Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Drawings & Chips.

Most of the time my 3 girls get along really well. Actually, most of the time any 2 of them play well while the third is happy to do her own thing.

Sometimes though, at the end of a cold and wet weekend when they have been stuck inside for too long the age gap begins to show. They all want my attention. But there's not many activities that we can all do together that will satisfy the needs of an 8, a 5 and an almost 2 year old.

It is for times like these that we have The Big Book.
The Big Book is for drawing all together with no judgement and no competition. It is ok to colour in someone else's work and to turn something into something else.

At first there is always a bit of 'do you like what I'm doing?' and 'she scribbled over my best one' but it doesn't take long before we all start working towards the bigger picture together.

2 of my girls are at school now and barely a week passes without a complaint and a comparison between their school lunches and their classmates'. While we will never be able to compete with the zillions of dollars of market research and packaging that goes into making mini packets of chips so exciting and appealing, we do have a couple of tricks up our sleeves.

Hopefully you will forgive me the awful photos once you make these for your gang.

Get yourself a packet of Mountain Bread. It is that flat, thin papery bread most commonly used in wraps.

Paint it with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, cut into squares, lay on a baking tray and pop into a moderate oven for up to 4 minutes.

For a variation sometimes we crush a clove or two of garlic into the oil.

Wait to cool and enjoy.

Pop them into an air tight container and they will probably last a couple of days, but they never really go past the next day's school lunch here.

15 comments:

  1. I love the idea of the big book! Very clever! Might have to try that one out at home.

    And I love the Mountain bread idea. My hubby does the same with pita. He splits it into two through the middle (so it's thin like mountain bread) chops it into squares, adds the olive oil and sprinkles it with zatar a middle easter spice mix. It's lemony and delish

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  2. Oh I must try those chips ... when I get an oven lol.
    Beautiful Artwork.

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  3. Kate ~ I love the Big Book idea and your drawings are beautiful too ~ your family must be as talented as you are. I can't imagine that my two children would work together like that but it is something that I will definately try out soon :O)

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  4. I think my kids would really struggle with the big book concept. (How big is it BTW?)
    But that is exactly why I think I might introduce it.
    Thanks,
    Andi :-)

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  5. I'm off to the supermarket tomorrow. And Mountain Bread'll be on my list. Yum yum! xx

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  6. I love The Big Book, that's a great idea x

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  7. I've been out of blogland for several wild weeks, but this was a great post to come back and find!! I'm always looking for healthy things to spice up the lunch box!! Thanks so much for sharing. And LOVE your group drawings too.

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  8. Thanks for posting the recipe - I've been wanting to try it for the school lunches. Yay for home-made!

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  9. The big book looks like a wonderful idea Kate. It seems very organised too with no real scribbling there so it must work a real treat! The mountain bread does taste nice as we use it for our chicken and corn burritoes and Isabelle even eats them which is great. I really should post the recipe one of these days. I will have to try out your idea too.

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  10. I think this house needs a big book, Oh and what a great idea with the flat bread. I use it for the kids lunches so this is super easy for us. Thanks

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  11. I love your big book... I too have something similar with my almost 3 year old, she really enjoys sketching along side her mumma....
    Those flat bread chips look delicious!!! Thanks for sharing your 'how-to' I can't wait to give them a try for myself...

    Take Care
    Jodie :)

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  12. Oh Kate that is so weird - I just looked at a almost-at-it's-use-by-date packet of mountain bread today and thought I should roast it up! From memory we used to sprinkle that lemon pepper seasoning on it when we were teenagers.

    And the big book is spectacular. Great that it's in a book so you can look back on it in years to come.

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  13. amazing. can i come live at your house? i want to do nothing but draw in the big book of no-judgment and make and eat home-made chips. and then bug you about what to do next. misses, ab xxx

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  14. Hi Kate
    Thanks for visiting my blog.

    I love your Big Book! It's such a wonderful idea to really bring your girls together...very nice!!

    Samantha

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  15. Two brilliant ideas there! I might have to try a big book here and see what happens...

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Kate XX

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