Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Blog With Friends: On The Go

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Every month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crocheting, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

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There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post.

This month our theme is Travel. Here’s a peek at what we all came up with:


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My friend Eileen chose the theme this month. I remember when she picked it thinking “yikes, how the hell am I going to cook or bake travel?” It really was a challenge, but that’s part of why I do these group posts. I don’t want to get stale (get it . . . stale . . . food . . . lame?) and having someone else pick a theme for me is a way to accomplish that.

So I thought about travel. I’ve done quite a lot of it having been to many states, quite a few islands and multiple countries (if you’re interested in seeing 45 pictures representing where I’ve been, check out my Pinterest board: Places I've Been). I traveled for work, I traveled for fun, but travel really got interesting when I had 2 little boys and was living 1500 miles from all of my friends and family. And with Hubs working, I’d very often be traveling alone with 2 babies.

Yes, travel is a whole new challenge when you’re doing it with kids and strollers and diaper bags. Through the years I’d developed a couple of strategies for travel and both involved diverting the boys’ attention with something new. I’d go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of new little toys and hide them until we were on the plane. The other thing I’d do is pack tons of snacks, again, preferably something new. Now you could make a case for calling this bad parenting, but I considered it survival, plain and simple.

So for my travel project I came up with a simple recipe for a new treat. Travel treats had to meet certain criterion. They had to have some sweet element or my kids wouldn’t have wanted them. They’d have to be something I could put into sandwich bags for travel. They can’t be too salty or the kids would’ve kept drinking and I’d have had to either be constantly changing diapers or spend the day standing in line for the plane cesspool potty. And they can’t be too messy, melted chocolate can look like other less pleasant things when you get off of a plane with it all over your clothes.

Inspired by fruit flavored mini marshmallows and gummy bears, I’ve come up with Fruity Lemonade snack mix.  


Fruity Lemonade Snack Mix | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #snack

Fruity Lemonade Snack Mix

It’s really quite simple to make. I gathered all of the ingredients. I then mixed up and baked the goldfish crackers. Once the crackers had cooled, mixed everything together in an airtight container.


Fruity Lemonade Snack Mix | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #snack
 Fruity Lemonade Snack Mix

My boys aren’t little any more. In fact, my younger son, PurDude now flies back and forth between home and school on his own. But they did try this snack mix and both agreed that they like it now and would have when they were little. I may just sneak a bag or two into some backpacks this fall.
 

Be sure to visit all of this month’s other Blog With Friends projects:


Robin of Someone Else’s Genius has a tutorial for her Frodo's Journey Bezel Bracelet:



Stacy of Stacy Sews and Schools shares a tutorial for making Special Vacation Pajamas, Mandarin Style.



Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares her tips and tricks for traveling with a newborn.


Eileen of Eileen’s Perpetually Busy shares her tutorial for a DIY toiletry bag.



Melissa of Home on Deranged shares Road Trippin' Technology: Tips for Summer Travel



Do you have a post you’d like to share? Add your link to our blog hop. Please be sure to visit and leave comments on some of the other posts too.


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Fruity Lemonade Snack Mix
                                                                            ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 package (6.6 oz) original flavor goldfish
1 cup gummy bears
1 cup fruit flavored mini marshmallows
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried blueberries
½ cup unsalted cashews or macadamia nuts
 
2 tsp strawberry lemonade powder
1 tsp colored sugar
1/3 cup oil
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Cover a baking pan with parchment paper.
*Mix together the oil, colored sugar and the powdered drink mix in a large bowl. Add the goldfish and very gently mix until all of the crackers are coated.
*Spread the crackers onto the pan and bake for 7 minutes, stir gently and bake about 7 more minutes. Watch them to be sure they don’t get too dark. Remove from oven and cool.
*Mix the crackers with the gummy bears, marshmallows, nuts and dried fruit.
*Store in an airtight container.

19 comments:

  1. I think my kids would LOVE this! Thanks for this recipe. :) (And I firmly believe you could figure out how to bake while traveling!)

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  2. Perfect for summer travel!!!! My kids are going to go crazy over this!!!!

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  3. If my kids wouldn't like it, I would! Actually, I'm almost positive my son would love it because he loves all things lemon. Great idea!

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    1. Yes, now I feel better, my kids caught me snacking on it quite a few times. It's addicting!

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  4. Genius! I know several grandkids who are going to be especially impressed . . .

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  5. I like the look of this although when I read go Goldfish I thought what the hell, but then realised you didn't mean real goldfish

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    1. Ha ha, Jo-Anne, I guess in retrospect it would have made sense to list "goldfish crackers" in the ingredients!

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  6. Oh...travelling with small children. I keep thinking I should blog about my own experiences - but I don't want to remember. ;-)

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    1. Yeah, there are some experiences we just need to block from our minds. Like the time I was traveling alone with two young boys and we got stuck overnight in another state with no luggage and no flight till morning. Not a fun time.

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    2. No...sounds like a good story though. 😉

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  7. You had me at Goldfish, gummy bears and marshmallows. The rest is just gravy. Yum. Thanks for the great travel snack idea. And thanks for putting these together each month!

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    1. I love doing these monthly theme projects with so many of my talented friends.

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  8. I love lemonade and goldfish, but I never would have thought to put them together. This really intrigues me. I'll have to give it a try!

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    1. Let me know what you think when you do.

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    2. I always look forward to these monthly themed pieces! It's so nice to get a bunch of different ideas all centered around one really great idea. There is something for everybody!

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    3. That was exactly what I had in mind, Rena, not all of the same type of posts but a number of different projects.

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