Category: Activities

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Get outside this National Children’s Gardening Week!

National Children’s Gardening Week runs from 25th May-2nd June and is a great way of getting your children into the garden and enjoying the outside world.

The benefits of getting involved in National Children’s Gardening Week are numerous. As well as the obvious benefits of encouraging physical activity, it can also promote team work as well as demonstrating the advantages of nurturing something and seeing a project through to fruition. It is also a fab way of coaxing children away from screens!

Chelsea Flower Show

This week it is also the RHS Chelsea Flower Show where they’re celebrating the multitude of benefits that gardening has for the health of people and the environment in 2019. Designers will explore the positive powers of plants and whill tackle hard-hitting issues – from climate change, pollution and the fragility of ecosystems to improving the mental and physical health of people.

How to get involved

The National Children’s Gardening Week website has a whole host of great activities for children to get involved in out in the garden.  We’re using the opportunity to make our own sandwich ingredients to liven up our lunchboxes, with a bit of help from the NCGW website.  Who fancies a Pea Shoot Sandwich? 

Here’s what you need:

  • Some pots or containers
  • Some people or micro-green seeds
  • Some multi-purpose compost

Instructions:

  1. Put your compost into your container(s) and make sure it’s spread evenly.
  2. Sow the pea or micro-green seeds very thinly on your compost, covering all the soil.
  3. Water the seeds and put them on a bright window sill.
  4. Keep the compost damp over the next few days. After a few days your seeds will start to sprout.
  5. When the shoots are about four centimetres tall, you can cut them for your sandwiches.
  6. Once you’ve cut the shoots, put your container back on the window sill and keep it watered.
  7. The shoots will come back three or four times, giving you lots more sandwiches or salads!

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Eggy Bread: Munchachos Style

Munchachos Chomps Elisé: how do you eat yours?

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with exciting lunches for your children so why not dip into your Munchachos box and use our delicious snacks to provide a healthy accompaniment to a classic dish? For example, why not sacrifice your soldiers and, instead, dip our French snacks, the Chomps Elisé, into a lovely runny boiled egg. Really with this dish, the egg has to be JUST the right amount of runny. Here are our tips to make sure your yolk is no joke.

Step 1: put a pan of water on the hob

Step 2: when the water is bubbling lower in your egg using a slotted spoon

Step 3: set the timer for EXACTLY 5 minutes

Step 4: once the time is up use the slotted spoon to get the egg out of the pan and tap it at the top immediately with a teaspoon to stop it cooking

Step 5: peel off the upper part of the shell, chop off the top of the egg, and there you have it! START DIPPING!!

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National Nutrition Month

Munchachos Healthy Snacks Children: National Nutrition Month

National Nutrition Month is celebrated in March and focuses on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits.

The idea behind the month is to encourage people to consume fewer calories, exercise daily and make educated, good choices. We are all urged to really know what is in our food and to make wise choices on this basis.  

Michelle Obama is passionate about helping children make healthy choices for themselves

When it comes to snacks, even thought the portions are smaller than in a full meal, the ingredients are just as important. Most children and teens need to eat every three to four hours throughout the day to fuel their growing, active bodies and to help them to stay focused at school and on homework. They need the nutrients to keep hunger at bay.   

In the UK, children’s snacking habits are setting them up for obesity and poor health. Making the right snacking choices is just as important a decision as whether to go for salad or McDonalds! PHE (Public Health England) has warned that children should have just two 100 calories snacks per day.  

At Munchachos, every one of our snacks adheres to these guidelines. We work with a nutritionist to develop our snacks, which means that we also keep salt and sugar levels low AND we don’t include any nasties.  

Munchachos Healthy Snacks Children: Munchachos Angel, No Bad Stuff
Our Munchables contain no bad stuff!

So we’re very happy to embrace National Nutrition Month which we feel shares our drive to make good eating choices whilst maintaining a happy, active, healthy life!

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World Book Day

Munchachos Healthy Snacks Children: World Book Day Munchachos

What is World Book Day?

World Book Day takes place every year on 7th March, offering every child the opportunity to dress as their favourite character from a book. The day was designated by UNESCO and is the world’s biggest campaign to provide every child with their own book. It’s a worldwide celebration of books and reading and is marked by 100 countries across the globe.

Being big fans of reading, at Munchachos we’re huge supporters of the day. (We even shared Our 5 Favourite Books with you!) Books have a magical power to transform and transport you to different worlds and different ages; feeding the imagination and expanding the horizons of children and adults everywhere. UNESCO declares that it “stands up for creativity, diversity and equal access to knowledge…”

How Are People Getting Involved?

Schools across the country will get encourage students to dress as their favourite literary character. Bookshops around the UK and all major supermarkets will distribute cut-price books to ensure that a zest for reading is an affordable passion for everyone!

So whether you’re a classic Alice in Wonderland or a more modern Gangsta Granny, get your costumes on this Thursday to mark this fun occasion. 

And, while you’re at it, why not match your costume with a healthy snack? We can definitely see Belle from Beauty & The Beast reading whilst snacking on a Chomps Elise! And we’re pretty certain that Augustus Gloop would love to feast on a packet of Oom-Pah-Pahs! He could do with a healthier children’s snack…

Munchachos Healthy Snacks Children: Augustus Gloop
Time for Augustus Gloop to try a Munchable!

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Valentine’s Day

Munchachos Snacks Children: Valentines Day February 14

What is Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14th February and is named after St Valentine. The Saint’s exact identity is disputed but everyone agrees that he is the godfather of modern day love. The main reason for the confusion is that it’s believed that there were several “Valentine” men upon whom the stories are based.

Who Were These Men?

There was St Valentine of Rome who helped Roman soldiers to marry when they were forbidden to do so by the anti-Christian Emperor Claudius II. There was also a Bishop Valentine who was imprisoned, tortured and eventually beheaded on February 14th 269 AD.   Nevertheless, whoever he was, St Valentine has become the patron saint of lovers.

How is Valentine’s Day Celebrated?

Valentine’s Day is a very well-established holiday in the UK. Bunches of flowers are bought by the dozen and restaurants are overrun with couples whispering sweet nothings! But how is it celebrated around the world?

In Germany couples give each other pig figurines and pictures on Valentine’s Day as the pig is a symbol of luck and lust. South Korean women give chocolate to the men in their lives. In Denmark friends and sweethearts exchange pressed snowdrops whilst in Italy they exchange Baci Perugina, which are small, chocolate-covered hazelnuts wrapped with a romantic quote. In Finland and Estonia the 14th February is called ‘Friend’s Day’. South African women pin the names of their love interests on their shirtsleeves.

We love the Finnish idea of 14th February being a day to celebrate friendship. What would you do to show your best friend how much they mean to you?

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