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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. Hello! Alicia back again with more Ecuadorian recipes to share. If you're new here I'll explain. Each month this year, my family is choosing a different country from our heritage. Once a week we make a traditional meal from that country and then I share it with you here on the blog. In January we did Germany, February is Ecuador, and March will be Ireland. Unfortunately, my little family was stricken with the flu in February and although we made our Ecuadorian meals, I was unable to share them on the blog. So this week is Ecuadorian week where I am sharing all our recipes. Monday I shared my favorite Ecuadorian breakfast soup, Encebollado. Today I have two recipes that look similar but have distinctly different flavors: Sango de Camarón and Encocado de Camarón. Camarón means shrimp, so these are both dishes that feature shrimp! Both dishes start with refrito. Refrito is a combination of sauteed red onion, bell peppers, garlic, and spices. To make the refrito you will need Achiote or saffron. Sango de Camarón If you look at the ingredients for Sango you might raise an eyebrow; plantain, peanut butter, shrimp. But trust me this is so delicious! Especially with the addition of lime juice at the end. Sango starts with the refrito. Then grated plantain is added with a dab of peanut butter. In the end your cooked shrimp is mixed in with the plantain mixture. Squeeze lime juice on it, mix it with your rice, eat and enjoy. I think this is my second favorite Ecuadorian dish. That's how good it is. It's not spicy at all, but very flavorful!  Sango de Camarón Some tips for making Sango:
Encocado de Camarón Encocado de Camarón is a very simple dish with a lot of flavor. After the refrito is cooked coconut milk is added with the shrimp and cilantro. It's SOOOOOO good! All the flavors are really subtle but compliment each other excellently. It's commonly eaten with rice and in Esmereldas (a city in Ecuador) it's also common to eat with a boiled green plantain. I thought it sounded strange but it was actually good to eat with the encocado.  Some tips for Encocado de Camarón
I think you'll really like these meals. I love them. Let me know if you try them out and what you think. Check back in next week when we'll be starting our month of Irish meals!
And if you don't want to wait for next month Dating Divas has a pack for an Irish Date Night. It's on sale right now so check it out. You get recipes, games and other fun activities for the night with your significant other.
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If you pay attention at all to what is going on in education today, you have probably heard a lot about STEM. In an effort to make students more competitive in today's world, a lot of emphasis is being placed on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Those are the jobs that will provide the best income today and in the future and those are the areas where jobs will be available.
STEM is a interdisciplinary and applied approach to learning these subjects. In other words, these subjects are taught all mixed together, with hands-on learning. I feel that this is the most sensible and effective approach to teaching and learning. I have found as I look at STEM activities, they actually include things that we have always seen children play, but now we can see that these activities have practical purposes. My daughter, Alicia is a Science Teacher and she also has two very young children of her own. She is already trying to make sure that they are starting out with STEM activities to get their minds working at a young age. Recently, she and her family were visiting us in Phoenix and we took a trip to Dollar Tree where we shopped for STEM activities for my grandchildren's Easter Baskets. Dollar Tree has great products that help kids develop STEM skills. They’re perfect for an Easter basket because although they’re educational, they’re fun! And, BONUS, everything only costs $1.00! We put together two Easter Baskets full of Dollar Tree goodies! One geared toward younger kids (from toddler age). And one for older kids (upper elementary age).
I actually filmed a video of my daughter explaining how our choices fit into the STEM categories. But, before I show you that, let me show you a few of my favorite choices here:
I love these question and answer science books available at Dollar Tree! They come in various subjects and are full of information. Not only are there science books, but also history books. There are a total of 6 different books. My oldest grandson loves non-fiction science books and these are perfect for him. The whole set would be perfect for a classroom and you can't beat the price. If you order them online, they come in a case of 36 books, so that is enough to share among a few classrooms.
Even your Easter Candy can be STEM related with these Jurassic World Dino Eggs filled with candy! My grandson who just turned 3 has been able to name almost all of the different types of dinosaurs for awhile. I am so impressed with him. Now he will be able to name them and eat them!
There are a couple of varieties of these Growing Crystals kits that are so fascinating for the whole family to watch! Science in action! Once again, if you order them online, you get 24 in a case, so an entire classroom could do this project.
Of course, not everything has to be STEM! We loved the Easter Egg shaped baskets and the Chocolate Scented Plush Bunnies available at Dollar Tree as well!
There are so many more choices, so watch the video and Alicia will explain them all to you! At the beginning she will show the basket for younger ages and then the older elementary one comes after that, so stay tuned.
So, there you go! Expand your children's minds, get them excited about fun "toys" and it is all at an affordable price! That is one full Easter Basket! The great thing is that you can either order them online or go to the store and see all of the fun Easter things on Dollar Tree's shelves now! 
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. Alicia here! I'm finally back. You probably thought I abandoned the blog and my culinary travels, but in reality we got hit with the flu at my house and then my back went out. Such a time to be alive. But we did actually make an Ecuadorian meal every week this month as promised. And I will be sharing all of them with you this week! In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, each month this year my family is choosing a different country from our heritage and making a traditional meal from that country each week. Then I am sharing our recipes and meals on the blog! Last month was Germany and it was so delicious! Check out my previous posts from January.
Ecuadorian Encebollado This month we decided to do Ecuador. My husband is from Ecuador and lucky for me Ecuadorian food is really flavorful and delicious. He's from Guayaquil, which is a coastal city, so that means a lot of seafood. Another plus for me because I love seafood! We have shared some non-seafood Ecuadorian recipes previously on the blog (here, and here), and I will have one more non-seafood recipe this month for you! The dish I'm sharing with you this post is Encebollado. It's one of my favorite dishes. It's a soup that is actually commonly eaten for breakfast or lunch (or brunch) in Ecuador. Whenever I suggest it for dinner my husband is says it's weird to eat for dinner. It is a warm soup though, despite being for breakfast. Tuna, yucca, and onion are the main ingredients in this delicious soup. The strong onion flavor is a great contrast to the subtle flavors of the yucca and tuna, and a great compliment to the lime juice added in right before serving.  We usually make this from the can. Every time some one comes from Ecuador or we go, this is my favorite thing to bring back. So currently we have 8 cans of the soup in our pantry. But we have also made it from scratch on occasion. At these times my husband will call home and get the recipe from there. But today we decided to link you to Laylita's recipe. The only difference between her recipe and what we do is that we don't use pickled onions. We just add fresh red onions to the soup and let them soften in the broth (they still have a little crunch though).  When you eat encebollado make sure you have plenty of lime. I like a lot of lime juice in mine (at least one whole juicy lime) while my husband enjoys it with a smaller amount.
Traditionally eaten with a crusty bread roll, plantain chips, and a nice cold Coke.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
I grew up loving Fairy Tales. They could be the original versions from the Brothers Grimm, or the Disney-fied versions, it didn't matter. As you know, I am a romantic at heart and Fairy Tales filled that magical need I had (have) inside myself. Not only that, but Fairy Tales can be used to teach lessons in a way children can understand. Lessons about being kind, honest, hard working, and so forth. So, as a result, my children were raised hearing Fairy Tales from me, whether I read them to them or told them from memory with my own twists. We all have our favorites, plus we all have enjoyed some of the various spoofs and modernized versions of Fairy Tales that are available. Because Monday, February 26th is Tell a Fairy Tale Day, we thought we would share some of our favorites in all of their many forms for today's Friday Faves. Be sure to let us know what your favorite Fairy Tales are.
 
