Every month The Veggienauts Club subscription box focuses on a single seasonal star ingredient. This month we're introducing AUBERGINE - perhaps not top of every little ones' favourite veggies list but one they can definitely learn to love! A lot of thought goes into making our recipes and activities as delicious and engaging as possible for little learners, so let's look inside this month's box and explain how we decide what goes inside.
YOUR VEGGIENAUT MISSION & FACT FILE
Each box encourages children to shop for, choose, wash, prepare and eventually taste the star ingredient. The first card children will encounter includes information on how to choose the tastiest aubergine (and what varieties might be available) through to storing it, washing and preparing it, plus lots of fun facts and information on other seasonal ingredients. Modern day supermarket shopping and pre-prepared convenience foods mean there can be a real disconnect with what we're eating - our boxes help to connect children back with what they put in their mouths and where it comes from.
RECIPES
This month Veggienauts will be baking chocolate brownie fingers and crispy chips, both made with not-so-secret ingredient aubergine. No, eating a brownie containing aubergine is not the same as polishing of a plate of it grilled, roasted or stewed, but it's the start of a process of familiarisation with the vegetable which is what our boxes are all about. All recipes are triple tested for both taste and ease of execution with small children, so you can guarantee they'll work every time. And the main 'hero' recipe is laid out with step-by-step illustrations that even pre-reading children can follow along.
ACTIVITIES
Every month we include at least three activities in each box, whether it's a vegetable-based experiment or simple craft. This month we're including dried butterfly pea flowers in the boxes to make magical colour-changing lemonade as well as poached egg plant seeds to grow. Children will also create an 'aubergine friend' - the perfect way to familiarise themselves with this vegetable, whilst practising their safe chopping skills and maybe enjoying a crunchy snack along the way!
FOCUS SKILL
We truly believe the kitchen is the best place to learn (to read more about this, click here) and every month your box includes a Focus Skill to learn, whether it's blending, grating, cracking eggs etc. This month we're teaching children to melt chocolate, obviously one of life's most important skills ;-)
LOG BOOK, STICKERS & COLOURING
While all of our box activities require some adult supervision, we try to give children real ownership of their Veggienaut adventure. Boxes include a log book which is all theirs, stickers to collect and also a colouring and activity sheet that can be filled in solo. This month we're also introducing a quiz for the first time so that little learners can see what they have discovered, as well as what they've made and tasted.
Finally our boxes come with a complete shopping list which is also emailed out to grown ups when they dispatch in case you want to have everything in the house and ready to go when they arrive. We don't include pre-measured ingredients in our boxes as we believe shopping for and weighing out/preparing ingredients are both important life skills for little learners.
Our June boxes have almost sold out, but there's still time to order yours. Use code NEW10 at checkout to get an exclusive 10% discount.
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