunchy chips in queso, serve it alongside dip they don’t normally sample, salsa verde, black bean hummus, or spinach artichoke dip. Or keep it familiar with a twist by serving things like pico de gallo that includes zucchini.
  • Salad. Carrot, apple, and raisin would have been my grandmother’s choice, but some version of more traditional fruit salad may be preferable. Just make sure it’s full of crunchy apples and celery or has nuts available to sprinkle on top.
  • Ants on a log. Stuff celery with cream cheese and top with raisins.
  • Bowls of crunchy stuff. These items can be eaten on their own, used as toppings, and consumed for prizes. Plantain chips, banana chips, sweet potato chips, pretzels, celery, pickles, crackers, cucumber slices, sweety drop peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, crispy lettuce, sliced bell pepper, candied pecans, mixed nuts, cereal, granola, freeze dried vegetables or fruit, crostini or pita chips, and cabbage slaw.
  • Dips and toppings for crunchy stuff. Hummus, tzatziki, ranch dressing, honey mustard, pepper jelly, honey, and sprinkles.
  • Dessert. Toffee, chocolate brittle, cornflake brittle, crunchy candy bars or cookies.
  • Drinks. The easiest way to make a crunchy drink is to buy a bag of Sonic ice and turn regular juice or milk into a crunchy treat. You can also add a cocktail pick with caramel popcorn across the top of the glass. If the kids are younger, just add ice to their sippy cups so they have crunchy water.

Crunchy Taco Brunch is only one idea. There are millions – Crispy Pizza Party, Cereal Bowl-a-thon, Crunchy Flatbread Spread, Bring Home the Bacon, or Lettuce Wrapped are a few that stay in the crunchy lane. But you can branch out any direction – creamy, cheesy, orange, green, red, fried, baked, boiled, etc.

Crunch Brunch can double as a playdate and mom catch-up. Don’t hesitate to ask the other moms to bring something crunchy or decorate a dino spew bag.

When you see your friends enjoy something you’ve never tried, you’re more likely to sample it -especially if there’s a prize to be won. And keeping food experiments playful and fun remove the pressure from trying something new.

Do a little planning, then relax and have fun. You’ll also have some great bonding opportunities at your first Crunch Brunch.

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Sweety Drop

You haven’t had a perfect veggie board until you’ve had one that features red sweety drop peppers! First, they’re adorable and the bright red color looks amazing beside the green, orange, purple, and yellow of other vegetables on a platter. They’re my new food obsession.

Even better than their appearance, their taste and texture add just the right note after a cucumber dipped in tzatziki, a carrot smeared with hummus, or a piece of seared broccolini. Shaped like a tear drop and smaller than a Hershey’s Kiss, sweety drops have a sweet and tangy flavor that’s bright, but not hot. Texture will vary with preparation, but the peppers have a natural crispness.

Sweety Drops is a nickname for biquinho peppers (Capsicum chinense) that come from the region of the Andes Mountains. They’re relatively new to the international culinary market and increasingly available. Peru is a significant source, but the peppers are now grown in various locations worldwide.

In warm climates, you can grow them yourself in containers or in the garden. While seeds and starter plants may not be widely available at the local nursery, they’re not too hard to find. Easier to find are lightly pickled sweety drops in a jar. While I haven’t yet found them on the shelves of a local supermarket, I can order them through local markets to be shipped to my home.

Once they arrive, sweety drops are perfect for afternoon porch parties. They can be served alongside the rich, creamy cheeses I usually have on hand – brie, mascarpone, and goat cheese. In fact, they can even be stuffed with goat cheese. But they’re also delicious with Manchego, goat cheese mozzarella, and white cheddar.

At one of these porch parties, my chef neighbor mentioned that he uses sweety drops in a pesto to dress Italian Grinder sandwiches. He seems to love them as much as I do.

I can see them garnishing drinks, served on bruschetta, in a tapenade, on a salad, in pasta, on an antipasto platter…the possibilities are endless. I feel certain they’ll make my holiday table this year.

If you haven’t tried these little bulbs of joy yet, don’t be alarmed that biquinho is translated little beak. These peppers don’t bite. They don’t burn. Instead, they delight! Do yourself a favor and try a sweety drop!