Wednesday, Week4 - Roots and Shoots, Watermelon Slushies and Prune Cake

I took 6 children on a trip to Roots and Shoots.  You can learn about what they do here:  http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk/about-us/  I really enjoyed it and so did the kids.  We got a special tour of the wild garden and even got to go into the dragon's den and hear a story about a frog!  The children all wanted a turn using my camera, so I let them.  They were very sensible with it and took some great pictures.  Here are a few of them:  

It was really lovely to see them all taking an interest in the garden and how things grow and where our food comes from - and how bees are essential for our survival!  We were told about different kinds of bees.  I didn't know that male bees can't sting, until yesterday!  We saw where the bees make their homes, we saw a dead frog, which had dried up - it was of great interest to the children and was held for the rest of the trip around the place by just about of them.  We chopped up a few apples that we found on the ground to the insects that were eating it.  We saw a fox's den and we opened up some walnuts which had fallen from the walnut tree.  Then we had lunch and went back to the playground.

Before we left on the trip, we cut open our very big, donated watermelon, scooped out the contents and whizzed it in the blender.  We put some of it in the fridge and some in the freezer so that later on we could make watermelon slushies.

There is a box of cartons of prune juice sitting in the kitchen for a few weeks now, and I have been thinking about how to use it up, so I asked one person to help in the kitchen once we got back from our trip and we made two bowls of prune cake mix.

Prune cake:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tps cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 cup Vitalite or other dairy free margarine
1 cup white sugar1 cup prune juice
1 cup cooked prunes, chopped

Mix the soy milk and vinegar together and leave for 10 minutes.  Add to a bowl with all the other ingredients and stir until everything is mixed together and no more!

We made one big rectangular cake and 15 cupcake sized ones and put them in the fridge for tomorrow.  We cut one piece into quarters and tried a piece each and asked two others to taste test it and it seemed pretty delicious to us all!