Lindsey had a hard time choosing one Fairy Tale, so she picked Into The Woods.
This story uses many Fairy Tale characters from various stories and weaves them together into one story that deals with the consequences of the decisions made in the stories that we already know. Into the Woods is actually a musical play, but many people love the story itself the best.
The idea of intermixing all of these Fairy Tale characters reminds me of the television show, Once Upon a Time, available on Amazon.
Alicia chose Cinderella as her favorite. I must say that this is a story dear to all of our hearts. Especially the Disney version because we love the music and the mice. I also grew up watching the Roger's and Hammerstein Version with songs I always loved. It is fun to see Leslie Ann Warren on Once Upon a Time after all of these years.
But, the Cinderella story is universal and comes in many other formats. Check out these Cinderella story books (Many are available on Kindle and /or Audible):
And, don't forget the super cute movie with Hillary Duff, A Cinderella Story.
 
Maddy's favorite Fairy Tale is Sleeping Beauty. Even as a teenager, when we went to Disneyland, we had to stand in line for her to be able to get her picture taken with Aurora. And she does have a point that in the Disney version movie, this princess has the most well trained, beautifully lilting voice of them all. Her range is amazing. If I am reading the credits correctly, her name is Mary Costa.
 
But, just like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty is an old tale with many versions. Here are a couple of them.
I used to regale my children with tellings of The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and The Three Bears. Of course, I would tell these by heart, without reading a book because my parents used to tell them to me that way. My father used to tell me that the hot porridge burnt all of the hair off of the Daddy Bear's tongue. I have passed that on to my children and grandchildren. And, when the Big, Bad Wolf went down the Pig's chimney, he landed in the hot pot which caused him to shoot back up the chimney and land so far away that he never came back to bother those 3 pigs (who all survived by the skin of their teeth) again. But, I have seen some awesome versions of these stories over the years. Here are just a few of my favorites:
 
What are your favorite Fairy Tales? Do you have a special way of telling them? Get yourself prepared to share one with someone on Monday and enjoy the magic!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
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Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! 
Click this link and visit 3WinksDesignShop on Etsy. Find our Hot Cocoa Bomb Idea Book, our For the Love of PIe e-book and more of our creations!
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