Pirates!
Our second Family Friday theme was much more successful than the previous version!
Our pint sized pirates swabbed the deck and hoisted the sails for adventure first thing in the morning….
Breakfast…
We started the day with Cannonballs & Monkey Fruit – yum! I made the cannonballs by cutting the tops off of six banana nut muffins and “gluing” them together with peanut butter. I kept this one super simple by using Simply Organic’s Banana Bread Mix. We loved it! I added a little extra banana, cinnamon, raisins, and some chopped pecans. The “cannonballs” were surrounded by slices of “monkey fruit” and drizzled with honey. The kids, of course, found it hilarious that I called the bananas Monkey Fruit.
Lunch…
What else for lunch but pirate ship sandwiches? This idea comes from Family Fun’s Cookbook. I have an older edition of this great book, and it is definitely a go to recipe collection around here. There are some really cute ideas! To make these ships, I cut a section from the top of a sandwich roll and removed some of the bread inside. I spread the inside of the rolls with mayonnaise and our favorite Boar’s Head Honey Mustard, then filled them with a slice of tomato, butter lettuce, and Boar’s Head Ovengold Turkey. To make the sails, I used slices of Boar’s Head White American cheese that I’d had thick sliced at the deli counter. To make the sails stand up, I inserted plastic cocktail swords into them and stood them up in the sandwiches.
To round out their lunch, they also had “Pirate Punch” (papaya, pineapple, and coconut juices mixed) dried tropical fruit and Pirate’s Booty. Arrrrr!
Craft…
Our little pirates dressed up in their seaworthy garb, provided by Gramma who came to visit with us again. It was time to decorate maps to their booty. We used poster board, foam stickers, markers, scrapbooking stickers, and some brewed tea for the antique effect. My map showed them the way to a real cache of chocolate coins!
Dinner…
Our crew dined on Meatloaf Treasure Chests!
I used my Grama’s Meat Loaf recipe, pressing the mixture onto the bottom and sides of disposable foil mini loaf pans.
I filled the centers of the loaves with baby carrots (the tiny microwaveable size) cut into coins, baby green peas, and white corn. I put a pat of butter on top, then covered the veggie “treasure” with more of the meatloaf mixture, mounding it up slightly to make it look like a treasure chest. It was so much fun to cut open the leaf and watch the treasure spill out!
For dessert, I served Floating Chocolate Chip Meringue Islands. Melted vanilla Haagen Dazs ice cream was the ocean, and I planted some plastic palm trees into the meringue islands. Soooo good!
Next Family Friday….Halloween! Boo!
The Random Family Blog 