***In Case you haven’t read T4N-Intro to learn about my Whole Foods/Nutrition Challenge check that out HERE***
Alright, I accepted that defeat… The Apple Cinnamon Chips didn’t go over too well with the kids. However, I refuse to give up. I’ve got more up my sleeve!!
Edible Dirt.
Have you ever heard of it? Sounds pretty gross right? Well its PERFECT!! All it is is Chocolate Pudding, Gummy Worms and Cookie Crumbles on the top. Perfect, right?!
Here is a Recipe for Choc Pudding I found on Whole Foods Encinitas’ Website! (RECIPE)
I’ve got to point out, this would probably have been WAY cheaper to just buy premade or instant from a box if you didn’t already have the ingredients. Luckily for me, I had everything except the gummy worms and the Cookies, which I chose to use chocolate chip instead of Oreo crumbles. (SCORE 1 for my budget!!) The recipe online was for 8 servings, but I needed 26-28 servings So I multiplied by 4 which game me PLENTY extra. The awesome thing about this recipe/snack idea in general is how simple it is to make as a “healthier” option yet seem like its this cup full of sugary “goodness” to the kids. Tweak and adjust the ingredients as you please.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cup cornstarch
- pinch of sea salt
- 12 cups whole or low-fat milk, divided
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
Method:
In a medium bowl, blend cornstarch with salt. Slowly pour in 1 cup milk, whisking until smooth. Set aside.
In a LARGE saucepan set over medium-high heat, mix remaining milk with sugar and chocolate chips, stirring frequently until mixture is smooth and comes almost to a boil. Do not boil the mixture. Stir the cornstarch-milk mixture, and then add it to the hot milk and chocolate, whisking constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens completely, 3 to 5 minutes(possibly longer depending on if you multiplied the recipe or not). It will coat a wooden spoon. Stir in vanilla.
Transfer pudding to bowl. Place a piece of buttered parchment or waxed paper over to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until completely chilled.
We made the pudding the night before, then Saturday morning spooned individual portions out into Red plastic party cups. We put 2-3 Tablespoons in the bottom of each cup then placed two gummy worms in and covered with two more tablespoons of pudding in each. I had some chocolate chip cookies leftover from the dough I had last week, but a pre-bought package of cookies will do just fine. Place entire package of cookies in zip lock and crush until you have a bag of crumbles. Spoon cookie crumbles into each cup so that they cover the top of the pudding to look like a gravel topping.
We placed a plastic spoon in each cup and then covered with plastic wrap and a rubber band to keep it on. We filled up a large ice chest and placed all the cups inside and we were ready to go!!
ROUND TWO HERE I COME!!
I was excited! I thought, surely there was NO way the kids would turn their noses up to 1. eating “dirt” 2. chocolate 3. GUMMY WORMS … WIN WIN, I thought to myself.
Turns out, right when we were about to swing open the magical treasure chest full of wonderful red cups of amazingness…. a DAD showed up with “touchdown donuts”
Have you ever heard of these??? I have not, but let me tell you… I DESPISE THEM.
The lineup of excited boys that were pushing and shoving to see what we were about to give them suddenly flocked over to the DAD holding three boxes of donuts…
Haylee opened the cooler despite the sudden lack of interest and began handing them out to the boys anyway. Her determination is inspiring. One by one the boys would take their cup, ask “what is this?” with a wrinkled nose. She didn’t even acknowledge their snotty attitude and excitedly exclaimed, “ITS PUDDING!! Its Called Edible DIRT!!” They boys seem to like her and one by one they would giggle, take the cup, look inside and then smile as they walked away.
We ended up with about 8 leftover so I know not every boy took one. I looked around and although I was happy to see my little red cups floating around the field in their hands I was incredibly discouraged to see that most of them were stuffing donuts in their mouths while their pudding cup still had the plastic wrap covering it and they were just carrying it around. I looked at my own kids, Kaelob was stuffing a donut down as well. Ugh. Well, at least Peytne and Haylee were enjoying their “Edible Dirt” as they sat under the stairs in the shade. Petyne’s face was covered in chocolate.
Again, as I packed up my stuff and headed off the field to the car… I felt defeated.
Sugar & Junk – 2 Nutrition – 0
….but then, just then, as we were walking out to the car I overheard two boys from the team talking in the parking lot. Their conversation went something like this:
Boy #1- “Hey! Did you eat what was in your cup yet?”
Boy #2- “yeah. it was good.”
Boy #1- “did you see what was in it?!?!” (with excitement)
Boy #2- “yeah.. pudding.”
Boy #1- ” yeah but there were WORMS in it!!” he giggles
Boy #2″ I know! it was SO weird~ I liked them!”
Kaelob heard them as well and interjected with-
“It’s called Edible Dirt. Its like your eating a cup of Dirt with real worms in it and dirt on top!!”
Boy #1 ” Thats SO cool!”
Boy #2 “Awesome!!”
___________________________
….cool….awesome……recalculating scores…..
Sugar & Junk 1 Nutrition-1