I am so thrilled to share that I am now participating in an amazing series called “Around the World in 12 Dishes.”  Each month participating bloggers travel the world with their kids by cooking a dish from another country and perhaps reading a book, doing a craft, or learning fun facts about it.

This month, we focus on Kenya, a country that has fascinated me since I was a child, when one of my little friends was from this beautiful country.  Years later, other Kenyan friends shared a meal with us, and I was surprised to discover how similar the food was to Indian food.  They told me that in many parts of Eastern Africa there has been close interaction with Indian traders and travelers for centuries, and this influence can be seen in the cuisine.

I remember how much I loved the food they made for us but decided not to attempt making any of these dishes with my three year old.  Monkey is not the most adventurous eater, so for our first time participating in 12 Dishes, I decided to make something that would be similar to foods he already likes.  Wimpy perhaps, but I figured we could become more adventurous as we go.

Monkey looooooves ice cream.  And popsicles.  Basically any frozen treat.  So when I ran across this easy recipe for mango ice cream, I knew I had found a winner.  I was also intrigued by the recipe for crunchy bananas, so we may try that sometime soon.

You can find the full recipe on the Kenya Travel Ideas website.  The main change I made was that instead of taking the time to peel and cube 4-5 mangoes, I defrosted a bag of cubed mango I had in the freezer from Trader Joe’s.  I was trying to finish the recipe while Baby napped, so I decided this would save us a step.

Monkey’s favorite part was mashing the mango, so I let him do that while I prepped the other ingredients.  Just a note, I opted to grate the lemon zest rather than cut the peel into tiny ribbons.

We also had fun pouring the condensed milk into the bowl and making shapes on top of the mashed mango.  “This is a pouring machine!”

To make up for using frozen mango, I did whip the cream myself, although I bet you could just substitute whipped cream.  Whipping cream can be fun, actually – if your baby hasn’t just woken up, as mine did.  Nevertheless, I was proud of how the whipped cream ended up (eventually).

Monkey had the idea to make popsicles out of some of the final mixture, so we poured some into popsicle molds and the rest into a freezer-safe dish to make ice cream.

As I suspected, by the next morning the ice cream was hard as a rock, but it softened up nicely on the counter.  Both the ice cream and the popsicles tasted heavenly, by the way, though Monkey had lost interest in them.  He tried a bite or two and declared he wanted something else, despite the fact that he had eaten several spoonfuls when we were making it.  Oh well, more for Mama!  And in any case, we had a lot of fun.

We also have been enjoying reading Handa’s Surprise, which I first learned about from Crystal’s Tiny Treasures.  This is such a beautiful, fun book about some sneaky animals taking fruit from a little girl’s basket as she walks to see her friend.  There is so much detail in the illustrations that we tend to spend a long time on each page, looking for clues as to which animal is coming next and where the last one has gone.  Monkey also had fun trying to carry some things on his head like Handa does with the basket.

What new dishes have you made with your kids lately? 

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Check out the other participating blogs to see what they have been cooking up:

Adventures In Mommydom, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Creative Family Fun, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Hands-On Homeschooler

If you try a dish from Kenya, we’d love to hear about it!  You can also link up your dish or craft here to share your post on all the participating blogs: