Super Simple Learning, Unschooling Style (or: A very creative meal)

My favorite of Mal's most-requested YouTube channels is Super Simple Songs from Super Simple Learning. I like it because it's not just fourteen variations on "The Wheels on the Bus" but actually has some fun original songs. Also, because it isn't just one style of animation (in fact, there are several live-action puppet songs), so it's a lot more interesting to watch. Their seasonal songs are fun, too; we keep watching the Halloween and Christmas specials, sweating our way through them in this decidedly un-fallish Austin summer.

One of my favorite things is that, even though it's a "learning" channel, the songs are more fun than "here, learn this." I REALLY hate the songs that talk about how much fun it is to count or say the ABCs. Listen, I'm a middle-aged lady who hasn't been away from her baby more than two hours in two years, and even I have enough of a life to know that counting and saying ABCs isn't "woo hoo" fun.

Anyway, the point is that we love Super Simple Songs. However, there is one song that, while it's tons of fun and we all love it, set off my "unschooling" alarm. (A worksheet D did once as a preschooler did it, too, twelve years ago or so, before I knew I was an unschooler.)

Watch this song, enjoy it, but see if you can tell what nagged at me:




Did you catch it?

Does anyone else have a mental policy of not being able to say you don't like a food unless you try it? (Even if, as a radical unschooler, you don't enforce it.) There's a difference in saying, "That doesn't sound tasty; I'd rather not." And in stating that something is "Yucky!" just because it has ingredients that might not seem compatible.

So I saw this as a challenge.

Tonight for dinner, we had three of the four items in the song. I didn't try the doughnut juice because isn't that basically just coffee? Actually, because it'd be a dessert item and we already have one legit dessert and an appetizer that leans to the sweet side, so that's enough.

A couple of other songs talk about:
1) carrot cereal -- which would probably be great; you can find lots of recipes online for carrot cake granola, and hot bran cereal with carrots
2) lasagna milkshakes -- James found a thread somewhere about not being able to eat solids and someone swore a lasagna milkshake was unparalleled; he had an idea for a milkshake lasagna, which is also tasty-sounding, but that's not what the song says
3) spaghetti yogurt -- that'd take some thought
4) tomato pancakes -- easy and likely delicious; think crepes
5) cookie salad -- sweet version with fruit and whipped cream, or using something like a ginger snap as a crouton in an Asain-type salad?
6) cauliflower cupcakes -- Jessica Seinfeld has made a fortune publishing cookbooks with stuff like this
7) avocado lollipops -- I'm totally going to make some in the future; I love avocado anything, including ice cream, cake, icing, and cookies
Then it seems they stepped up their game and came up with some legitimately "yucky" ideas.
7) mushroom popsicles -- that one sounds pretty terrifying
8) sushi smoothies -- I'd rather have the real thing, but "that's terrific bass!"
9) pickle pudding - does it have to be pickled cucumbers? pickled beets and ginger and a savory pudding might work; also, if you use the definition "a sweet OR SAVORY steamed dish made with flour," you open up all kinds of possibilities

But this evening, we focused on these dishes:

BANANA SOUP

I found a yummy-looking recipe that was basically a smoothie in a bowl, but then further research revealed that there is an actual traditional Vietnamese soup called Che Choui including either chopped banana or corn. So we went with the banana version.

I used the recipe here, except that I doubled it, because it looked fabulous.

It said this could be served hot, cold, or room temperature. I decided to refrigerate it so we would have our choices. Here it is, ready to go into the refrigerator, hanging out with the toasted sesame seeds.

This was the final product. It thickened up a lot in the refrigerator, and even though I heated mine up (and it was so much better than the cold, even though I LIKE rice pudding, which is what it was like), it was still pretty stout. My husband and I both liked the heated version enough that we want to make it again, and try it straight off of the stove (well, with reasonable cooling) and maybe use corn just to see the difference?

So, this is one dish we'd make again, because it was just really tasty!... Not "yucky!"

POPCORN PIZZA

This is another one that could be done backwards, as there are commercial versions and recipes all over for pizza popcorn. But we wanted to do the whole thing.

This seemed like a good match for pizza (I think I had some grease on the lens; sorry about that).

It was neat! It came in a somewhat see-through bag and had these two pouches with oil and flavoring.

Complete with on-packet instructions. I'd kind of planned to use both bags, but decided to save one because I wanted to eat it on its own. That was a good thing, because we ended up with PLENTY of popcorn on our pizza!

The bag itself even had a nice little pep talk. I'm glad to know I'm not dumber than a programmable appliance. Now I feel like I can do anything!

I just used a Pillsbury dough, and started off with light sauce and some sauteed mushrooms.

Actually, I baked the crust for about 8 minutes first, then put on the sauce, mushrooms, and most of the cheese and baked it 8 minutes, THEN I added the popcorn and the rest of the cheese and baked it until the Parmesan on the popcorn started browning.

You know what? My husband and I both really liked it. My fourteen-year-old pulled the popcorn off, but I think she thought it was burnt. My toddler, the reason for all of this, was having a dinnertime "no nap today" meltdown, so except for about three bites of the banana soup, he really didn't participate. He spent a great deal of time on the floor crying about various and sundry issues important to him. (Keeping it real, internets.)

If I made this again, I'd put more cheese on top to keep the popcorn from falling off so easily. I'd probably pre-cut the crust because getting even the biggest cutter in there without pushing the kernels around was a challenge. But it was tasty. Not quite as good as macaroni and cheese pizza, but definitely good... which is great because we have another meal's worth left over.

And finally, for dessert...

BROCCOLI ICE CREAM

Just as I suspected, there were lots of recipes for broccoli ice cream. Some were like the banana soup recipe I mentioned: Basically smoothies. We've had fruit/green smoothies, and that's not what we wanted. We wanted actual broccoli ice cream.

The two recipes I found that I liked best had something in common: a strong flavor profile meant to mask whatever mild broccoli flavor might be left behind after steaming. One was cocoa and cherries, and the other mint. Although both sounded excellent, I liked the idea of the green ice cream, and it was the one that actually went through an ice cream machine, so we went with that recipe.

Except.

You might notice that both of those recipes are healthy alternatives to full-on desserts, and I actually wanted a full-on dessert flavor, so I modified the Food and Yoga for Life recipe a bit. First, I used chocolate chips (I'd intended to use mini chips, but when you use Instacart, sometimes you're at the mercy of your shopper). Second, I used powdered sugar in place of the stevia and coconut syrup. Oh, and actual butter in the place of coconut butter. But it was the same idea.

I have to say that something was up in the pictures on that recipe site. Several options: 1) She has a much better food processor/blender than I do. 2) She has a lot more time than I do. 3) She trained the puree. 4) There was some food-styling license given. Because I had little tidbits of broccoli in the final product. I actually didn't mind at all. I wasn't trying to fool anyone, just our taste buds. So it helps you to see that this is legitimately broccoli ice cream.

Ready to hit the fridge!

Later, churning.

We ate it soft-serve consistency, straight out of the ice cream maker. It was extremely tasty, just like a mint chocolate chip ice cream with a bit of consistency.

I probably won't make this one again, just because making ice cream is a process and I kind of like to jump all over the place with it. If I were to use broccoli again, and I would, I'd do the cocoa cherry one.

In summary: We went through a lot of trouble to show Mal something he likely will never remember, so we'll have to do it again. Well, and the truth is that we have fun doing this kind of thing, so we have a good time planning challenges like this. I say "we" because I would have had a complete nervous breakdown trying to get all of this together (and REALLY for the clean-up process) with the state my child was in if James hadn't jumped in and done whatever he could. He's a great guy!

Anyway, the point is that we don't ever want to default to knee-jerk reactions to food or anything else that we might not have considered before.

But we *do* like making the faces and singing the songs. And we appreciate Super Simple Learning for putting this in front of us! Check out their website for fun coloring pages and cool caregiver/teacher ideas.